Three top fantasy baseball prospects - Dylan Beavers, Cam Schlittler, Colby Thomas - that can make big impacts. These MLB prospects are waiver wire pickups or stashes.
Prospects have already made a significant impact in the fantasy baseball season. Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz is flashing immense power upside, while Jacob Misiorowski and Chase Burns are showcasing high-upside strikeout potential.
In this piece, we will examine two players who have recently received the call and one who is nearing his debut, and determine whether they should be stashed on our bench.
Should those players be left on the waiver wire, or should fantasy managers add them before their breakout? Let's dive in!
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Dylan Beavers, OF, Baltimore Orioles
Current Level: AAA
Availability: 5% rostered
2025 AAA stats: 65 G, .319/.407/.504, 10 2B, 10 HR, 19 SB
At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if Dylan Beavers was brought up before Basallo. There's no clear opening for Beavers in Baltimore at the moment, but none of the current group of Baltimore outfielders are beacons of durability. If/when an injury occurs, that could open up playing time for Beavers.
🦫💥
That's 10 homers on the year for Dylan Beavers#BirdLand pic.twitter.com/ge3NgFkmQI
— Norfolk Tides (@NorfolkTides) July 5, 2025
After posting a 15-homer/31-steal season in 2024, Beavers has already racked up 10 home runs and 19 steals in 65 games this season with an impressive .319/.407/.504 slash line. Beavers is still walking at a high 13.2% clip, as he always does, and he's also trimmed the strikeout rate from 23.5% to 17.4% while increasing his zone and overall contact rates to 87.6% and 81.2%, respectively.
With the improved contact rates along with his above-average power and speed, Beavers is a well-rounded offensive talent who could become a solid five-category fantasy contributor in the majors.
-Written by Eric Cross
Cam Schlittler, SP, New York Yankees
Current Level: AAA
Availability: 10% rostered
2025 MiLB stats: 76 2/3 IP, 2.82 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 99 SO, 26 BB
Schlittler doesn't have much prospect hype as a seventh-rounder in the 2022 Draft who failed to crack the top-100 prospects list at either FanGraphs or MiLB.com, but scouts have been wrong before. The 24-year-old flashed the ability to dominate on the farm, and the Yankees should provide the run support needed for a fantasy impact.
Let's start with the scouting report, which reads better than the typical non-prospect. FanGraphs sees two pitches as MLB average or better, with two additional passable offerings:
Touching 98 mph is great for a starter, and his write-up notes that Schlittler's curve plays off his heater well. His slider and cutter are works-in-progress, but there's hope both can develop into something beyond show-me pitches.
If Schlittler's scouting report is decent, his MiLB performance has been nothing short of fantastic. He first reached the upper minor leagues with Double-A (Somerset) in 2024, posting a 4.45 ERA in 32 1/3 innings pitched (IP). His 3.30 expected fielding independent pitching (xFIP) was much better than his ERA.
Batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is higher in the minors, but Schlittler was still unlucky to post a .395 mark. Homers didn't hurt him with a 9.7 percent HR/FB, so gopheritis can't be blamed for the difference between his ERA and xFIP. It seems that Schlittler just experienced bad luck in a relatively small sample size.
If we assume the BABIP will normalize, Schlittler was dominant. His 29.3 percent K% was outstanding, while his 8.8 percent BB% was just good enough to keep his K-BB% above 20 percent. The performance earned Schlittler a brief stay at Triple-A (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre), though he wasn't very effective in 1 2/3 IP.
Schlittler returned to Somerset to begin 2025 and fared even better, posting a 2.38 ERA largely supported by his 2.57 xFIP in 53 IP. His .354 BABIP was still insane, but the things Schlittler could control all improved.
Opposing hitters struggled to slug with a 3.1 percent HR/FB. They also struggled to make contact as Schlittler's K% jumped to 30.2 percent. He even improved his BB% slightly to 8 percent. Schlittler was ready for a bigger challenge, and the Yankees obliged with a promotion to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
His ERA ballooned to 3.80 in 23 2/3 IP against more advanced competition, but his 2.95 xFIP suggests he pitched better than that. A .340 BABIP and 18.8 percent HR/FB are responsible for the discrepancy, the latter likely more a product of the environment than anything Schlittler did.
More importantly, Schlittler improved his K% to 35.7 percent with only a modest BB% uptick to 9.2 percent. It's a great sign that his stuff played better against better hitters in predominantly hitter-friendly environments, creating hope for immediate success at the highest level.
The Yankees haven't announced any post-All-Star Break pitching plans yet, but the team currently has only four starters listed on Roster Resource, and one of them is the struggling Marcus Stroman. Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, Schmidt, and Ryan Yarbrough aren't expected to return any time soon, so Schlittler should get an extended opportunity to show what he can do.
Recent struggles aside, the Yankees are a contending team with a strong offense. Schlittler averaged over five innings per start on the farm, so he should earn wins. He should also get strikeouts if his MiLB numbers are any indication, and he flashed the ability to limit long balls with Somerset.
Schlittler's first opponent will be the Mariners, a team that's been up and down all season. There's no guarantee of success, but Schlittler has the skills and opportunity to be a worthwhile fantasy option in the second half.
In his debut, the right-hander struck out seven batters across 5 1/3 innings of three-run ball en route to picking up the victory. He is a must-roster in all 12-team leagues heading into the All-Star break.
The Yankees plan to promote Cam Schlittler to make his MLB debut vs the Mariners according to @Joelsherman1
He features a 97 MPH fastball and was ranked as the 89th-best prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America. pic.twitter.com/sFKF1tUWMJ
— Fireside Yankees (@FiresideYankees) July 5, 2025
- Written by Rick Lucks
Colby Thomas, OF, Athletics
Current Level: MLB
Availability: 10% rostered
2025 AAA stats: 76 G, .297/.365/.542, 21 2B, 17 HR, 93 SO, 26 BB
Colby Thomas got the call to the majors after slashing an impressive .297/.365/.542 in Triple-A. This followed a 2024 season in which Thomas led the minors in extra-base hits by a wide margin, slashing .277/.342/.563 with 31 home runs and 15 stolen bases. Unfortunately, Thomas is working as a pinch hitter most days, which does not make a ton of sense to pull a top prospect from everyday playing time.
There is legit power in the profile, as Thomas has a 105 mph 90th percentile exit velocity. While that number is down a few ticks from last year, Thomas has reached a top speed of 116 mph this year. His barrel rate has risen all year, now sitting at 10 percent as the ground-ball rate has trended downward.
Some of my questions about the profile have been answered. Last year, upon his promotion to Triple-A, his contact rates faltered significantly. But so far this year, Thomas has seen a seven percentage point jump in in-zone contact, and the overall contact rate is up three percentage points.
The chase rate of 34 percent is still higher than I would like to see, and I still worry about Thomas’s ability to hit good fastballs.
On Wednesday evening, the Athletics sent Thomas back to Triple-A when Miguel Andujar returned from the injured list.
For the time being, Thomas should not be rostered in redraft leagues
The A’s have churned out a lot of high-quality major league hitters, and Colby Thomas may be their latest player development win.
He headlines this week's Statcast Standouts.https://t.co/0OXk0XK13x pic.twitter.com/ytJCbTMUSy
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) June 30, 2025
- Written by Chris Clegg
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