Eric Cross' Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups - Hitters and Pitchers (Week 18)

Eric Cross' top fantasy baseball waiver wire adds for Week 18 of 2025 (July 28 - August 3). His favorite free agent hitters and pitchers under 40% rostered.

Listen, I know we all just want to talk about Nick Kurtz right now after his four-homer game on Friday night, and I just tweeted about him in the middle of writing this article myself. However, we still have lineups to set, FAAB to set, and waiver wire claims to make. There are only two months left of the season, so that means about five weeks or so before the playoffs for those of you in head-to-head leagues.

The players below are all under 40 percent rostered in Yahoo! leagues. Some of them might already be rostered in your leagues, but if they're available, I'd recommend considering them to see if they could be good fits for your fantasy teams.

Last week's recommendations were Luke Keaschall, Caleb Durbin, Austin Hays, Noelvi Marte, Zebby Matthews, Quinn Priester, and Shane Bieber.

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Ryan McMahon, 3B, New York Yankees

38% Rostered on Yahoo

In one of the first trade deadline moves of the season, the New York Yankees acquired Ryan McMahon from the Colorado Rockies for two pitching prospects, and yes, I'm recommending that you consider adding a player who is leaving Coors Field this week. Many are assuming that McMahon will stink with the Yankees due to his home/road splits. However, given the metrics under the hood, I'm not so sure that will be the case.

That one isn't coming back.

Ryan McMahon CRUSHES a 441-foot homer. pic.twitter.com/fA9uz6No8Q

— MLB (@MLB) June 13, 2025

Yes, leaving Coors Field usually isn't good, but McMahon has the quality of contact metrics and batted ball data to make it work as a Yankee in Yankee Stadium. McMahon has been hitting the ball hard this season with a 12.9% barrel rate, 94 mph AVG EV, and a 50.4% hard-hit rate. He's also been hitting the ball at ideal angles with a 60.3% Air Rate, 18.8% Pull Air Rate, and a 40.6% Pull Rate.

As a left-handed batter with these metrics in Yankee Stadium, which ranks third highest for left-handed power on Baseball Savant's park factors, McMahon could definitely find success with his new team. McMahon has also been hitting well of late, picking up two doubles and four home runs while hitting .313 over his last nine games.

Mickey Moniak, OF, Colorado Rockies

19% Rostered on Yahoo

We shift from a former Rockie to a current Rockie in Mickey Moniak, who is in the middle of the best season of his career. The former #1 overall pick has broken out of late, but it seems that not many fantasy managers have taken notice, as he's still available in over 80% of Yahoo leagues. With a solo home run on Friday, Moniak is now on a nine-game hitting streak, and is slashing .373/.423/.804 with seven doubles and 11 home runs over his last 31 games, dating back to June 6.

My mindset here with Moniak is similar to how I've been approaching Jo Adell. You still feel like the other shoe is going to drop, but at the same time, Moniak has improved his metrics under the hood, and this is the best version of him we've ever seen.

Moniak has a career-best 13% barrel rate and 46.9% hard-hit rate this season, and his 89.6 mph AVG EV is his highest mark since 2021. On top of that, he's dropped his strikeout rate to a career-best 24% while also improving his zone contact rate to 80.1% and his overall contact rate to 71.6%. Both of those are career-best marks as well.

Moniak still chases at a high clip (37.5%) and is slashing .229/.308/.343 against left-handers, but his improvements in contact and quality of contact have me encouraged moving forward. He's also locked into the top third of Colorado's lineup when he's in the lineup, which is close to every day, outside of sitting against some tougher left-handers.

Matt Shaw (3B - CHC)

32% Rostered on Yahoo

Are we finally seeing some life from Matt Shaw? In my mid-season third base dynasty rankings article, I mentioned that I was concerned with Shaw due to his lower power output this season. Well, it looks like Shaw was perusing the wonderful content available on RotoBaller that day and saw my article, because he's smacked three home runs in his last six games and now has a seven-game hitting streak since the all-star break.

Matt Shaw smashes his 3rd home run since the All-Star break 💪 pic.twitter.com/S5J2gSv5JP

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) July 23, 2025

While Shaw's quality of contact metrics is still low with a 5.5% barrel rate, 83.6 mph AVG EV, and a 27.9% hard-hit rate, the rest of his profile actually looks pretty good. Shaw has recorded an 83.5% zone contact rate, 79.6% overall contact rate, and has struck out just 18.3% of the time this season. He also has an 89th percentile sprint speed and is on pace for 21 steals, which is something you don't usually get from your third baseman.

The lack of impact was really limiting Shaw during the first half of the season, but if he's going to continue impacting the ball more over the final two months of the season like he has in the first week since the all-star break, Shaw becomes awfully intriguing in fantasy leagues. It's a small sample size, but Shaw has a 36.8% hard-hit rate and 15.8% barrel rate since the All-Star break.

Ramon Laureano, OF, Baltimore Orioles

20% Rostered on Yahoo

It feels like the season Ramon Laureano is having is flying under the radar. In 268 plate appearances, Laureano is slashing .273/.332/.512 with 14 home runs, and he's been even better over his last 45 games, slashing .307/.364/.536 with 11 doubles and nine home runs.

When you pop the hood on Laureano's profile, he's made improvements in several areas this season, which are encouraging. While his AVG EV and barrel rate are in line with 2024, Laureano's hard-hit rate has jumped from 40.8% to 47.7%, and he currently has a career-best .514 xSLG and .458 xwOBACON. Laureano has also dropped his strikeout rate from 31.1% to 25.7% and his chase rate by 7.9% while improving his walk rate by 2.6% and his overall contact rate by 3.8%.

Laureano has been starting basically every day for Baltimore and has been primarily hitting either fourth or fifth in the lineup, directly behind Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg, Gunnar Henderson, and Ryan O'Hearn when he's in the lineup.

Kumar Rocker, SP, Texas Rangers

19% Rostered on Yahoo

Don't look now, but Kumar Rocker has been pitching well over the last six weeks or so. In his last six outings, Rocker has posted a 3.34 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, and an 8.3% walk rate. Although he's only struck out 20.5% of the batters he's faced in this span. Five of these six outings have ended with Rocker allowing two earned runs or fewer over at least five innings pitched, with only one bad outing (4.1 IP, 6 ER) against the Angels in Rocker's final outing before the All-Star break.

Kumar Rocker's 2Ks in the 2nd. pic.twitter.com/v9wCUAwvlw

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 19, 2025

What has been the difference for Rocker lately after having an 8.87 ERA over his first six starts of the season? Well, when Rocker returned to the Rangers' rotation on June 4, he had a new cutter at his disposal, which he has thrown 43% of the time over his last five outings. The cutter has been working for Rocker with a .242 BAA, .355 SLG, and 35.8% whiff rate. The added cutter seems to have helped Rocker's sinker as well, as he has a BAA under .190 on his sinker in both June and July.

Edward Cabrera, SP, Miami Marlins

40% Rostered on Yahoo

After teasing us with glimpses of brilliance over the last few seasons, it looks like Edward Cabrera is finally putting it all together here in 2025. In 17 starts, Cabrera has recorded a solid 3.48 ERA, 1.24 WHIP, 8.1% walk rate, and a 24.9% strikeout rate across 88 innings. He's been even better over his last 10 starts, with a 2.18 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 7.3% walk rate, and a 27.1% strikeout rate while averaging over five innings per start.

It's simple, but a major change for Cabrera this season, which I believe is driving a large part of his success, is his lower walk rate. After having a walk rate above 11% in each of his first four seasons, Cabrera has dropped to 8.1% this season and 7.3% over his last 10 starts, which is huge. He's been missing plenty of bats as well, with both his curveball and slider having a whiff rate of a hair over 42%. And although his sinker has a .351 BAA, it's helping Cabrera generate an above-average 47.5% groundball rate.

Yes, the sinker and 4-seamer metrics are a bit concerning in general, but Cabrera's secondaries are getting the job done, and he's limiting the damage done against him via walk and home run, allowing just nine longballs in 17 starts this season.

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