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Mid-Week Waiver Wire Rankings - Fantasy Baseball Pickups Include Griffin Jax, Cade Smith, JoJo Romero, Luis Gil, Tyler O'Neill, Spencer Arrighetti, more

Austin Hays - Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Rankings, MLB DFS

Mid-week fantasy baseball waiver wire rankings for Week 18 (2025). Free-agent hitters and pitchers to add include Griffin Jax, Cade Smith, JoJo Romero, Luis Gil, Luke Keaschall, Kristian Campbell, Spencer Arrighetti, and Andrew Painter.

The MLB trade deadline has officially arrived, and we have already seen some big names on the move. The Mariners acquired Eugenio Suarez, the Phillies traded for Jhoan Duran, while the Mets acquired relievers Tyler Rogers and Ryan Helsley. There will likely be many more moves as teams look to improve their roster for the World Series run. At RotoBaller HQ, we are back with more fantasy baseball waiver wire advice after the trade deadline with our waiver wire rankings for Week 18-- July 28  through August 3 to help managers in leagues that allow daily moves. 

With Duran and Helsley traded on Wednesday, the closer role for the Twins and Cardinals suddenly becomes available. Griffin Jax will likely handle ninth-inning duties for the Twins, but has struggled at times this season and has a 4.50 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, and 72 strikeouts over 42 innings. JoJo Romero is the likely favorite to take over the Cardinals' closer role and has been excellent with a 2.04 ERA and a 24.0 K% across 35 1/3 innings this season. With Emmanuel Clase placed on leave as part of MLB's sports-betting investigation for gambling, Cade Smith has become Cleveland's primary closer with Clase out. 

For anyone unfamiliar, we release all sorts of fantasy baseball waiver wire articles every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. As part of that, Nick Mariano releases our waiver wire rankings list on Sundays to help you prioritize which players to target as free-agent adds off waivers. Stay on top of our weekly waiver wire rankings and turn on MLB news alerts to stay ahead of the curve. Once you're done here, check out our fantasy baseball prospects articles for the latest names to stash and pick up.

Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball draft tools and resources:

 

Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups List

Since many fantasy baseball leagues have daily waiver-wire moves or multiple waiver-wire runs per week for adding players, this mid-week rankings list should help you keep track of players emerging in the middle of the week before we reach Sunday. This article will guide you through our weekly ranking of the relevant waiver-wire pickup options, including how to prioritize them for your league (depending on the league size).

Rank Player Name Position % Ros. Baller Move
1 Cade Smith RP 46 Add in All Leagues
2 Griffin Jax RP 26 Add in All Leagues
3 Chase Burns SP 55 Add in All Leagues
4 Chandler Simpson OF 42 Add in All Leagues
5 Tyler O'Neill OF 51 Add in 10+ Team Leagues
6 Roman Anthony OF 56 Add in 10+ Team Leagues
7 Daniel Palencia RP 57 Add in 10+ Team Leagues
8 Matt Shaw 2B,3B,SS 51 Add in 10+ Team Leagues
9 Jasson Dominguez OF 52 Add in 10+ Team Leagues
10 Edward Cabrera SP 55 Add in 10+ Team Leagues
11 Jo Adell OF 43 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
12 Otto Lopez 2B,SS 40 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
13 Andrew Vaughn 1B 23 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
14 Noelvi Marte 3B 25 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
15 Noah Cameron SP 61 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
16 Colson Montgomery 3B,SS 21 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
17 Alex Vesia RP 25 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
18 Trevor Rogers SP 61 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
19 Austin Hays OF 22 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
20 Jurickson Profar OF 45 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
21 Alec Burleson 1B,OF 51 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
22 Ramon Laureano OF 33 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
23 Josh Jung 3B 32 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
24 Blake Treinen RP 18 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
25 Zebby Matthews SP 27 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
26 Ryne Nelson SP,RP 51 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
27 Luis Gil SP 52 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
28 Giancarlo Stanton OF 43 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
29 Nolan Schanuel 1B 20 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
30 Eric Lauer SP,RP 62 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
31 Max Scherzer SP 51 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
32 Caleb Durbin 2B,3B,SS 15 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
33 Cedric Mullins OF 52 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
34 Trent Grisham OF 18 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
35 Mickey Moniak OF 25 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
36 Ronny Henriquez RP 34 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
37 Bubba Chandler SP 25 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
38 Evan Carter OF 12 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
39 Joe Boyle SP 24 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
40 Drake Baldwin C 22 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
41 Randy Rodriguez RP 29 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
42 Shelby Miller RP 29 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
43 Patrick Corbin SP 32 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
44 Logan Henderson SP 18 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
45 Dennis Santana RP 17 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
46 Brice Matthews 2B,3B,SS 6 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
47 Brooks Lee 2B,3B,SS 5 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
48 Tyler Freeman SS,OF 10 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
49 Brett Baty 2B,3B 6 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
50 Kevin Ginkel RP 9 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
51 Shane Bieber SP 41 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
52 Brady House 3B 4 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
53 Corbin Martin RP 1 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
54 Edwin Uceta RP 5 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
55 Jeremiah Estrada RP 21 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
56 Tyler Locklear 1B 1 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
57 Luke Keaschall 1B,2B,OF 25 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
58 Logan Allen SP 21 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
59 Sean Murphy C 25 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
60 Grant Taylor SP,RP 7 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
61 JoJo Romero RP 6 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
62 Adrian Morejon RP 23 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
63 Louis Varland SP,RP 8 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
64 Jack Perkins SP,RP 1 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
65 Troy Melton SP 7 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
66 Hunter Gaddis RP 14 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
67 Dylan Lee RP 7 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
68 Pierce Johnson RP 1 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
69 Lars Nootbaar OF 25 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
70 Victor Caratini C,1B 16 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
71 Yennier Cano RP 4 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
72 Cade Horton SP 23 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
73 Spencer Arrighetti SP 34 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
74 Isaac Mattson RP 1 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
75 Andrew Painter SP 17 Add in 12+ Team Leagues
76 Kyle Bradish SP 11 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
77 Jordan Lawlar SS 7 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
78 Michael McGreevy SP 9 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
79 Ryan Mountcastle 1B 23 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
80 Ryan McMahon 3B 46 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
81 Reid Detmers SP,RP 9 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
82 Kyle Teel C 4 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
83 Warming Bernabel 1B,3B 4 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
84 Nathan Lukes OF 2 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
85 Ke'Bryan Hayes 3B 4 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
86 Christian Moore 2B 4 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
87 Michael Kelly RP 0 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
88 Owen Caissie OF 5 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
89 Justin Crawford OF 2 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
90 Keegan Akin SP,RP 2 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
91 Jonah Tong SP 2 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
92 Spencer Horwitz 1B,2B 3 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
93 Riley O'Brien RP 1 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
94 Joey Loperfido OF 2 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
95 Adrian Del Castillo C 2 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
96 Jose A. Ferrer RP 1 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
97 Thairo Estrada 2B 5 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
98 Coby Mayo 1B,3B 10 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
99 Kristian Campbell 2B,OF 16 Add in 15+ Team Leagues
100 Quinn Mathews SP 4 Add in 15+ Team Leagues

The roster percentage is from Yahoo! leagues.

More Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Advice



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