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Mike's starting pitcher (SP) fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups for Week 15 of 2026 (July 6 - July 12). These are his top free-agent pitchers to add and stream.
Welcome, everyone, to our starting pitcher fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups for Week 15 of the 2026 season (July 6- July 12). In this weekly piece, we search for starting pitchers rostered in less than 40 percent (new parameter for us) of Yahoo leagues. For deeper leagues, we try to find pitchers rostered in less than 30 percent of Yahoo leagues.
The need for starting pitching never ends. Many of our fantasy teams are starved for it. In leagues where you cannot trade for starting pitching, you must hunt for it on the waiver wire. Yet, there are always helpful pieces on the waiver wire in most leagues,
The guys mentioned here are not aces, but that does not mean that they cannot help your team. Take a look at these pitchers if you need help. At the end of the article, you will see players rostered in less than 15% of leagues who could help your squad.
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Pitcher Waiver Wire Pickups for Shallow Leagues
Recommendations for leagues of any size rostered between 30-40% on Yahoo
Jake Bennett, Boston Red Sox (39% rostered)
Bennett will be snatched up in most leagues by the end of this week, so now is your time to get him if you need rotation help. Boston has another really good left-hander on their hands. Bennett uses a three-pitch mix, basically, featuring a four-seamer, a sinker, and a change-up.
Check out his Statcast page below. Not a huge strikeout pitcher, Bennett has a 40.4% chase percentage and an outstanding 53.4% ground-ball percentage. So far, he has three wins in seven starts, with a 3.10 ERA, a 0.98 WHIP, and 31 strikeouts in 40 innings. Get him this weekend.
Andre Pallante, St. Louis Cardinals (36% rostered)
Pallante continues to be a bedrock in the Cardinals' rotation. He earned his tenth win this week in a 17-1 shellacking of the Chicago Cubs on Friday. Across 17 starts, the veteran has a 3.60 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. Not much help with strikeouts (70 in 95 innings), but that feels like a quibble.
In essence, Pallante has been the ace of a surprising Cardinals' staff and team. He has a 54.6% ground-ball percentage and an 87.3 MPH average exit velocity. He limits walks, and while he doesn't get a lot of swings and misses, he gets tons of outs. Need wins and good ratios? Look at Pallaente.
Walbert Urena, Los Angeles Angels (36% rostered)
Fantasy players remain split on Urena, but I feel he is at least a good streamer. He rebounded nicely this week against Seattle, going into the sixth inning and striking out six while surrendering only one run. Urena was destroyed in his prior start, coughing up seven runs in a little over four innings.
Overall, though, Urena has been quite good this year: five wins in 14 starts, a 3.03 ERA, a 1.31 WHIP, and 75 strikeouts in 77 innings. His swing-and-miss rate has improved this year with each start. See below. At the very least, a great streaming option in the coming week.
Ian Seymour, Tampa Bay Rays (31% rostered)
Seymour is another in a line of Rays pitchers that intrigue me as a fantasy player. In his last outing against Kansas City, Seymour went six full innings, earning a win with eight strikeouts, surrendering only one run on three hits.
In his last five outings, three of which have been starts, Seymour sports a 2.52 ERA, a 0.76 WHIP, and 27 strikeouts in 25 innings. With the recent success of his rotation mate, Griffin Jax, the Rays have the makings of an excellent rotation. Grab Seymour now; he does have the struggling Yankees next.
Cade Cavalli, Washington Nationals (30% rostered)
Cavalli is such an intriguing talent. He has three games this year with 10 or more strikeouts, with his last game being his high this season at 13 while earning a win. For the season, Cavalli has five wins, a solid 3.69 ERA, a 1.33 WHIP, and an excellent 102 strikeouts in 90 innings.
Cavalli will start on Sunday against Pittsburgh and then likely serve a suspension stemming from his incident with Willson Contreras last week. Below, you can see the growth in his strikeouts since last season. Cavalli could be on the verge of near-ace status. Roster him now despite the suspension.
Pitcher Waiver Wire Pickups for Deeper Leagues
Recommendations for leagues of any size rostered in less than 30% on Yahoo
Brandon Sproat, Milwaukee Brewers (21% rostered)
Long story short, I drafted Sproat in my Tout Wars league, then cut him, and then added him back two weeks ago. Looking in the box below, you might be able to tell why I decided to bring Sproat back to my roster this season.
Sproat came to Milwaukee with a high pedigree as part of the Freddy Peralta trade last winter, and the Brewers are relying on him to be a big piece of their rotation. Sproat has done his job recently after a couple of months of struggle.
He has gone at least five innings in four of his last five starts. But over the last two starts, both against the Cincinnati Reds, he has covered 11 innings and struck out an impressive 17 hitters. I would imagine that with a successful start on Sunday in Arizona, Sproat will be more widely rostered soon.
Shane Drohan, Milwaukee Brewers (20% rostered)
Drohan, Sproat's Milwaukee teammate, has been outstanding as well. Drohan will make his next start against the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday. In his last start, the lefty pitched into the sixth inning against Cincinnati, striking out seven while giving up two runs.
Let's look at his Statcast page below. The burgeoning red is where it is at. He has made six starts now and has given up three runs or fewer in five of those. Overall, Drohan has three wins, a 3.12 ERA, a nice 1.23 WHIP, and 59 strikeouts in 57 innings.
One thing to be mindful of is that Logan Henderson will return soon, which could relegate Drohan back to the bullpen in the near future. However, he is worth rostering for what should be two more starts.
Kumar Rocker, Texas Rangers (13% rostered)
Rocker has finally reached his time as a serviceable major league starter. What I like is that Rocker is going longer in games; he has covered 11 innings in his last two starts, striking out an impressive 14 hitters in that time.
Rocker is another case, like I mentioned last week: if you look at the full body of the work, you miss the recent dynamics. He has a 3.02 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in his last nine starts, with 43 strikeouts in 47 innings. You could look at the full season of 3.83 ERA and 1.34 WHIP and miss him.
Rocker is getting another day of rest and will start on Sunday against the Detroit Tigers. If he continues to get strikeouts as he has in the last two starts, he is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the Texas rotation.
Noah Schultz, Chicago White Sox (11% rostered)
Schultz is a bit of a crapshoot at this point, as control problems and inefficiency have led to issues with length in games and generating wins. What I do like is that the strikeout presence seems like it could be growing here. He struck out seven hitters in just over four innings last week.
A look at the numbers will make you pause, but the strikeout potential is what I am chasing with Schultz. He needs to cut his walks, but if he can, and add some length to his outings, Schultz could be a very important starter for the White Sox down the stretch.
Dean Kremer, Baltimore Orioles (8% rostered)
Kremer is historically underrated in fantasy leagues due to not posting sexy statistics. Kremer has now made three starts, and he is back to his old ways: one win, a 3.18 ERA, a 0.88 WHIP, and a surprising 20 strikeouts in 17 innings.
He has gone at least five innings in all three of his starts, which is typical of his past performance. Kremer is often forgotten about in fantasy leagues, but is a useful pitcher in many fantasy formats.
Other Starting Pitcher Waiver Wire Options
Every week, we will give you four or five other lower-rostered pitchers you could also consider adding from the waiver wire in your league. League context matters, obviously.
- Anthony Kay, Chicago White Sox (15% rostered)
- Hurston Waldrep, Atlanta Braves (9% rostered)
- Jack Perkins, Athletics (8% rostered)
- Tyler Phillips, Miami Marlins (7% rostered)
- Alan Rangel, Philadelphia Phillies (1% rostered)
Happy hunting for starting pitchers this weekend! If you have questions, you can always message me on X @mdrc0508. You can even tell me you hate these picks. Remember that fantasy baseball is supposed to be fun above everything. Enjoy it!
More Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Advice
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