Eric Cross' Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups - Hitters and Pitchers (Week 12)

Eric Cross' top fantasy baseball waiver wire adds for Week 12 of 2025 (June 16 - June 22). His favorite free agent hitters and pitchers under 40% rostered.

This week's Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire recommendations are an exciting bunch of players. We have some crafty veterans, younger upside players, and even some saves for those of you lacking in that area.

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 Kyle Teel (CHW), Trevor Larnach (MIN), Ernie Clement (TOR), Nick Kurtz (ATH), Christian Encarnacion-Strand (CIN), Landen Roupp (SFG), Chad Patrick (MIL)

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Josh Smith, 1B/3B/SS/OF, Rangers

25% Rostered on Yahoo

After an underwhelming last few weeks of May, Josh Smith has turned his season around here in June. He has at least two hits in five straight games entering Saturday and is slashing .378/.417/.667 with four doubles, three home runs, two steals, eight RBI, and 10 runs scored this month.

Another day, another Juice Jack.

⭐️ https://t.co/K50eJHi0RD pic.twitter.com/PQ13xVpMvc

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) June 14, 2025

Part of Smith's value comes from his versatility and positional eligibility. Depending on your league settings, Smith will provide you eligibility at either three or four positions while also providing steady offensive production. He's now up to seven home runs and eight steals in 235 plate appearances with a solid .284/.350/.436 slash line. Smith's quality of contact metrics is nearly identical to last season, and he's improved his walk, strikeout, zone contact, and overall contact rates.

Jeff McNeil, 2B/OF, New York Mets

19% Rostered on Yahoo

Very quietly, Jeff McNeil is having a solid season at the plate. After missing close to the first month of the season, McNeil has slashed .269/.364/.538 in 140 plate appearances with seven home runs, 22 RBI, and more walks (18) than strikeouts (12). Over the last 14 games, McNeil has slashed .333/.386/.686 with five home runs, having at least one hit in 13 of those 14 games.

The old veteran is having his best season since 2022, and his home run pace is higher than we've seen from McNeil since his career-high 23 homers back in 2019. McNeil's quality of contact metrics are in line with previous seasons and still below league-average, but his Sweet-Spot rate has jumped 10% along with a 5.8% rise in his Air Rate and 5.6% in his Pull-Air rate. McNeil also has a career-best 93.4% zone and 89.4% overall contact rate.

Jo Adell, OF, Los Angeles Angels

26% Rostered on Yahoo

After slashing .184/.250/.353 through his first 45 games this season, Jo Adell has been heating up in a big way over the last two to three weeks. In his last 16 games, Adell has mashed seven home runs with 14 RBI, 11 runs scored, a pair of steals, and a .346/.424/.788 slash line.

Jo Adell smokes his 6th homer in the month of June! pic.twitter.com/qJgWAjCvib

— MLB (@MLB) June 11, 2025

Listen, I know what you're thinking: Adell has burned you in the past and will never trust him again. I've been in your shoes, as have probably 70-80% of the people reading this article. However, this is the best version of Adell under the hood that we've ever seen.

While Adell is chasing more, he currently has career-best marks in his 81.1% zone contact rate, 71% overall contact rate, 13.9% barrel rate, 46.7% hard-hit rate, and 90.6 mph AVG EV. He's also trimmed his strikeout rate to a manageable 24.6%. Adell will probably always be a streaky hitter, but there are reasons to be encouraged here moving forward.

Evan Carter, OF, Texas Rangers

34% Rostered on Yahoo

Welcome back, Evan Carter! In 68 plate appearances so far this season, Carter is slashing .283/.368/.517 with four home runs, five steals, 10 RBI, and 12 runs scored. Before going 0/2 with a walk on Friday, Carter had four straight games with at least two hits. He's dealing with a little wrist soreness right now, but Bruce Bochy said it was minor and Carter is just day to day.

Seeing Carter put his back issues behind him and showcase his exciting offensive upside that we saw late in 2023 has been a welcome sight over the last few weeks. Carter has cut his strikeout rate from 26.5% to 14.7% while more than doubling his barrel rate from 5.9% to 12%. He's never been one to have the gaudy exit velocities, but Carter has always hit the ball at ideal angles, as evident by his 38% Sweet-Spot rate and 20% Pull-Air rate. He's also a near-elite runner with a 93rd percentile sprint speed.

As long as Carter can stay healthy, the upside and skills are here to be an impactful outfielder for fantasy.

Ryan McMahon, 3B, Colorado Rockies

25% Rostered on Yahoo

After being the model of consistency for the last half-decade, Ryan McMahon got off to a brutally cold start to the 2025 season and was slashing just .147/.273/.235 at the end of April. But McMahon has returned to his old ways since the calendar flipped to May. In 152 plate appearances since the beginning of May, McMahon has racked up seven home runs, 18 RBI, and 20 runs scored with a .287/.395/.527 slash line. He's also walked at a 15.1% clip while striking out just 22.4% of the time during this span.

Now that's the McMahon we've come to know over the years. His end-of-season lines are never flashy, but McMahon has at least 67 runs scored, 65 RBI, 56 walks, and 20 home runs in his last five full seasons dating back to 2019. All while hitting at least .240 in each of those five seasons.

McMahon is even hitting the ball harder than he ever has so far this season with a 12.3% barrel rate, 94.5 mph AVG EV, and a 51.6% hard-hit rate. The contact skills are a bit below average and will keep the average in check, but playing half of his games at Coors Field, along with his impressive quality of contact metrics, will help keep that average respectable.

Cade Horton, SP, Chicago Cubs

30% Rostered on Yahoo

Cade Horton went toe to toe with Paul Skenes on Friday, tossing 5.2 shutout innings with four strikeouts while allowing just three hits and one walk. This outing dropped Horton's ERA to 3.47 through his first 36.1 Major League innings to go along with a 1.21 WHIP, 5.2% walk rate, and a 19% strikeout rate.

Cade Horton, Wicked Sweepers. 🤢 pic.twitter.com/sHOSyP2Fw8

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) June 13, 2025

While the strikeout rate is currently below league-average, I'm confident that rate will rise moving forward. After being primarily a two-pitch guy in the minors earlier this season, Horton has been going to his curveball and changeup a combined 24.9% of the time in the Majors so far, with both having good results so far. Horton's changeup has been especially dominant, registering a .071, .143 SLG, and a 67.7% whiff rate.

Horton also does a nice job of limiting damage done in the air and is walking fewer batters than he did in Triple-A. You could say that the schedule has been fairly easy so far, but Horton is supposed to pitch well against these teams, right? If Horton can continue keeping the ratios in check while increasing the strikeout rate moving forward, he could provide Top-50 SP value over the remainder of the season.

Shelby Miller, RP, Arizona Diamondbacks

34% Rostered on Yahoo

Well, with Justin Martinez having Tommy John surgery and A.J. Puk potentially not too far behind him, the closer role in Arizona now belongs to Shelby Miller and could for the remainder of the season. Miller picked up his seventh save on Wednesday and has been pitching well this season overall.

In 29 appearances (28.1 IP), Miller has recorded a 1.57 ERA and 1.05 WHIP. Although his xERA is considerably higher at 3.66 right now. Miller primarily works with a mid-90s 4-seamer and an upper-80s splitter while also mixing in the occasional low to mid-80s sweeper. Those three offerings have only allowed four extra-base hits combined while all having a SLG allowed under .300. Miller's splitter has been his best offering, registering a .095 BAA, .190 SLG, and a 37.7% whiff rate.

The closer role should be Miller's for the foreseeable future as long as he keeps pitching well. If you need saves and Miller is available in your league, I'd scoop him up immediately.

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