Eric Cross' Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups - Hitters and Pitchers (Week 13)

June 22, 2025

Eric Cross' top fantasy baseball waiver wire adds for Week 13 of 2025 (June 23 - June 29). His favorite free agent hitters and pitchers under 40% rostered.

Summer has officially begun today, and the Major League season is hauling booty towards the mid-way mark of the season. The temperatures across the country, especially here in the Northeast, are beginning to climb, and the same can be said for the values of the seven players I'm recommending below.

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  Josh Smith (TEX), Jeff McNeil (NYM), Jo Adell (LAA), Evan Carter (TEX), Ryan McMahon (COL), Cade Horton (CHC), and Shelby Miller (ARI).

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Agustin Ramirez, C, Miami Marlins

35% Rostered on Yahoo

Sure, the hype and buzz have died down a bit since his blistering start after being called up from Triple-A, but there's no reason why Agustín Ramírez should be available in so many leagues right now. Since his Major League debut on April 21, Ramírez is tied for second in home runs at the catcher position with 11, trailing only the unstoppable Cal Raleigh. Ramírez also ranks sixth in runs, seventh in RBI, ninth in SLG, 3rd in ISO, and has the eighth lowest strikeout rate among the 35 catchers with more than 100 plate appearances in this timeframe.

2 at-bats, 2 home runs for the rookie Cam Smith 💪 pic.twitter.com/mnNCCNxPIl

— MLB (@MLB) June 18, 2025

Ramírez immediately established himself as one of the best power-hitting backstops in the game. In his first 217 plate appearances with the Marlins, Ramírez has recorded an impressive 9.6% barrel rate, 91.6 mph AVG EV, and 47.6% hard-hit rate while also posting an 87.1% zone and 78.6% overall contact rate. His current.239 AVG is largely due to a low .239 BABIP, and Ramírez is rocking a .282 xBA right now.

Ramírez is a no-doubt Top-10 catcher right now for fantasy who could provide Top-5 value at this position over the remainder of the season. He should be rostered in many more leagues than he currently is.

Alec Burleson, 1B/OF, St. Louis Cardinals

36% Rostered on Yahoo

After a lackluster April, Alec Burleson has cranked up the heat since the calendar flipped to May. He slashed .303/.343/.545 in 70 plate appearances last month and has kept that momentum going here in June, slashing .391/.414/.594 in 71 plate appearances with four doubles, three home runs, 11 RBI, and nine runs scored.

For the season, Burleson has increased his AVG EV from 89.7 mph in 2024 to 91.3 mph this season while also increasing his hard-hit rate from 41.7% to 43.2%. This has happened while Burleson has maintained his high 86.9% zone and 82.9% overall contact rates, while also keeping his strikeout rate low at 13.8%. This might not be a sexy profile, but it's certainly a high-floor profile for a player hitting third in a solid St. Louis lineup. Burleson should continue providing a higher AVG with around a 20/10 power/speed pace.

Cam Smith, 3B/OF, Houston Astros

35% Rostered on Yahoo

Don't look now, but the rookie is starting to heat up! Okay, maybe you actually should look... at your waiver wire to see if Cam Smith is available. Because if he is, I'd recommend making him not available by adding him to your fantasy teams. Over his last 12 games, Smith is slashing .354/.392/.583 with five doubles, two home runs, nine RBI, and nine runs scored in 51 plate appearances. He's also only struck out in 17.6% of his plate appearances during this span.

Even with the early-season struggles, Smith had some intriguing numbers under the hood. And we need to remember, this is a rookie with only 32 minor league games under his belt in 2024 before cracking the Houston roster out of camp this season.

2 at-bats, 2 home runs for the rookie Cam Smith 💪 pic.twitter.com/mnNCCNxPIl

— MLB (@MLB) June 18, 2025

Smith currently has an 88th percentile bat speed and 92nd percentile sprint speed, making him one of just five hitters to be in the 88th percentile or better in both categories this season. Obviously, those two metrics aren't everything, but it's certainly impressive for a rookie to be one of those five players when the other four are Oneil Cruz, Byron Buxton, Corbin Carroll, and Julio Rodriguez.

Overall, Smith has been hitting the ball hard with a 47.3% hard-hit rate, but he's been a bit limited by a 51.4% air rate and 13.5% Pull-Air rate. And while his zone and overall contact rates are a tick below league-average overall, they're trending in the right direction. Smith is trending in a positive way right now, and his solid defense will help keep him in the lineup through any future slumps.

Jurickson Profar, OF, Atlanta Braves

26% Rostered on Yahoo

I'm not even going to try to pretend that I know how much of Jurickson Profar's breakout 2024 season was due to the performance-enhancing drug that he took, or if that impacted his game at all. But it's hard not to recommend someone coming off the season he had last year, who will slide back into the top-third of Atlanta's order on July 2nd, likely in the #2 spot, right behind Ronald Acuna Jr. and ahead of Austin Riley, Matt Olson, and Marcell Ozuna. That's a very comfortable spot to be in.

In 2024, Profar slashed .280/.380/.459 with a career-high 94 runs, 24 home runs, 85 RBI, 76 walks, and 10 steals. Every metric in his slash line was also a career-best for a full season. We can question how much of his career-best 7.2% barrel rate, 91.1 mph AVG EV, and 44.4% hard-hit rate were legitimate. However, we cannot question the contact skills, which were elite with a 93.8% zone and 87.5% overall contact rate.

Even with a step back in the power department, there's still plenty to like here with Profar, who is about a week and a half away from returning.

Quinn Priester, SP, Milwaukee Brewers

40% Rostered on Yahoo

I've admittedly never been the biggest Quinn Priester guy, but the 24-year-old right-hander is pitching well and deserves your attention right now. After allowing seven earned runs on May 2, Priester has posted a stellar 2.23 ERA and 0.97 WHIP over his last eight starts, with six of those eight starts yielding just one earned run. Priester also has an impressive 5.8% walk rate over this span.

Quinn Priester, Dirty 81mph Curveball. 😨 pic.twitter.com/qjuKehcMu4

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) May 24, 2025

With that said, the upside with Priester is fairly limited due to his lower strikeout rate. However, after posting just a 14.9% strikeout rate through April and May, that mark has jumped to a more manageable 21.5% this month through his first three starts. Priester has been going to his slider and cutter more this month, both of which have a 33.3% whiff rate in June, so I have some confidence that this higher strikeout rate can stick moving forward.

Priester pitches today (Saturday) in Minnesota before a tasty home matchup against the lowly Rockies offense next week.

Jacob Lopez, SP, Athletics

7% Rostered on Yahoo

Never thought I'd be recommending Jacob Lopez when the season started, but here we are. After back-to-back tough outings on the 29th of May and the third of June, Lopez has three straight impressive outings, combining for 16 innings while allowing just 11 hits, one earned run, and six walks with 23 strikeouts. And in his last six outings, he's racked up at least eight strikeouts in four of those, pushing his strikeout rate to 29.7% for the season across 36 innings.

Lopez doesn't rack up his strikeouts due to elite velocity. He averages just 90.7 mph on his 4-seamer, but he gets elite extension (7.1 feet) with plenty of armside run, which has been hard for hitters to square up. The offering currently has a .233 BAA, 31.2% whiff rate, and an 83.7 mph AVG EV allowed. Lopez also has a 31.4% whiff rate on his slider and 44.1% on his changeup. Those three offerings account for 80.6% of his pitches thrown this season.

Orion Kerkering, RP, Philadelphia Phillies

22% Rostered on Yahoo

It feels like every time we blink, there's a new closer in Philadelphia. The latest to step into the role, at least to some degree, is Orion Kerkering, who has picked up saves on Monday and Thursday, with Matt Strahm getting the save on Wednesday. Both of them seem to be ahead of Jordan Romano at this point, with Kerkering ahead of Strahm. Or at the very least, this could be a split between Kerkering and Strahm moving forward until one of the two separates itself from the other or falls off.

In 34 appearances and 30.1 innings this season, Kerkering has posted a 2.37 ERA and 1.35 WHIP. However, his walk rate has risen from 6.6% to 12.8%, and his strikeout rate has fallen from 28.8% to 21.1%. He's been able to offset those, though, by allowing just an 84.2 mph AVG EV and 29.9% hard-hit rate, along with a solid 12.6% Pull-Air rate allowed.

Kerkering wasn't a big whiff rate guy last year either, so I'm not sure we're going to see that bigger strikeout rate from him right now, but at least he's getting save opportunities

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