Eric Cross' Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups - Hitters and Pitchers (May 12 - May 18)

May 11, 2025

Eric Cross' top fantasy baseball waiver wire adds for Week 7 of 2025 (May 12 - May 18). His favorite free agent hitters and pitchers under 40% rostered.

Another week of fantasy baseball has flown by, and we're now at the 1/4 mark of the Major League Baseball season. This has been a weird start to the Major League season with many top players struggling along with our usual plethora of injuries. I'm sure most of you reading this are looking for a replacement at a position right now or at least some additional depth.

The players below are all under 40 percent rostered on 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 Ivan Herrera, Ryan O'Hearn, Kyle Stowers, Victor Scott II, Kyle Manzardo, Gunnar Hoglund, and Shelby Miller.

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Daniel Schneemann, 2B/3B/SS/OF, Guardians

25% Rostered on Yahoo

Very quietly, Daniel Schneemann has worked his way into fantasy relevance recently. Schneemann has hits in seven of eight games so far this month and is slashing .364/.426/.673 with five doubles and four home runs dating back to April 13. And when you pop the hood, there are some metrics to be encouraged by.

While Schneemann is running below average 75% zone and 71% overall contact rates, he has posted better than league average chase and walk rates along with an impressive 20.8% barrel rate, 49.1% hard-hit rate, and .509 xwOBACON. He's worked his way into a regular role for Cleveland, and Schneemann provides eligibility at as many as four positions, depending on the platform you play on, which provides helpful versatility for your fantasy teams.

Trent Grisham, OF, New York Yankees

32% Rostered on Yahoo

Honestly, I didn't believe in Trent Grisham's performance earlier this season either. But then he kept doing it, and it became more than just a quick hot stretch. It's fairly surprising that someone who is slashing .280/.374/.613 with 10 home runs is still available in nearly 70% of Yahoo leagues, but I'd assume many out there are still skeptical, just like I was.

TRENT GRISHAM LEADOFF HOMER pic.twitter.com/92DpWouALQ

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) April 27, 2025

Is Grisham going to continue providing Top-50 overall value all season? No, probably not. But I don't believe this performance is entire fluky either. Grisham is currently running a 14.9% barrel rate, 91.8 mph AVG EV, and 47.3% hard-hit rate, all of which are career-best marks. He's also trimmed his strikeout rate from 27.3% to 17.8%, his zone contact rate from 79.9% to 88.7%, and his overall contact rate from 76.7% to 82.5%.

Colt Keith, 1B/2B, Detroit Tigers

16% Rostered on Yahoo

There have been some signs of life from Colt Keith lately. After slashing just .173/.316/.272 over his first 31 games, Keith has four multi-hit games in his last five along with a pair of home runs and only one strikeout. I've been lukewarm on Keith for fantasy given his limited power/speed upside, but he cam provide values in other ways, even if he's not an impactful power/speed threat.

Keith is running an impressive 87.4% zone contact rate this season with a 77.3% overall contact rate, and has improved both his chase and walk rate by around 10% which is very notable. Keith has also increased his barrel rate from 5.6% to 9.6% and has a rock-solid .357 OBP right now. Even if he's only a 15-homer bat with a handful of steals, Keith should continue providing an impactful OBP and a respectable average while bringing eligibility at both first base and second base.

Trey Sweeney, SS, Detroit Tigers

8% Rostered on Yahoo

It took Trey Sweeney a few weeks to get going, but he's been hitting very well of late. Over his last seven games, Sweeney is hitting .481 with two home runs and four mult-hit games to push his season line up to .262/.338/.377. That overall line doesn't exactly stand out, but Sweeney continued to bring a solid power/speed blend to the table and has made some improvements under the hood since last season.

So far in 2025, Sweeney has improved his walk rate from 5.9% to 10.3% while trimming his strikeout rate from 26.9% to 19.1%. He's also improved his overall contact rate by a whopping 10% and has dropped his chase rate by 5.7%. There's enough power and speed here with Sweeney to get into the 15-20 homer and 15-20 steal range this season and the improvements to his contact and approach metrics are certainly encouraging as well.

Ryan McMahon, 3B, Colorado Rockies

27% Rostered on Yahoo

After a rough start to the season, Ryan McMahon has been getting back to his old ways here in the month of May. In eight games this month, McMahon is slashing .407/.500/.889 with sex extra-base hits, three home runs, and nearly as many walks (5) as strikeouts (6). He also has three multi-hit efforts in his last five games. With how consistent McMahon has been during the last several seasons, it was only a matter of time before he got going offensively.

Under the hood, McMahon's metrics this season have been in line with previous seasons, which is one of the reasons why I wasn't terribly concerned by the tough April showing. McMahon's overall contact rate has dipped some, but he's improved his zone contact rate by 2.2% and has posted impressive Quality of Contact metrics with a 12.3% barrel rate, 94.3 mph AVG EV, and a 50.6% hard-hit rate. All three would represent career-best marks if the season ended today.

Cade Horton, SP, Chicago Cubs

21% Rostered on Yahoo

With Shota Imanaga hitting the IL with a strained hamstring, the Chicago Cubs are turning to their top pitching prospect to fill the open spot in their starting rotation. In six starts for Triple-A Iowa this season, Horton had recorded a stellar 1.24 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, and a 30.6% strikeout rate. The walk rate was a bit high at 12%, but Horton had only walked 5% of the batters he faced over his last three starts combined.

While I'm recommending Horton this week, I'm not as high on him as I am guys like Bubba Chandler or Andrew Painter who should be up in the next several weeks. Horton features an above-average fastball in the mid-90s and a plus slider which has always been his best pitch. However, he's become very reliant on those two offerings as you can see from his last Triple-A outing above where 68 of his 78 pitches were 4-seamers or sliders.

I'd still recommend adding him in 12-team leagues or deeper, but probably not in 10-team formats. Here's what Eno Sarris had for Stuff+ grades for Horton in Triple-A.

Cade Horton, Triple-A Stuff+ (relative to big leagues)

Slider 125
Fourseam 96
Curve 96
Sinker 79
CH (small sample) 75

On Stuff grades alone, he has something in common with Brandon Pfaadt and Nick Pivetta. @fangraphs prospect grades have the changeup higher fwiw.

— Eno Sarris (@enosarris) May 8, 2025

Will Vest, RP, Detroit Tigers

22% Rostered on Yahoo

While it might be a shared role, Will Vest is the Detroit reliever to roster right now, and he picked up his fourth save of the season on Friday against the Texas Rangers with Tommy Kahnle working in the 8th inning. Vest has pitched well this season with a 2.12 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and a 28.8% strikeout rate this season while converting on four of his five save opportunities. In fact, three of the four runs he's allowed all season came in that blown save back on April 29 in Houston.

Vest primarily works with a 4-seamer, sinker, and slider, and currently has a whiff rate of at least 25% and a sub-.220 BAA on all three offerings. Vest is averaging 96.9 mph on  his 4-seamer with a .147 BAA, and his slider leads the way in the whiff rate department with a 41.4% whiff rate along with a .214 BAA and zero extra-base hits allowed. Vest also does a great job of limiting hard contact, especially in the air, and currently sports a 55% groundball rate and a 7.5% Pull-Air rate.

If you're looking to add some saves to your team, I'd suggest you invest in Vest this week. The Tigers are one of the best teams in the American League, and Vest could run into 20-25 saves this season.

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