It's quite a week on the fantasy baseball pickup front, in part because, as of Friday, the oft-mentioned-in-this-space date for debuting prospects to retain rookie eligibility into 2027 has now passed. One high-profile prospect places high on our list of prospective adds. However, in general, we have an unusually rich crop of candidates this week. With that in mind, let's go format-free for this week, and rank my top nine favorite pickups in order of preference.
Jac Caglianone, OF/1B, Kansas City Royals (60.9% rostered)
I'm a noted Caglianone fan, and if not for that June column mention, he'd have probably also been included in last week's trade targets column. At barely 60% rostered, perhaps his exclusion was a mistake, because there's no reason that number should be below 90% accounting for both his prospective production and his Royals' 22 remaining home games (second-most in the majors). Caglianone's Statcast Barrel and hard-hit rates and average exit velocity are all in the 93rd percentile or better, and he's a .280/.330/.522 hitter with 12 homers in his 57 home games.
Joshua Baez, OF, St. Louis Cardinals (43.4% rostered)
You might have expected him to be first on this list and, sure, had Caglianone not been out there in as many leagues, naturally Baez would've been the A-number-1 pickup. On Saturday, all the 23-year-old rookie did was become the first player in history to hit home runs in his first three at-bats in the majors. While his 0-for-5, three-strikeout follow-up on Sunday tempered some of that enthusiasm, let's not settle into this idea that his accomplishment was entirely fluky.
Baez hit 34 home runs over 103 games for Triple-A Memphis, giving him 37 total for the year. That matches Kyle Schwarber and Double-A Milwaukee Brewers slugger Andrew Fischer for the professional-baseball lead. He also stole 21 bases in 24 tries (after 54 in 63 attempts in the minors in 2025). Baez's free-swinging ways will probably always make him a streaky player, but his combination of elite power and speed is particularly attractive for rotisserie play, and he's good enough to warrant points-league consideration, too.
Zac Veen, OF, Colorado Rockies (7.7% rostered)
I'm a fan and one who thinks he deserved this chance even earlier in the year. Veen's improved approach at the plate this season led to his posting a .327/.402/.635 line with 24 homers and 18 steals over 100 games for Triple-A Albuquerque -- and one that wasn't entirely ballpark-generated as he had comparable home/road splits in the minors.
He homered in both of his first two games since his Wednesday recall -- one of them in a pitchers' park in San Francisco (Oracle Park) -- and should fill the home run and stolen base departments for rotisserie managers. However, what stands out most with Veen is that his Rockies play 22 more games at Coors Field, including a trio of entirely-at-Coors weeks (Aug. 17-23, Aug. 31-Sept. 6, Sept. 14-20). At the very least, he's as obvious a streaming candidate as they come.
Zack Gelof, 2B/3B/OF, Athletics (25.7% rostered)
Here's another "ballpark product" at the bare minimum. He's a .311/.362/.583 hitter with 11 homers in 43 games at Sacramento's Sutter Health Park. Gelof has the added advantage of the Athletics' confidence in him as an upper-third-of-the-lineup hitter. That should maximize his opportunities, from which his elite selectivity at the plate -- his chase rate places in the 86th percentile -- and positional flexibility will make him plenty underrated for points-league play.
Kodai Senga, SP/RP, New York Mets (7.3% rostered)
Saves are something you can find readily available on the free-agent list at this advanced stage of the season, but when you see them, you need to snap them up might quick. The Mets, having traded away Luke Weaver, Brooks Raley, Huascar Brazoban, A.J. Minter and pretty much anything that wasn't bolted down in their bullpen, then having lost closer Devin Williams to a shoulder injury, had just about nowhere else to go but Senga to handle their ninth inning. So how has that gone? Well, the Mets have since won nine of 12 games, and Senga is 3-for-3 converting saves with five scoreless appearances and a 36.8% strikeout rate. You do the math.
Jacob Webb, RP, Chicago Cubs (12.1% rostered)
There's a compelling case to be made here that he belongs ahead of Senga on the saves-speculation list. For me, it's an effective coin flip. Webb is riding an active streak of 21 scoreless appearances and he has four of his team's last five successful save conversions. Although Opening Day closer Daniel Palencia is on the doorstep of activation from his injury rehab stint, Webb deserves to stick for the team in the ninth inning.
Tyler Mahle, SP, Atlanta Braves (10.7% rostered)
Fantasy managers might be hesitant to trust him, after he has graced sleeper lists so many times across 10 MLB seasons with modest-at-best results to show for it. That said, Mahle has looked mighty good in his two starts since being traded to the Braves. He has a trio of pitches generating better-than-30% whiff rates, he's leaning more heavily on the two power pitches of said trio (four-seam fastball and splitter), and he's throwing them harder than he has in four years. Mahle's adjustments elevate him into the fantasy-worthy SP class.
Kade Anderson, SP, Seattle Mariners (7.8% rostered)
A speculative add still in Double-A? Really? Believe it, as Mariners brass has given every indication that they're considering Anderson for a late-season promotion -- and directly into the team's rotation, rather than using his power package of pitches out of the bullpen. At last check, he was Kiley McDaniel's No. 9 overall prospect in his May overall update, and No. 1 in the organization in his update last week, thanks to his stellar stats: 10-1 record, 1.06 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, 40.5% K rate in 18 starts for Arkansas. Perhaps a case can't be made to stash a guy like Anderson in ESPN's standard formats, with its three bench slots, but in anything deeper, he needs to be rostered.
Abimelec Ortiz, 1B/OF, Washington Nationals (6.1% rostered)
Acquired in January's MacKenzie Gore trade, Ortiz's Triple-A stat line was far from eye-popping, as he hit just .244/.348/.497, albeit with 18 home runs in his 85 games there to begin the year. However, with Curtis Mead and Luis Garcia Jr. both recently traded, Ortiz was summoned to serve as the team's strong-side first base platoon man and No. 2 hitter. Ortiz has gone .289/.308/.684 with five home runs in the 13 games since his recall, with what would be 85th-percentile-or-better Statcast rates in average exit velocity, Barrel and hard-hit rates.
