2024 Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Adds: Mark Vientos, Masyn Winn, Hunter Brown
Youngsters Vientos, Winn, and Brown headline this week's list of waiver wire pickups for fantasy baseball.
Playing the waiver wire effectively is crucial to fantasy baseball success throughout the season. Each week of the 2024 campaign, this article will help pinpoint which players are readily available to be picked up in most formats. All of them should help bolster fantasy rosters in the short and/or long term.
***Players included on the list below were rostered in fewer than 70% of Yahoo! Leagues at the time of writing. Stats are up to date through games on June 4.
Hitters on the Waiver Wire
Mark Vientos – 1B, 3B – New York Mets (34%)
Vientos has been a highly-touted prospect in the Mets’ organization for years, but it appears he is finally ready to make a splash in the show after struggling as a rookie in 2023. He ripped nine homers across 233 plate appearances last year but struggled overall, finishing with a weak .211/.253/.367 slash line and 30.5 K%.
So far in 2024, Vientos has reined in the strikeouts (18.6%) while hammering his way to a .339/.400/.645 slash line over 70 plate appearances. He’s got five homers, two of which have come in the first few days of June, to go with four doubles and 11 RBI in 19 games.
The power is legitimate, and Vientos has mashed 11 roundtrippers in 50 games between Triple-A and the majors so far this year.
Masyn Winn – SS – St. Louis Cardinals (27%)
Winn is, rather quietly, putting together a splendid rookie campaign. His brilliant defense at short was already well known before he debuted for the Cardinals in 2023, but Winn’s bat deserves plenty of attention now.
Over the past 30 days, Winn’s .357 AVG ranks fourth in the game among qualifying hitters. During that stretch, he has hit safely in 21 of 23 games, with three homers, seven doubles, 14 RBI, and three steals. Winn has been making a ton of contact (87.8 Contact%, 12.1 K%) and spraying line drives (29.7%) all over the field.
Patrick Bailey – C – San Francisco Giants (23%)
Speaking of line drives, Bailey and Winn are two of only four players around the league with at least 100 plate appearances and a rate above 30%. Bailey missed a good chunk of games from early to mid-May due to concussion symptoms, but, around that, he’s been a steady contributor for the Giants all season.
Since returning to his regular role a couple of weeks back, Bailey has gone 12-for-39 (.308) with a deep drive, a couple of doubles, and nine RBI over 11 games. Catcher is a shallow position that’s often difficult to fill, so Bailey is one to target, especially in deeper formats.
Pitchers on the Waiver Wire
Hunter Brown – SP – Houston Astros (45%)
The month of April was disastrous (0-4, 11.84 ERA) for Brown. He started it off by giving up five runs over three innings against the Rangers. Then, things completely spiraled on him, as he was crushed for nine runs on 11 hits in just two-thirds of an inning during a start in Kansas City.
It’s obviously difficult to come back from that, and it took Brown a while, but the young righty has shown impressive perseverance. He has earned a regular spot in the Astros’ rotation with some solid work over the past month, turning in a 3.62 ERA (3.37 xFIP) and 1.11 WHIP across his last six starts. To further enhance his fantasy value, Brown has put up a 36-to-11 K/BB in 32.1 innings while inducing groundballs at a 51.8% clip during that stretch.
Jake Irvin – SP – Washington Nationals (27%)
Irvin could be in the midst of a breakout season that few are paying attention to, at least so far. The towering right-hander currently sports a 3.39 ERA and 1.03 WHIP through 12 starts. His 60-to-12 K/BB across 69.0 IP is solid, especially in the command department, and that strikeout rate has been surging recently.
Over his last three starts, all against winning teams (vs. MIN, at ATL, at CLE), Irvin has given up only four runs on 12 hits with 22 punchouts (32.4%) in 18.1 innings. In that same timeframe, he has limited the opposition to a 38.1% HardHit% and 78.8% Contact%.
Irvin’s rostered rate should be twice as high as it currently is.
Other Waiver Wire Options To Consider
- Carlos Estévez – RP – Los Angeles Angels (56%)
- Braxton Garrett – SP – Miami Marlins (49%)
- Miguel Andujar – OF – Oakland Athletics (40%)
- Nelson Velázquez – OF – Kansas City Royals (8%)
Written by
Nate Miller is a feature writer at FantasyPros and Just Baseball. He has been an analyst in the fantasy sports industry for the past decade, covering…