Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: JoJo Romero, Francisco Alvarez, and Tyler Locklear

The trade deadline has come and gone which offers us plenty of opportunity as fantasy managers. There are plenty of new closers for those seeking saves and major role openings for exciting position players across the league. Opportunity abounds for them and in turn, us.

Whether you’re trying to hold onto a top spot, pushing the leader, desperately trying to play catch up, or positioning yourself for the playoffs, reinforcements and upside are vital this time of year.

Most waiver wires have been picked over though and it’s difficult to find impact players readily available in most leagues at this point in the season.

Fear not, because there are still a handful of available players that have the chance to be difference makers that help push us towards glory.

MLB Power Rankings: Brewers mash their way to the top, Red Sox surging in AL playoff race

The Brewers have scored more runs than any other team over the past 30 days.

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   D.J. Short

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Here are three players that are under 40% rostered on Yahoo leagues that you should strongly consider adding.

If you want a larger list, Eric Samulski wrote his extended waiver wire piece on Sunday.

JoJo Romero, RP Cardinals

(25% Rostered on Yahoo)

We’re all scurrying for saves this time of year and last week’s trade deadline provided many more opportunities than usual to find some.

Many closers like Mason Miller, Ryan Helsley, David Bednar, and Camilo Doval were sent out of town. Specifically Helsley’s departure has opened the door for Romero to step in as the Cardinals’ closer.

A 28-year-old left-hander who relies on his changeup, sinker, and slider, Romero already has two saves since Helsley was sent to the Mets and has pitched the ninth inning in St. Louis’ last three wins. Him being their new closer seems cut and dry.

There was a bit of hesitation with him jumping into that role since he was the only lefty in the Cardinals’ bullpen, but they recently claimed Anthony Veneziano off waivers to fill that void as Romero has jumped into his new role.

The other thing working against Romero is simply his style. Again, he’s a lefty sinker-baller who throws from more of a three-quarter slot. That sinker sits around 94 mph and is much better at forcing ground balls than strikeouts. He does not exactly fit the classic closer archetype.

Yet, no one else in this bullpen really does either.

Riley O’Brien can get up near 100 mph, but loses the zone sometimes and also relies on a sinker. While Kyle Leahy has been a breakout reliever, he succeeds more on feel and with a deep pitch-mix than over-powering stuff. Those two along with Romero, Helsley, and Phil Maton – now a Texas Ranger – are the only relievers who’ve been in the high-leverage mix for this bullpen all season.

Romero may not be what we close our eyes and envision when we think about a closer, he’s the guy here and certainly effective enough to handle the job with three plus pitches. Also, this Cardinals team is still halfway decent and should be able to hang around .500 for the rest of the season, giving Romero the potential for plenty of save chances.

Besides him, a few other sneaky closers that could be flying under the radar are Sean Newcomb with the Athletics after they moved Jack Perkins into the rotation and Keegan Aiken, who saw consecutive ninth inning opportunities for the Orioles over the weekend. He converted one save and then took the loss after entering in a tie game the following day.

Francisco Alvarez, C Mets

(17% Rostered on Yahoo)

Back from the minor leagues after a disappointing and injury-riddled start to his season, Alvarez is finally beginning to heat up.

He has a .984 OPS through 10 games since being recalled with at least one hit in eight of those 10 and nearly the same number of walks as strikeouts. Most importantly, he’s hitting for power again with five extra-base hits during this stretch and tons of very hard contact.

Despite going just 1-for-4 on Monday, Alvarez had batted balls of 105.4 mph, 105.6 mph, 109.2 mph, and 112.5 mph. He became just the sixth different player in the league this season to have four batter balls hit harder than 105 mph in the same game and the first catcher to do so since Willson Contreras in 2023.

Along with the return of his prodigious power, he’s taken a much more patient approach lately.

Before being sent down, Alvarez had a 49.9% swing rate and a 29.9% chase rate. Both were a bit higher than league-average while his 77.5% zone-contact rate was worse than league-average. He wasn’t always swinging at the best pitches and then too often missing the good ones.

Lately, he’s drastically reduced his swing rate to 36.8% which has helped him chase far fewer pitches out of the strike zone. At the same time, his zone-contact rate has increased compared to earlier this season.

This approach may be too passive, but right now it’s working and will likely continue until pitchers decide to throw him strikes more consistently again.

Of all players with at least 100 plate appearances this season, Alvarez has seen the 14th-lowest rate of pitches in the zone. Mostly, because he was willing to chase them. Now, he’s getting himself in more hitters counts and doing significant damage when he gets there.

It’s easy to forget that he had surgery to remove a broken hamate bone during spring training that held him out for the first month of the season. That injury is known to sap power and it was already the fourth injury to his hand or wrist that’s forced him to the injured list as a major leaguer.

Also, it’s even easier to forget how young he still is at just 23 years old. Agustín Ramírez, Edgar Quero, and Alvarez are the only players 23 or younger to have caught at least 40 games so far this season. When Cal Raleigh was his age, he hadn’t even reached Triple-A yet.

The power potential alone makes him relevant in most leagues and there’s a chance he could be ready to rip off a serious hot streak through the end of the season.

Tyler Locklear, 1B Diamondbacks

(7% Rostered on Yahoo)

Locklear was the centerpiece of the Diamondbacks’ return for third baseman Eugenio Suárez as an MLB-ready, power-hitting first baseman.

The team announced that the 24-year-old Locklear would be their first baseman moving forward – filling the hole left by Josh Naylor, who they also traded to the Mariners – and he’s started there in every game since.

He’s destroyed the upper minors over the last two seasons with 37 home runs, 27 stolen bases, and a nearly .900 OPS over about 200 games split between Double-A and Triple-A over the last two seasons.

Of course, those counting stats should be taken with a grain of salt because Locklear spent 168 of those upper minors games with Tacoma in the Pacific Coast League. Known as a hitter’s haven, five of the 10 ballparks in the PCL have at least 3,000 feet of elevation so it’s as if Locklear played half of his road games in a run environment relatively comparable to Coors Field.

Still, his production was well clear of league average and he had the batted ball quality to match it. I want to shout out Prospect Savant for this amazing site they’ve created that delivers a Baseball Savant style player page with the public data available in both Low-A and Triple-A.

It’s an incredible tool and shows Locklear to be plus-plus in every major power metric, has a max exit velocity of 112.4 mph, and makes fine swing decisions. The profile should play at the major league level.

After going 0-for-8 in his first two games with the Diamondbacks, Locklear had two hits and stole a base on Sunday before launching his first home run of the season on Monday.

The clear path to playing time and likely ability to hit for power and chip in a handful of stolen bases makes Locklear a decent option for the rest of the season.

If something were to hold him back, it would be his struggles against high-velocity. About 10% – 164 of 1,635 total pitches – he saw at Triple-A were thrown 95 mph or harder. He swung at 79, and missed 26 for a 32.9% whiff rate. He will see a higher rate of 95+ mph heat like that in the majors, so keep an eye on how he responds to it.