Working The Waiver Wire: September 5th

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  • By Jeff Clowers

    Last Updated on September 5, 2025 12:20 pm by Paul Williamson | Published: September 5, 2025

    The morning air is starting to get that slight crispness, which means fantasy football season is now in full-effect (go Birds!) and there’s suddenly going to be a lot of fantasy baseball managers asleep at the wheel as they focus their attentions elsewhere. That makes it less likely that you’ll face stiff competition in acquiring talent off the waiver wire, giving you a competitive edge if you’re able to stay on course. Because unlike Billie Joe Armstrong, people like you and I actually want to be woken up when September starts – after all, this is the playoff push for both fantasy and real life!

    If you’re still in the hunt, keep your eyes on the prize by snapping up a couple of the names below. And if you’re not? They could still prove a worthwhile add to your roster in preparation for 2026.

    Away we go!

    Jo Adell – OF – LAA – 57% Yahoo, 79% CBS

    Last 14 Days: .333/.348/.711 – 5HR/2SB – .444 wOBA – .378 ISO – 188 wRC+

    It seems that the long-simmering “work in progress” has finally made some legitimate progress towards establishing himself as the fearsome hitter he was projected to be coming out of the minor leagues.

    After being a well-below league-average hitter over his first four years in the majors, Adell has finally taken off, posting the best OPS (.804), wOBA (.343) and wRC+ (119) numbers of his career. That said, if you’ve rostered him this year, you’ll know that he’s been an incredibly streaky player, running hot at times, then ice cold at others. That’s unsurprisingly been tied directly to his hard-hit rate…

    Of course, you don’t need me to tell you that the higher a hard-hit rate, the better. So what actually ties Adell’s profile together? It seems to be as simple as his batted ball distribution – when he manages to elevate his line-drive totals, he performs equally better…

    But when he gets under the ball too much, his hard-hit rates conversely drop an equal amount…

    As the charts show visually, there’s a lot of peaks and valleys in Adell’s game but he’s set new baselines and is currently in the midst of trending upwards on a new hot streak. With such a short runway of season left, there’s a good chance that the games run out before Adell’s hot streak does.

    Ian Seymour – SP – TB– 32% Yahoo, 41% CBS

    Last 14 Days: 10.0 IP – 0.90 ERA/0.54 FIP/0.70 WHIP – 16:2 K:BB – 1 HR

    Between Bob Seymour and Ian Seymour, the Rays have themselves two-thirds of the way back to having a trio of players with the same last name (Jose Lowe, Nathaniel Lowe and Brandon Lowe). If they do end up accomplishing the feat, might I offer up a nickname of “Full House”? Y’know – three of a kind, plus a pair?

    *crickets*

    Okay, we’ll have to workshop that one a bit before we hard launch – but speaking of hard launches, how about this Ian Seymour fella?!

    He originally caught my attention as a prospect late last year, thanks to him racking up the sixth-most strikeouts (162 in 145.1 IP) in all the minor leagues while posting a 2.35 ERA. Of course, he did so as a 25-year-old at Double-A and Triple-A, so his age needs to be accounted for. Still, he followed up his breakout 2024 performance with 104 strikeouts across 86.0 innings at Triple-A this season, backed by a 2.67 ERA and just a 33.9% hard-hit rate allowed.

    Those efforts earned him several call ups this season but he was relegated to a long-relief role for his first dozen appearances – more or less putting a halt to any short-term fantasy value. Luckily for us though, a combination of trades and injuries has finally opened up a spot in the rotation for Seymour and he’s so far taking full advantage through his first two professional starts, racking up a pair of five-inning, eight-strikeout outings. Over those two games, Seymour has tallied a remarkable 16.8% swinging-strike rate and 5.0% barrel rate.

    It’s an incredibly small sample but this is actually where Seymour’s age suddenly becomes an advantage when it comes to making predictions – he’s much more likely to hit the ground running (and continue running) because of it. Technically still a prospect even at age-26, Seymour could end up being one of the most impactful call-ups of the fantasy season.

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    September 5, 2025, 12:20 pm