Last Updated on September 26, 2025 11:49 am by Paul Williamson | Published: September 26, 2025

If you’re reading this right now, I regret to inform you – you’re officially a full-blown sicko.

Don’t worry, I don’t mean the kind that needs to inform their neighbors when they move in next door. I only mean you’re sick in the head for fantasy baseball. After all, what other reason would you have to trudge through the very last waiver article of the season?

Maybe you’re still deep in the weeds, clinging to a turnaround in the final days of your championship matchup while searching for a ringer to save your season from the brink as if you were in a cheesy sports movie from the mid-2000’s.

Or perhaps you’re on the other end of the spectrum – a dedicated manager who is unfortunately eliminated but has their eyes on the prize to come next season, hunting for assets that could appreciate in value over the offseason with either a change in scenery or a change in role on their current team.

The latter is a difficult category to navigate at this time of year, so let’s focus our attention on a trio of pitchers with favorable starts remaining this for our final Friday free agent run of 2025.

As a friendly reminder, if any of these players directly lead to you winning some type of monetary prize, you’re legally* required to share a percentage of the pot with yours truly!

Hold on a second, I’ve just been handed a note…

*Sports Ethos Special Counsel Advisory: You are under no obligation to provide financial compensation Mr. Clowers – but he wouldn’t turn you down if you wanted to anyway. Please note he may not be found liable for misallocation of funds, as any charges would be inadmissible due to a bargain plea on the grounds of being a Canadian.

Welp, you heard ’em! Let’s see if we – and I do mean we – can go win ourselves a shiny new trophy for the mantle.

Off we go!

Emmet Sheehan – SP – LAD – 64% Yahoo, 65% CBS

Last 14 Days: 12.2 IP – 0.71 ERA/1.64 FIP/0.39 WHIP – 17:3 K:BB – 0 HR

From a full-season point of view, it can sometimes be maddening to roster a Dodgers pitcher. Outside of a select few – namely Ohtani and Yamamoto – the chances of that pitcher pitching more than 100 innings in a year is far more slim than you’d think for an organization as analytically sound as Los Angeles.

The reasons for the absences vary but they often lead to LA leaning on some of their down-the-roster options, frequently with a fair bit of success – at least in the short term. Whether the Dodgers are secretly okay with blowing out their pitchers if it means short-term boosts to their chances of winning is one of those taboo, back-channel discussions that tends to only happen in fandom circles and fantasy group chats but even if it is completely unfounded, it’s been proven out often enough that riding the hot streak of their starters leads to good results.

Enter Emmet Sheehan, who actually sits in third place for total innings for the Dodgers this season at a whopping 72.1 frames pitched. Those innings have been quality however, returning a 2.86 ERA backed up with a xERA of 3.04 thanks to a strong 86:22 K:BB ratio. That success largely stems from his ability to generate elite levels of swing and miss from his opponents;

His areas of weakness come in the form of an elevated barrel rate allowed (25th-percentile) which, when paired with just a 33.5% groundball rate (10th-percentile), means he’ll be prone to giving up the occasional hard-hit ball (41.5%; 42nd-percentile) but we’re basically nitpicking at this point as Sheehan is a pretty well-rounded pitcher on the whole.

With a Friday matchup in Seattle in a favorable pitcher’s park, against a Mariners team that has already clinched their division, there’s a good chance he faces a less-than-complete lineup and puts up a strong pitching line in his regular-season finale.

Slade Cecconi – SP – CLE – 37% Yahoo, 45% CBS

Last 14 Days: 12.2 IP – 1.42 ERA/2.75 FIP/0.55 WHIP – 12:2 K:BB – 1 HR

Cecconi may not have the same shiny numbers for the season as Sheehan does but he’s been pitching well of late and will get to face off against the Rangers’ 26th ranked offense (by OPS) on Friday.

In fact, I think you can easily make the case that Cecconi’s best two starts have come in over his three most recent outings – and even the start that came in between those two was a solid performance on its own rights;

9/20 @ MIN – 7.0 IP – 2H – 0R – 1BB – 8K

9/14 vs CHW – 5.2 IP – 3H – 2R – 1BB – 4K

9/8 vs KC – 8.0 IP – 1H – 0R – 3BB – 3K

Are those outings the sign of a blossoming ace? That’s more than a little presumptive, especially when factoring in the opponents, but it certainly proves that Cecconi can take advantage of matchups against teams with little to play for in the closing days and weeks. In other words, ride the hot hand but you shouldn’t feel the need to carry him on your roster through the cold winter months to come.

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Jeff Clowers

• Working The Waiver Wire: September 26th
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• Working The Waiver Wire: September 12th