Working The Waiver Wire: May 23rd

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  • By Jeff Clowers

    Last Updated on May 23, 2025 5:46 am by Anthony Kates | Published: May 23, 2025

    Today’s round of waiver action is highlighted by three young starters making their first extended run in the rotation –  one for the first time this season and two for the first time in their career. We dive into their diverse options when it comes to pitch offerings and whether they will lead to worthwhile strikeout totals. Finally, a look at an OBP-darling that is overcoming a bottom-barrel offense to become a fantasy-relevant option in the middle infield.

    Will Warren – SP – NYY – 37% Yahoo, 69% CBS

    Warren’s most recent outing, coming Tuesday against Texas, was illustrative of the type of upside possible for the youngest member of the Yankees’ rotation. Though he came just one just out from his second quality start of the season (what my main league likes to call “getting Maddon’d”), Warren reached double digit strikeouts against Rangers, tallying ten over 5.2 shutout innings. It also marked the third straight start in which he’s given up exactly one walk and his total strikeout-to-walk ratio over the last fifteen days now sits at a tidy 26:3 in 18 innings.

    The 64th overall prospect, per FanGraphs, at the time of his graduation to the Majors, Warren is a true four-pitch starter who, this season, has rode a combination of four-seamers (35.2%), sweepers (25.1%), sinkers (18.8%), and changeups (14.6%) while even mixing in a curveball (6.3%) en route to a deceptive 4.05 ERA that sits noticeably higher than his xERA (3.65), FIP (2.85) or SIERRA (3.22). Though his sweeper and change were expect to be his bread and butter, each scoring a 60-grade from FanGraphs, it’s been his four-seam fastball that’s led the way for him so far this season, with hitters batting just .164 against it to go along with a 27.4% whiff rate. That’s garnered the pitch a +5 Run Value – notably, the only pitch of his with a plus rating so far this season.

    Though it’s definitely a stretch to make the assumption that they’ll experience similar breakouts, I do also find it noteworthy that Baseball Savant considers the 2024 version of Michael King to be the player who is most closely comparable to Warren based on his velocity and the movement on his pitches. Afterall, King ended the 2024 season with a 2.59 ERA and 1.19 WHIP with a 201:63 K:BB in 173.2 innings with the Padres… after previously being a Yankees farmhand himself.

    Hayden Birdsong – SP – SF – 35% Yahoo, 55% CBS

    During the preseason, I was incredibly bullish on Birdsong. I even included him in my Bold Predictions article, stating that I believed he’d “win a rotation spot and hold it down for the entirety of the season, on the strength of an ERA around 3.75 and a WHIP of 1.25”. Well, I immediately looked foolish on that one as before the article could even go up, it was announced that Landon Roupp would be the Giants’ fifth starter out of camp, while Birdsong was unfortunately couped up in the ‘pen instead. But the tides have now turned, with Birdsong being inserted into the rotation in place of the struggling Jordan Hicks.

    Though he was unable to fulfil the first half of my preseason hopes, the latter half is still within reach as Birdsong has been almost exactly dead-on with his WHIP, posting a 1.24 mark to go with a 1.91 ERA in 28.1 innings over 11 relief appearances and one start. In those outings, Birdsong has only 29 strikeouts – a relatively modest K/9 for a reliever – but he’s managed a 31.2% whiff rate that places him in the top 15-percent of all qualified pitchers. For a young pitcher, he’s also been remarkably stingy with the free passes, ranking 3-percent above league-average in walk rate allowed.

    Any pitcher who exhibits strong control metrics, has underlying strikeout upside, and pitches in San Francisco almost automatically has my attention, whether or not they’re a preseason crush of mine.

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    May 23, 2025, 5:46 am

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