The waiver wire is where fantasy baseball championships are won. Unless you are a psychic and have a perfect draft, the waiver wire is the key to getting those players who will push your team over your opponent each week. Whether it’s a hitter with breakout potential or a pitcher with more opportunity on the horizon, here are four perfect waiver wire pickups for your fantasy baseball team in the seventh week of the regular season.
This article is part of a weekly waiver wire series. Check back throughout the season for the latest players to target as fantasy baseball league-winners.
Must Adds for Week 7
Ryan O’Hearn
(1B/OF, Baltimore)
Percent Rostered (Fantrax): 63%
Given a disappointing start to the season, O’Hearn’s offensive performance has been critical for Baltimore. The left-handed first baseman and outfielder owns a .277/.331/.461 slash line in 944 plate appearances since 2023, but he’s elevated his game to another level this season.
Last season, O’Hearn barreled the ball in just 6.9% of plate appearances (per Baseball Savant). That was below average, putting him in the 40th percentile of qualified MLB hitters. This season, his 12.3% barrel rate is significantly higher than the average MLB rate of 8.6%.
This year, O’Hearn is one of just seven qualified hitters who ranks above average in all the following statistics: xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, xISO, xOBP, Barrel%, Exit Velocity, Maximum Exit Velocity, Hard-Hit%, K%, BB%, Whiff%, Chase%, and Bat Speed. That’s a group that includes Aaron Judge and Pete Alonso – who won the Player of the Month award in their respective leagues in April – as well as Tyler Soderstrom, Juan Soto, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
So what’s changed?
Last season, 17.9% of the pitches O’Hearn saw were of the offspeed variety. That percentage was more than 83.7% of MLB hitters who saw at least 1500 pitches total. This year, the Orioles slugger has significantly improved his performance on such offerings.
Image courtesy of Baseball Savant
His chase rate on offspeed pitches dropped significantly this season, which has made it much harder for pitchers to get ahead in the count. In fact, just 25.3% of pitches O’Hearn has seen this season have come in pitcher’s counts. That’s the second-best rate of his career, only behind 23.1% in the shortened 2020 season.
O’Hearn is also pulling the ball in the air significantly more often this season. 21.5% of his batted balls have been of that variety, which is the highest rate of his career.
His excellent batted ball quality and increased late discipline have helped turn O’Hearn from an above-average big leaguer into a must-roster fantasy baseball player. Slashing .299/.379/.571 in 87 plate appearances this year doesn’t hurt either.
Jordan Beck
(OF, Colorado)
Percent Rostered (Fantrax): 60%
After being drafted 38th overall in 2022, Beck tore up the minor leagues before debuting last season. In his MLB Pipeline scouting report, it’s noted that “the right-handed hitter’s power is very real, with at least raw pop that he knows how to get to. He’s great at recognizing mistakes and doing damage with them, and he can drive the ball to all fields with good bat speed and leverage.”
We’ve seen that power at the big-league level this year. Beck has barreled the ball more often than nearly anyone in MLB, despite the small sample size. His 20% barrel rate is tied with Pete Alonso for 10th in the big leagues, and it’s helped him to a .265/.338/.559 slash line.
Driving that production? Beck’s bat speed. Despite possessing a fast swing in the minor leagues – his scouting report says as much – he improved it 2.7 MPH from 2024 to this year. Had he qualified last year, that would be the second-largest improvement among qualified hitters. His power potential, as well as excellent performance so far this season, makes him a great option for fantasy baseball managers. And his youth – he’s still only 24 years old – makes him an especially valuable pickup in dynasty and keeper leagues.
Kyle Stowers
(OF, Miami)
Percent Rostered (Fantrax): 64%
“Can Stowers stay red-hot? Swing and a ball lifted in the air! Deep left-center field! Stowers! No way! A walk-off grand slam! This kid is unconscious! No way did he do that!”
Those were the words of the Marlins’ TV play-by-play commentators after Stowers hammered a walk-off grand slam on Saturday afternoon. It was his second home run of the game and his sixth of the young season. The Marlins outfielder, who was drafted 71st overall in 2019, has a .324 batting average with a .944 OPS. Despite his top-10 OPS, he’s available in nearly 40% of leagues.
The secret to his success, similar to O’Hearn, lies in lifting the ball. Stowers hit the ball extremely hard last season, but he pulled just 10.1% of those pitches in the air. That rate is up to 21.4% this season.
Stowers is a perfect option for any fantasy manager looking for help in the outfield. He’s young, has a track record of hitting the ball very hard, and has the success to show for it this season.
Ben Casparius
(P, Los Angeles Dodgers)
Percent Rostered (Fantrax): 49%
The injury bug has hit the Dodgers’ rotation hard this year. But because they’re the Dodgers, they have the depth to back it up. Casparius is part of that depth. According to Dodger Blue, Los Angeles could build up Casparius – who currently has a bullpen role – as a starter.
Casparius has been outstanding this season. In 21.2 innings pitched, he is the proud owner of a 2.43 xERA, 3.5% walk rate, and 92nd-percentile chase rate. His ability to get whiffs – as well as swings outside the zone – has helped him limit hitters to a 96th-percentile hard-hit rate.
If he does move to the rotation, it would present a huge opportunity for fantasy managers to get higher innings totals from a pitcher who’s been outstanding in the bullpen.
Between O’Hearn, Beck, and Stowers, there is no shortage of offensive production available on the fantasy waiver wire. Casparius is another example of the Dodgers and their ability to develop quality starting pitching. Any of the four could greatly help fantasy managers in week seven of the 2025 fantasy baseball season.
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