15 Potential MLB Waiver-Wire Candidates, Free-Agent Signings for Playoff Contenders
Though Major League Baseball's 2025 trade deadline has come and gone, there are transactions yet to be made that may impact what postseason rosters end up looking like.
Waiver trades haven't been a thing since 2019, but waivers still very much exist. If one team releases a player and another claims him before he clears waivers, the new team assumes responsibility for the remainder of his contract, making it a cost-saving option for teams with impending free agents and nothing left to play for.
To be eligible for postseason rosters, players must be claimed by August 31, so there should be a slight flurry of moves at the end of the month. Tommy Pham was claimed by Kansas City right before that deadline last year, and he ended up going 5-for-15 for them in the playoffs. There's a good chance he ends up moving again this August, with Pittsburgh possessing one of the five worst records in the majors.
Teams can still add conventional free agents, too. It's pretty slim pickings at this stage in the game, but Jason Heyward did hit four home runs for the Astros last September as they held off the Mariners to win the AL West. Thus, in addition to the waivers candidates, we'll identify a couple of available veterans who just might get another shot with a contender.
Josh Bell, 1B/DH, Washington Nationals
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2025 Stats ($6M salary): .229/.327/.391, 14 HR, 41 RBI, 0.4 bWAR
Career Stats: .256/.342/.442, 185 HR, 654 RBI, 8.6 bWAR
The Nationals managed to trade away most of their impending free agents ahead of the deadline, including reliever Luis García, who was only on the roster for three weeks.
However, they failed to unload Josh Bell, putting an end to his streak of three consecutive years getting dealt on deadline day.
There's still a chance he switches teams for a fourth straight summer, though, if they put him on waivers to potentially save around $1 million.
As we noted repeatedly leading up to the trade deadline, Bell's 2025 stats are respectable if you ignore his glacially slow start to the year. Over the past three months, he's batting .280 with an .827 OPS, operating at 162-game paces of 152 hits and 22 home runs.
He has almost exclusively served as a designated hitter this season, but he has appeared at first base on occasion, including twice in the past week. He also made nearly 100 starts there last season. He could be a solution at either 1B or DH.
Ryan Pressly, RHP, Free Agent
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2025 Stats: 41.1 IP, 4.35 ERA, 1.52 WHIP, 6.1 K/9, 5 saves, -0.6 bWAR
Career Stats: 691.1 IP, 3.33 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 9.4 K/9, 117 saves, 9.5 bWAR
Just a few years ago, Ryan Pressly was one of the better closers in the business. The two-time All-Star saved 90 games from 2021-23 with a sub-3.00 ERA and sub-1.00 WHIP. The only other pitcher in that window with at least that many saves and ERA and WHIP marks that low was Emmanuel Clase.
But the 36-year-old righty just didn't have it this year.
He had a FIP of 3.36 or better in each of the previous seven seasons, but when the Cubs released him on August 1, he was sitting at a career-worst FIP of 5.02.
Not surprisingly, his $16.5 million salary cleared waivers, as no one wanted to take a roughly $5 million flyer on a potentially washed-up reliever who had been tagged for four home runs over his final five innings pitched with the Cubs.
But now that he is a free agent and can be signed (if he would accept it) for as little as about $200,000, he's probably worth it.
After all, prior to that four-HR-in-five-innings stretch, Pressly had a 3.22 ERA for the year, with more than half of his runs allowed coming in one epic eight-ER implosion in early May. Remove that massive mulligan and he had a 1.24 ERA prior to that rough patch heading into the trade deadline.
Michael A. Taylor, OF, Chicago White Sox
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2025 Stats ($1.95M Salary): .223/.288/.423, 8 HR, 28 RBI, 7 SB, 0.7 bWAR
Career Stats: .234/.290/.383, 108 HR, 381 RBI, 127 SB, 13.3 bWAR
Michael A. Taylor hit a solo home run on Wednesday, hit another solo home run on Thursday and did it yet again on Saturday—as the White Sox sputtered through their fourth losing streak of at least six games in this season.
It's unfortunate that this surge came in the first 10 days of August, as opposed to the final 10 days of July. The White Sox probably would've been able to trade Taylor away if he had done this leading up to the deadline in place of the .333 OPS he actually posted during that stretch.
At this point, all they would get for giving him up is a few hundred thousand dollars in salary relief. That might not be enough of an incentive for them to part with one of their few players actually producing as of late.
The White Sox haven't been renowned for sound decision-making in recent years, though, so who knows? Or if Taylor's meaningless solo home runs start turning into walk-off home runs that threaten to undermine their quest for the best 2026 lottery odds possible, maybe they send him packing.
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Alex Verdugo, OF, Free Agent
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2025 Stats: .239/.296/.289, 0 HR, 12 RBI, 1 SB, -0.2 bWAR
Career Stats: .270/.326/.406, 70 HR, 328 RBI, 23 SB, 11.7 bWAR
Despite a decent 2024 campaign (at least in the outfield) with the Yankees in which he even hit a home run in the World Series, nobody seemed to want Alex Verdugo this past offseason.
Still just 28 years old this spring, he finally agreed to a minor league deal with Atlanta in late March, which turned into a spot on the big league roster not long after the Braves lost Jurickson Profar to an 80-game suspension.
He did have a pair of four-hit games almost immediately after getting called up and ended April with a .341 batting average. As soon as Profar was eligible to return, though, Atlanta kicked Verdugo and his 213 plate appearances without a single home run to the curb.
And there he sits once again, unsigned for over a month at this point, even as teams like the Guardians, Royals and Phillies could put just about any warm body with outfield experience to some use.
Is Dugie's career just over at this point? Or could he pull off something similar to what Victor Robles did last season, splashing back in with a new team and catching fire out of seemingly nowhere?
Mike Yastrzemski, OF, Kansas City Royals
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2025 Stats ($9.25M Salary): .233/.328/.375, 10 HR, 32 RBI, 6 SB, 2.5 bWAR
Career Stats: .238/.323/.446, 116 HR, 350 RBI, 24 SB, 16.7 bWAR
Mike Yastrzemski was traded from San Francisco to Kansas City in what might have been the last trade to sneak in ahead of the deadline.
Thus far, the Royals can't argue with what they've gotten, as he had a 1.068 OPS in his first seven games with KC—which is quite the improvement upon what had been a .733 OPS in his final 4.5 seasons with the Giants.
At four games back in the wild-card picture, though, it wouldn't take much for the Royals to pack it in and re-gift Yastrzemski to someone else via waivers, to save at least $1 million in the process.
Then again, they've got six home games against the Nationals and White Sox this week, plus a three-game set in Chicago later this month. If Yastrzemski continues to contribute and they make the most of that opportunity, it just might be the Royals stocking up on the best players that waivers have to offer instead of putting Yaz up for grabs.
A Pair of High-Priced Braves
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Marcell Ozuna, DH
.239/.367/.419, 18 HR, 52 RBI, 1.7 bWAR, $16M salary
Raisel Iglesias, RHP
47.2 IP, 16 saves, 4.34 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 10.0 K/9, -0.1 bWAR, $16M salary
Per Spotrac, the Atlanta Braves are roughly $8.5 million below the luxury-tax threshold, so they're all set on that front.
But they could save around $5 million if they waive Marcell Ozuna and Raisel Iglesias and someone else claims them, so why not?
After all, Atlanta non-tendered both Griffin Canning and Ramón Laureano this past November to save about that much money, so willingly accepting setting money on fire at this point in a lost season would be strange.
And if Saturday night was any indication—Ozuna hitting two home runs off Sandy Alcantara before Iglesias pitched a perfect ninth inning for the save—there are bound to be some teams who would be thrilled to pay what's left of their respective $16 million salaries to get them on the roster for the stretch run.
Ozuna hasn't homered at the same rate as he did over the past two seasons, but he clearly can still mash and he's getting on base at one of the best clips in the majors.
Meanwhile, Iglesias has a 1.90 ERA dating back to June 9, blowing just one save in 11 chances. He was a mess through his first 25 appearances of the season, but he has been borderline career-best good over the past two months.
A Trio of Pirates
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Andrew Heaney, LHP
115.0 IP, 4.77 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 6.3 K/9, 0.4 bWAR, $5.25M salary
Isiah Kiner-Falefa, UTIL
.268/.308/.330, 1 HR, 30 RBI, 14 SB, 1.4 bWAR, $6.283M salary
Tommy Pham, OF
.268/.340/.375, 5 HR, 33 RBI, 4 SB, 1.6 bWAR, $4.025M salary
No need for a full-blown trade deadline post mortem here, but what exactly were the Pirates thinking in not moving any of these impending free agents?
It's entirely possible there just wasn't any market for Andrew Heaney. He had allowed at least seven earned runs in three of his final seven appearances leading up to the deadline, causing his ERA to balloon from the low 3's to the high 4's. Goodness knows there weren't many starting pitchers dealt until the final couple of hours, and he wasn't exactly America's Most Wanted trade target in the first place.
But Isiah Kiner-Falefa getting dealt with his respectable batting average and defensive versatility felt like a sure thing. Same goes for Tommy Pham, who went 37-for-90 (.411 AVG) with four home runs in his final 26 games played before the deadline. Truly hard to fathom how Pittsburgh ended up holding the bag on both of those veterans.
Alas, all three should be available on waivers at some point in the next three weeks, as the Pirates would love to recoup a couple million bucks while they jostle with the A's and Braves for the second-best odds of winning the 2026 draft lottery.
A Host of Angels
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Kenley Jansen, RHP
43.0 IP, 21 saves, 2.72 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 8.8 K/9, 1.7 bWAR, $10M salary
Tyler Anderson, LHP
122.1 IP, 4.63 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 7.1 K/9, 1.6 bWAR, $13M salary
Kyle Hendricks, RHP
116.2 IP, 4.63 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 6.0 K/9, 1.5 bWAR, $2.5M salary
Yoán Moncada, 3B
.217/.318/.428, 8 HR, 24 RBI, 0.0 bWAR, $5M salary
Luis Rengifo, IF
.249/.294/.341, 6 HR, 27 RBI, 4 SB, 0.2 bWAR, $5.95M salary
Could put trade deadline acquisitions Andrew Chafin and Luis García on the list, too, but five examples seems sufficient to convey the likelihood that the Angels will be the belle of the waivers ball for the second time in three years.
They were five games above .500 and at least plausibly within striking distance when they decided to buy at the 2023 trade deadline. However, an 8-19 record in August resulted in all of Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Matt Moore, Hunter Renfroe, Dominic Leone and Andrew Velazquez leaving Los Angeles via waiver claims.
Might be a similar story this summer, already five games below .500 and almost hopelessly out of the wild-card conversation with a bunch of impending free agents on the roster.
Of the bunch, there's no question Kenley Jansen would be the most coveted player they could release. He is well on his way to a 13th consecutive 162-game season with at least 25 saves. And unlike the past three years, he's doing so with a sub-3.00 ERA, last allowing an earned run in mid-June. Could be quite the gift that falls into the Texas Rangers' closer-less lap.
Either Luis Rengifo or Yoán Moncada could be worth a $1 million flyer to a contender with an infield need at the end of this month. And if no one with a worse record than the Cubs claims him, it sure would be fun if Kyle Hendricks went back there for a few starts in September—maybe a little action in October, too.
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