Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Noelvi Marte showcases his upside and is worth adding in all formats, more

Prospect development is rarely linear. That’s one of those things you hear a lot about young players, and it’s true, but it can be hard to keep it at the top of mind in the moment.

I’ve been guilty of that with Noelvi Marte, who struggled through an absolutely disastrous 2024 season that first saw him suspended for PED use and then struggle through both the minors and majors. It was so bad that I largely wrote him off as a future consideration – especially when the Reds never really seemed to give him a chance to earn a job this spring.

That might have been a mistake. The talent has never really been in question, of course, but Marte’s approach was terrible last season, and it made it hard for that talent to shine through. It doesn’t really matter how athletic you are, or how much bat speed you can generate, if you are striking out 31% of the time and walking less than 4% of the time. 

So, when Marte was recalled this season, I largely ignored it, and that might have been a big mistake, because he’s showing us the upside again. There was the five-hit, seven-RBI game Sunday, which was obviously impressive. But he’s followed it up with three hits in the past two games, including a 116.7 mph, 431-foot homer in Tuesday’s game against the Marlins, the hardest-hit ball of Marte’s career to date. 

All of a sudden, Marte is averaging 90.8 mph on batted balls while striking out in just three of his first 28 plate appearances – and he has a couple of steals while sporting a 93rd-percentile sprint speed. It’s still too small of a sample size to say for sure that Marte is figuring things out, but he’s certainly giving the Reds reason to give him another look, and he’s earning that from me, too.

It might all fall apart. He’s still an extremely aggressive hitter who could very easily find himself overwhelmed by quality breaking balls that limit his ability to put his prodigious tools into play, like what happened last season. But this was once one of the top prospects in baseball, and it’s possible 2024 just ends up a speed bump on the road to greatness. 

At the very least, Marte has done enough in the past few days to be worth adding in all category-based leagues. Just in case this is what it looks like when he figures it out. 

 Let’s see who else we’re adding from Tuesday’s action: 

Wednesday’s top waiver-wire targets

Agustin Ramirez, C, Marlins (23%) – Ramirez sure looks the part in the early going. He doubled and stole a base in his debut Monday and then had three more hits Tuesday, including a pair of doubles that left his bat at 106.7 and 111.2 mph. There’s speed and athleticism here that is rare for a catcher, and the fact that he hasn’t looked overmatched in the early going is a great sign. It’s only two games, but he’s done everything you could want to see in those two games, and the Marlins are going to have trouble justifying sitting him if he keeps playing like he’s capable of. There’s top-12 upside here in any category-based league, given his rare skill set for the position. 

Nate Lowe, 1B, Nationals (57%) – Lowe has been mostly written off as a Fantasy also-ran, a fringe corner infield option with limited upside. And maybe that’s all he is. But he’s been more than that in the early going. He homered Tuesday and is now 12 for 34 over his past nine games and has a .293/.370/.500 line with 19 RBI on the season. The top of that Nationals lineup is pretty solid, and Lowe is posting the best quality of contact metrics of his career, a good sign that this might be real. There have been a bunch of big-time breakout options at first base, which has kept Lowe under the radar, but he’s a viable starting option if you missed out on the young kids. 

Luke Keaschall, 2B, Twins (29%) – Well, if you thought Keaschall was just here to fill in as the Twins dealt with injuries, he might be blowing that idea up. It’s only been four games, but he’s 5 for 14 with a pair of doubles, three walks, and three steals while striking out just twice. And, perhaps most notably, he was moved into the third spot in the lineup Tuesday against the White Sox. That sure doesn’t sound like a team that views him as just a temporary fill-in, does it? 

Edgar Quero, C, White Sox (13%) – Quero was never going to get the same kind of hype as Ramirez – heck, he wasn’t even the most hyped catcher prospect on his own Triple-A team. But he’s a fine prospect in his own right, and he’s looked pretty good in the early going, upping his average to .368 after a 3-for-4 showing Tuesday. It’s still a bad lineup in Chicago, and This is still a skill set more oriented around lacking weaknesses rather than one built around loud tools. But at catcher, that’s enough to matter for Fantasy, at least in two-catcher leagues. 

Ranger Suarez, SP, Phillies (75%) – Cristopher Sanchez downplayed his forearm injury after leaving Tuesday’s game, but we need to be preparing for the worst here. Luckily, the Phillies do have a ready-made in-house replacement for Sanchez in Suarez, who should be back from his back injury in the next week or so. Suarez isn’t Sanchez, obviously – especially not the version of Sanchez we’ve gotten so far this season – but he’s a more than solid MLB pitcher, capable of being a legitimate must-start option for Fantasy when he’s locked in. I don’t expect a repeat of last year’s first half, but his 3.46 ERA and 1.20 WHIP with nearly a strikeout per inning seems attainable.