Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Gleyber Torres and Josh Bell Are the August Bats Worth Bidding On

The most valuable thing on a fantasy baseball waiver wire in mid-August is not upside. It is a player who is producing right now on a team with no reason to sit him. Two veterans fit that description this week: Detroit second baseman Gleyber Torres and Minnesota first baseman Josh Bell. Neither has a season line that will impress anyone. Both have been among the more productive bats in their lineups over the past two weeks, and both are available in a large share of leagues.

Six weeks remain in the regular season. That is short enough that a hot stretch can decide a head-to-head playoff run and long enough that a genuine role change still matters.

Gleyber Torres, Detroit

Torres has been on a tear since the calendar flipped to August, scoring in bunches and driving in runs from a productive spot in the Detroit order, per this week's waiver roundups. He signed a one-year deal with the Tigers ahead of the season and has settled in as an everyday second baseman.

The underlying profile has never been a barrels-and-exit-velocity story. Torres has run below-average hard-contact metrics this season, with a wOBA that has outpaced his expected wOBA by a modest margin. That is a warning sign in April. In August, with six weeks left, it is close to irrelevant. Batted-ball luck does not regress on a schedule, and a hitter batting in the middle of a lineup that scores runs is going to accumulate counting stats regardless of what his barrel rate says.

The case for Torres is position and lineup. Second base is the shallowest infield position in most formats, and Detroit has been one of the better offenses in the American League. A middle infielder who is hitting in a good lineup and scoring runs is a legitimate starter in a 12-team league.

Josh Bell, Minnesota

Bell's season began miserably, which is why he is available. Over the past week he has been one of the hottest hitters in baseball, hitting well over .350 with multiple home runs and a run-producing role, per the same weekly roundups.

Bell is the classic streaky power bat. His career has been a sequence of month-long stretches that carry a fantasy team followed by month-long stretches that sink one. The skill that has always been real is the raw power, and switch-hitters with genuine power do not lose it, they lose the timing that unlocks it.

The read: Bell is a two-week rental, not a season-long solution. Add him while he is hot, ride it, and drop him without sentiment when the strikeouts return. In a head-to-head league in the final weeks, that is exactly the right kind of asset.

The Verdexed model take

The model's in-season hitter projections weight recent performance more heavily as the sample of remaining games shrinks, which is a different approach from the one that works in April. With 40 games left, a two-week hot stretch is a meaningful fraction of the remaining sample, and the cost of chasing it is low because the alternative on most waiver wires is replacement level.

Under that framework, both Torres and Bell project above the streaming baseline for the rest of the season, with Torres carrying the higher floor and Bell the higher ceiling. Torres is the better add in rotisserie leagues, where consistency across categories compounds. Bell is the better add in head-to-head, where a single explosive week wins a matchup.

The model's caution is on Bell's playing time rather than his production. A veteran on a team out of contention is a candidate to lose at-bats to younger players in September, and Minnesota has organizational depth that could compress his role. That risk is not present for Torres in Detroit.

The rest of the board

The other reliable source of August value is the call-up wave. Minnesota promoted shortstop Kaelen Culpepper earlier this month and he homered in his debut, and a group of top-40 overall prospects, all American League shortstops, made their major league debuts within days of one another. Prospect debuts in August are the highest-variance adds available and the ones most likely to be dropped by an impatient manager after three games, which is where the opportunity is.

On the pitching side, Washington called up Jackson Kent this week after designating Miles Mikolas for assignment, opening a rotation spot on a rebuilding team. Rookie starters on last-place clubs are streaming assets, not roster staples.

What to do in your league

Spend a moderate share of remaining FAAB on Torres if you need a middle infielder. He is the safer of the two adds and the position scarcity justifies the price.

Spend a small amount on Bell. He is a rental and should be priced like one.

Reserve the largest bids for prospect call-ups with defined everyday roles, because those are the only adds available in August with a chance to be genuinely valuable rather than merely useful.

What's next

The September roster expansion is the next inflection point. Teams out of the race will give at-bats to prospects, and veterans like Bell are the ones who lose them. Anyone adding a veteran bat now should be checking lineup cards daily in the final two weeks, because playing time, not performance, is what ends most August waiver adds.

A note on FAAB strategy in August

Most managers hoard free agent budget too long and then spend it on the wrong things. With six weeks left, unspent FAAB has no value beyond the players it can buy, and the supply of useful players shrinks every week as rosters settle and contenders stop churning.

The right approach in mid-August is to spend down aggressively on players with defined roles and to stop bidding entirely on speculative adds. A hitter who is in the lineup every day for a team that scores runs is worth more in the final six weeks than a higher-upside player who might get a role in September, because there is no longer enough season left for upside to matter.

Apply that framework to this week's board and the ordering is clear: everyday veterans on good offenses first, call-ups with announced everyday roles second, and everything else at minimum bid or not at all.