Fantasy baseball waiver wire: JJ Bleday breakout looks real as former top prospect finds new life

Improved bat speed and plate discipline hint at a breakout, but sustainability concerns remain

Chris Towers

May 15, 2026

9:40 am ET

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11 min read

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Former top prospects will always get another chance. If you don't know why, just look at what Mickey Moniak has done since getting to the Rockies, or what Andrew Vaughn has done with the Brewers. If the physical tools that once made them a big deal are still there, teams are always going to convince themselves that they can make the right tweaks and unlock the upside. And if they're right, it can pay off spectacularly.

And the Reds might be the latest team benefiting. They signed JJ Bleday to a one-year, $1.4 million contract this offseason after he was non-tendered by the A's, and most figured he would be another mix-and-match piece in their outfield. When he didn't even make the team during Spring Training, he was rightly forgotten for Fantasy. Sure, he hit .317/.364/.683, but hey, it was in the Cactus League, and everyone on the Reds had a big spring – the team hit .268/.347/.499 out in Phoenix, and Bleday just got squeezed.

But there was something going on there. Bleday was displaying rarely seen (for him) bat speed numbers to go along with his big production, and then he went down to Triple-A and put up a 188 wRC+. It still took some injuries to get him the chance – heck, Rece Hinds got called up before Bleday! – but he has just kept on raking since returning to the majors, and we have to start taking this seriously. He homered twice Thursday to bring his season line to .321/.455/.755 with six homers in 16 games, and he has more walks than strikeouts and has now started 15 straight games, including two against lefties.

So it's just a hot streak, right? Well, maybe not. Bleday has been hitting extremely well for 200 plate appearances dating back to Spring Training, and he's doing so while swinging his bat more than 3 mph harder than he did last year or ever before. He's doing that without increasing the length of his swing or changing the shape from 2024; he basically looks like the best version of himself ever, just supercharged. He's hitting the ball harder, to the right parts of the field, and he's doing it without sacrificing any plate discipline.

He won't sustain a 1.200-plus OPS, and I'd bet on well more than 300 points of regression, even. But if he settled in as a mid-.800s OPS bat? Well, I'd be surprised, even now, but I wouldn't be shocked, at least. He's showing real signs of growth, and while they should be taken with a grain of salt, I think we should also treat it like we did with Vaughn last summer: Act like it is real, just in case. If you're wrong, you spend some FAB, and you drop him; if what he's shown is real at all, he could be an impact bat. It's worth betting on that when all it costs is some FAB and a few weeks in your lineup.

Here's what else you need to know about from Thursday's action around MLB:

Friday's top waiver-wire targets

Here's who we're looking to add coming out of Thursday's action:

AJ Ewing, OF, Mets (50%) – On Thursday's episode of Fantasy Baseball Today, Frank Stampfl asked us to rank Bleday, Ewing, and Carson Benge (who is hitting .338 with two homers and two steals over his past 19 games) for the rest of the season, and I went: Bleday, Ewing, and Benge. But I think all three should probably be rostered in all leagues after waivers run this weekend, and if you really wanted to pound the table for either Mets youngster ahead of Bleday, I wouldn't have much interest in arguing with you. Ewing showed off impressive power with his first homer Thursday, crushing one 405 feet at 110.5 mph, the kind of shot you don't really see from a light-hitting speedster like Ewing. Ewing's swing path makes it unlikely he'll hit for much power, but he has the potential for it, and he certainly hasn't looked overwhelmed so far, with three hits and four walks in his first three career games. I'm still hoping for batting average and speed from him primarily, but if he could give us even high single-digit homer totals, that would be a very welcome surprise.

Ben Brown, SP, Cubs (31%) – I'm still pretty skeptical that Brown has solved the two biggest problems that kept him from being a starter last year – his inability to turn lineups over a third time, and his inability to get lefties out. However, Thursday's start against a lefty-heavy Braves lineup was pretty impressive, as he allowed just one hit and one walk over four shutout innings, with seven strikeouts. Obviously, that still leaves the "third time through" question unanswered as he stretches out from his time in the bullpen, but he's been impressive enough both in the bullpen and then in both of his truncated starts to at least be worth adding in most leagues. Even if I'm probably not ready to start him next week just yet.

Austin Martin, OF,