Week 6 Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Payton Tolle, Kyle Harrison emerging as must-add SPs

We've got some starting pitchers worth getting excited about on the wire

Chris Towers

Apr 26, 2026

6:32 pm ET

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17 min read

I don't know if the plan is for the Red Sox to keep Payton Tolle around for good. Based on the fact that they just fired their entire coaching staff three weeks into the season, I'm not sure I understand what the plan for the Red Sox is at all right now.

But even so, I feel confident saying this much: Tolle is the most exciting player to emerge on the waiver wire this season.

It's not like he came out of nowhere, of course. Tolle was someone who was at least in draft conversations this spring when he was competing for a rotation spot, and he's been one of the best pitching prospects in baseball over the past year or so, a credit to the Red Sox pitching development. But the decision to add Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez to the team this offseason put Tolle on the outside looking in for the rotation battle, and it took a hamstring injury to Gray for Tolle to even get the opportunity. Gray is already playing catch and might be able to pitch as soon as he is eligible to return from the IL on May 6, at which point we're right back where we started with Tolle.

And yet, I still think he's going to stick around. The Red Sox didn't fire their entire MLB coaching staff because they are thrilled with the way the team is playing right now. The front office wants to win and win now, and if Tolle gives them to best chance to do so, they're going to keep him around. I don't know exactly what that looks like – a six-man rotation might work, or maybe Brayan Bello's struggles earn him a demotion of some sort – but I'm going to bet on Tolle making himself irreplaceable. Because he might already be Boston's second-best pitcher.

Think that's an overreaction? Maybe so, but we're talking about one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, fueled by an already elite fastball, and he has seemingly taken big steps forward with the rest of his arsenal. In his first start earlier this week – when he struck out 11 Yankees in six innings – he was throwing his curveball consistently for both strikes and whiffs, something we didn't really see from him last season. And he's introduced a sinker and continued to work on his cutter, giving him a fastball-heavy arsenal that kind of looks like Cameron Schlittler's but from the left side.

Tolle might not be quite that good. But if you told me he was sticking around for the rest of the season, I might already rank him as a top-40 starting pitcher, and it wouldn't take much success to move up from there. The playing time concerns are enough to keep him from actually ranking there – well, that and the fact that he is, as of now, only RP eligible in CBS Fantasy leagues.

But Tolle should absolutely be rostered in every league, and even if the Red Sox do send him down when Gray is ready, I'm going to want to hang on to him. Life finds a way when it comes to pitchers, and Tolle has legitimate difference-making upside.

Before we move on to the other waiver-wire targets for this week, a special shoutout to Kyle Harrison, who looks like he might just be putting it all together. He pitched Sunday against the Pirates and absolutely dominated them, striking out 12 over six one-hit innings with just a single walk issued.

Harrison registered a whopping 23 swinging strikes, 13 on his four-seamer, eight on the slurve, and two more on the changeup. This specific version of the changeup is one thing that is relatively new to Harrison's arsenal, though that's not the only change from the guy who has been underwhelming in the past. He's added a couple of inches of induced vertical break to his four-seamer while maintaining the same mid-90s velocity from the left side, which has helped the pitch play better than ever – especially when paired with that changeup with more drop.

It's still a pretty limited arsenal, and Sunday is the first time we've really seen Harrison miss bats with the slurve. But we have seen some strikeout upside from him before this, so hopefully the iffy starts the past few times out become more the exception than the rule. The upside is there, and while I would prioritize Tolle ahead of Harrison, I'm interested in adding him in pretty much any league where he's available after this one.

Week 6 Waiver Targets

Catcher

Dalton Rushing, Dodgers (52%)

I still don't see where the path to one-catcher league relevance comes from. In fact, my concern here is that Rushing may not even be viable in two-catcher leagues once his hot bat cools down. But, well, there it is … life finds a way. Rushing looks like an impact bat right now who is blocked at three different spots in the lineup. But the optimist could say, "Rushing has a path to everyday opportunities at three different spots currently occupied by guys in their 30s." We'll have to have some conversations a