Forget where you stood in April; it’s over now. That’s the past. Fantasy managers who grind through the carnage are the ones still in contention come September. While some GMs sit on their laurels, waiting for chaos to strike, we’ll be making moves. Around here, anticipation beats hesitation every single time. The waiver wire is unforgiving, and the gap between the active and stagnant only widens. Enough setting up the pins, let’s knock some down.NOTE: Please prioritize positional lists over the featured player write-ups. I’m trying to avoid covering the same players more than once, and I don’t want any extra focus to be misconstrued as personal preference. Away we go!Top waiver wire hitter optionsCatcher: Kyle Teel, CWSAmidst a torrid run for Team Italy in this year’s World Baseball Classic, Chicago’s starting catcher Teel sustained a hamstring injury legging out a roped double. While he was not initially expected to miss significant time, Teel’s subsequent right knee LCL sprain suffered during a minor-league game extended his injury rehabilitation. Well, Teel is finally back behind the dish for the big club — where the former first-rounder slotted right back into a potentially fantasy-rich cleanup spot for the ascendant White Sox. With so many catchers hitting well, you might be able to acquire Teel quietly on the cheap before he really starts hitting.Let me get this straight. We're entering the hottest months of the year, yet the literal an everyday first baseman for the Rockies with a dozen HR remains available in over one-third of leagues? Make it make sense! Did I mention Rumfield never hits lower in the lineup than fourth and is fantasy baseball's second-most valuable 1B over the past two weeks? That's right, the 26-year-old rookie and former Yankee farmhand caught fire since missing a pair of games after being hit on the hand by a pitch. His five recent homers put Rumfield in the top 20 at the 1B position for 2026 in BA, RBI and HR — and an elite +91% zone-contact rate in that elevated ballpark is too tempting to resist.Second base: Nick Loftin, KCSomehow, some way, the more injuries the Royals sustain, the better they get. As crazy as it sounds, since losing stalwart Vinnie Pasquantino on June 14, Kansas City ranks either first or second in runs scored, batting average, home runs, OPS, barrels and wRC+. Pretty impressive. Not to mention, the Royals are also currently without the other two-thirds of their order's top third in Bobby Witt and Maikel Garcia. Suddenly forced into an everyday role, Loftin's been a big part of keeping the royal blue ship afloat as a stand-in, finally flashing the power stroke that dynasty managers have dreamed about for years — 41.7% Hard Hit, 12.5% Barrel, 29.2% Air-Pull, .397 xwOBA. I'm not sure it'll last, but Loftin could be a really fun add at a power-strapped 2B position.Shortstop: Cooper Pratt, MILCall-ups seem to happen earlier and earlier all the time, and bringing a 21-year-old up to the bigs, regardless of talent level, can be a blessing or a curse. Sure, we want to see the most exciting players at the highest level; I just worry about a general lack of seasoning, and whether it can negatively impact critical confidence levels going forward. With that, the rookie Pratt hit the ground running in MLB, leveraging a strong contact-plus approach profile with elite speed, racking up four steals already. Overall, this play could wind up being somewhat one-dimensional (BA+SB), but in the event you need steals, Pratt could be the skeleton key to changing the trajectory of your season.Third base: Caleb Durbin, BOSActually, I'm a little excited to have a reason to write about my 2026 fantasy boomerang, Caleb Durbin. The player I've yo-yoed more than any other this season may be done circling the revolving fantasy door for good. A foundational piece in the Kyle Harrison deal, drafters pushed Durbin into the top 250 during draft season, anticipating a full-time role with a chance for an early breakout. Well, they got one out of two correct. Our year-long running theme of productive breaks is back again. This time, interim manager Chad Tracy decided to try to stop the bleeding by benching Durbin for about a week in mid-May (.165 BA, 56 wRC+ at the time). Like clockwork, Durbin bounced back from the extended benching like gangbusters, posting a .325 BA and .941 OPS with four long balls to go with three swipes in just 22 games since. There's five-category production in there somewhere.Outfield: Owen Caissie, MIAMiami shocked the fantasy landscape this spring when former 45th-overall pick Caissie broke camp with the big club. Personally, I didn't think we'd see the 23-year-old centerpiece in the Edward Cabrera deal up with the Marlins until 2027. Caissie's power seemed inevitable, but so did the strikeouts, something he's always struggled with coming up through the minors. On one hand, Caissie cutting strikeouts by multiple percentage points every month of his young career is certainly encouraging — except, of course, when that current number still begins with a 3. But power is hard to find on the wire, and Caissie's year-to-date metrics deserve attention as an indicator for a potential in-season breakout — 46.0% Hard Hit, 15.0% Barrel, 13.3% Air-Pull, .448 xwOBAcon. Finally, Caissie has appeared as a DH for the first time in back-to-back contests this week, which could get him enough PAs to project as a viable fantasy producer going forward.Hitter stash candidatesTop waiver wire pitcher optionsStarting Pitcher: Jake Bennett, BOS June has actually been highlighted by several impactful starting pitcher returns for a change. However, unless you already stashed Gerrit Cole or Hunter Brown on the IL, it doesn't matter much at all. Enter Jake Bennett, Boston's 45th-overall pick in the 2022 draft, who not only earned his recent promotion, but, in my opinion, a permanent spot in the Red Sox rotation. Through his 177.2 career MiLB innings pitched, Bennett hung a 2.43 ERA, 1.11 WHIP combo with a very respectable 18.8% K-BB and just 0.46 HR/9.At 6-foot-6, Bennett's size helps boost an elite extension profile to go with a ton of horizontal movement, which helps his 93-mph four-seamer play up in the zone. Top-tier control allows the fastball combination (four-seam, sinker) to set up a pair of devastating secondaries (sweeper, curveball), each garnering a minimum 36% whiff. Bennett's ability to consistently fill the zone has gotten him through at least 5 IP in every start to date — and the chance to win games is a massively underrated trait at this point. I don't have a single 5x5 team not desperately in need in the wins category.