1B and 3B Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 22

August 26, 2019

Kyle Bishop's fantasy baseball first base and third base waiver wire pickups for Week 22. Consider adding and streaming these free agent corner infield options.

Only five weeks remain in the 2019 regular season. Some leagues have already commenced postseason play; most of us are still fighting for positioning.

With trade deadlines firmly in the rearview mirror, the waiver wire is your only recourse for reinforcements. A well-timed pickup could prove to be the difference between a championship and a winter full of wondering what might have been. Fortunately, you've come to the right place for help on that front.

As a reminder, our focus is on players who are below 50% owned in Yahoo leagues, and standard 5x5 scoring. Your mileage may vary, in terms of availability or league settings. Using that cutoff point for ownership rate, however, these are your corner infield waiver wire targets and adds for Week 22 of the 2019 fantasy baseball season.

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Pickups for Shallow Leagues

Marwin Gonzalez (1B/2B/3B/SS/OF, MIN) — 46% Owned

As we draw closer to the finish line of the 2019 season, sample size becomes less of an issue and positional flexibility gains added importance. This is now a sprint, rather than a marathon, and numbers are all we're after. Gonzalez can play anywhere except catcher and has logged six multi-hit games in the last two weeks, during which time he's slashed .375/.400/.583 with a pair of home runs and 19 R+BI. His overall numbers don't look great, but it's worth noting that since the end of April he has a perfectly cromulent .286/.343/.454 line.

Scott Kingery (2B/3B/SS/OF, PHI) — 42% Owned

Kingery predictably couldn't maintain the torrid pace he set in the season's first half, but it's been a successful sophomore effort for the versatile 25-year-old anyway. He owns a .272/.335/.499 line overall, with 15 homers and 10 steals. And while July was a difficult month, he's quietly posted an .860 OPS in August.

Renato Nunez (1B/3B, BAL) — 38% Owned

After a three-hit, three-RBI effort in a rare Orioles win on Sunday, Nunez is hitting .251/.319/.484 with 28 homers and 142 R+BI in 125 games. The 25-year-old's emergence has served as one of the few bright spots in an awful season for Baltimore, and he's been their best hitter not named Trey Mancini or Jonathan Villar.

Pickups for Deeper Leagues

Evan Longoria (3B, SF) — 17% Owned

At the end of May, Longoria looked like a fringe major leaguer on a team full of them; he'd hit an ugly .213/.300/.391 for a moribund Giants team. Since then, however, the veteran has turned back the clock to his All-Star days, hitting .301/.349/.520 with 10 homers and 64 R+BI in just 49 games. He entered July as one of the league's hottest hitters before a foot injury cost him most of the month, and has picked up right where he left off upon returning.

Jon Berti (2B/3B/SS/OF, MIA) — 13% Owned

One of the fringe benefits to being a deliberately terrible team is the increased opportunity to find diamonds in the rough. The Marlins might have done just that with Berti, who has emerged from obscurity to become their leadoff hitter. He's slashed .278/.360/.451 with five homers, seven steals, and 32 runs in just 45 games, with the bulk of that production coming in August.

Hanser Alberto (2B/3B, BAL) — 11% Owned

Weird as it seems to recommend multiple Orioles this week, Alberto has earned a little love with his recent run. A little-used utility infielder prior to 2019, the 25-year-old has hit .321/.352/.540 with seven homers since the break, including three in his last six games.

For Your Radar

Eric Thames (1B/OF, MIL) — 6% Owned

Thames doesn't play often enough to merit consideration in all but deeper formats, but he's been productive when given the opportunity. The veteran slugger has hit .255/.356/.507 with 19 homers and 104 R+BI in 357 plate appearances, the kind of production that would make him close to universally owned if it came from a player whose name was penciled into the lineup every day.

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