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Nick Mariano's fantasy baseball waiver wire targets for Week 1. Free-agent hitter pickups, emerging starting pitchers, and bullpen arms for every week of the 2026 MLB season.
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It's only been a few days of 2026 baseball, and yet it feels like we are surrounded by data points! Many of you are trying to grasp what's real and address identified weaknesses from draft day. So say we all, and that's why I'm back for another year of fun weekend waiver chatter.
The beginning of the year is always fascinating, as these are the add/drop periods that will most affect your season. You can't be ridiculously aggressive, but sitting on the sidelines is the only surefire way to "lose" the game. This initial foray will focus on presenting lots of names to best assist the widest swath of readers with my waiver wire targets for Week 1.
We'll use Yahoo ownership levels and aim to cut things off near 40%, listing players in a rough priority order (check our full waiver article for up to 70% rostered!). Please note that most statistics cited are gathered before Saturday's games are played, although I'll mention key numbers that pop up as I write. You can find me on X (@NMariano53) to ask about anyone not mentioned here.
Nick's Hitter Waiver Wire Targets
Catcher: Francisco Alvarez (30% rostered), Carter Jensen (23%), Dillon Dingler (20%), Moises Ballesteros (8%), Carlos Narvaez (2%), Danny Jansen (0%), Jeferson Quero (0%)
Alvarez has already popped his first home run of 2026 after being a preseason highlight of mine. He re-tooled his batting stance and swing last year after experiencing particular difficulty with catching up to fastballs, which threw everything else off.
He was also dealing with a thumb ligament injury and a pinky fracture, so let’s see if this kicks off a renaissance campaign for Alvarez. It helps that the Mets reinforced the team around him to keep that R+RBI potential high from the bottom of the order.
Jensen got a start with Chris Sale on the bump, which is encouraging. Jansen has started each of Texas’ first two games, though Kyle Higashioka will get his fill.
