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Joey Pollizze's fantasy baseball waiver wire targets for Week 18. Free-agent hitter pickups, emerging starting pitchers, and bullpen arms for every week of the 2026 MLB season.
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Welcome, RotoBallers, to our weekly waiver wire pickup series! These are the best waiver wire pickups of the week, and we offer a wide range of available players to pick up at each position. This list will feature players rostered in 30-40% of leagues, some who are rostered in 10-20%, and some who are rostered in under 5% of leagues.
Joey Pollizze will be taking over for Nick Mariano on this premium article for this week. These are my waiver wire targets for Week 18 of the fantasy baseball season. Fantasy managers should be looking to pick up these players while they're hot to help you for the stretch run. With only nine weeks remaining until the end of the regular season, every move you make is vital.
Let's dive into the best waiver wire pickups of the week. We'll set the rostership cut-off for these waiver wire pickups to 40% in Yahoo! leagues, so no player will exceed that rostership. All stats are also before Saturday's games (June 25).
Joey's Hitter Waiver Wire Targets
Catcher: Ryan Jeffers (37% rostered), Agustin Ramirez (33%), Francisco Alvarez (22%), J.T. Realmuto (18%), Tyler Stephenson (6%), Nick Fortes (3%), Joe Mack (3%), Jonah Heim (2%), Patrick Bailey (1%),
Ryan Jeffers remains the best catcher pickup this week. He has a hit in seven of his first eight games since returning from a left hamate bone fracture and has three home runs with seven RBI in those eight contests. Jeffers should provide some solid batting average numbers and home runs moving forward. Both his expected batting average (.256) and barrel (13.7%) rank well.
Ryan Jeffers gets the @Twins started with a blast! pic.twitter.com/rb72qUzLJj
— MLB (@MLB) July 21, 2026
Francisco Alvarez has shown some nice things at the plate this month. He's slashing .289/.373/.489 with three home runs and seven RBI across 13 games in July. If you are looking for a catcher with plus power, Alvarez is a nice pickup. Both his 16.4% barrel rate and expected slugging (.465) should help him remain a power bat for your team down the stretch.
J.T. Realmuto is turning back the clock a bit and emerging as a solid fantasy option again. He has a .326 batting average with two home runs and nine RBI over his last 14 games. The Phillies catcher also has a current nine-game hitting streak.
Nick Fortes is on a heater right now. He has 11 hits in his last 19 at-bats to go with two home runs, one double, and eight RBI, and just had a 4-for-4 day with one double and two RBI against the Guardians on Friday night. While he might not be a long-term catcher option, he's a nice pickup in deeper leagues in the short-term.
Patrick Bailey seems to be getting more comfortable in Cleveland. After being traded from the Giants to the Guardians in mid-May, Bailey is starting to put up solid offensive numbers. He's slashing .325/.372/.600 with three home runs and seven RBI across 12 games this month. With two home runs in his last three games and an 80-point difference between his slugging (.313) and expected slugging (.393), he's worth a look in deeper formats.
