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Andy Smith's fantasy baseball waiver wire targets for Week 22. 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 another edition of our Premium Waiver Wire targets. As always, we will only look at players rostered in under 30% of Yahoo! leagues.
Andy Smith will be filling in for Nick Mariano on this premium article. These are Andy's waiver wire targets for Week 22 of the fantasy baseball season. These are his best pickups of the week at each position.
Let's dive into the best waiver wire pickups of Week 22!
Andy's Hitter Waiver Wire Targets
Catcher: Tyler Stephenson (18% Rostered), J.T. Realmuto (18% Rostered), Rafael Flores Jr. (16% Rostered), Keibert Ruiz (8% Rostered), Joe Mack (3% Rostered), Brett Sullivan (2% Rostered), Patrick Bailey (1% Rostered), Mickey Gasper (1% Rostered)
Flores was noted in our column last week, and the young backstop has yet to slow down. The 25-year-old has enjoyed a dominant start to his MLB career, launching five home runs over his last eight games. On the season, Flores holds a .288/.383/.673 line with an eye-catching 1.065 OPS. While the sample is small, those needing a starter behind the dish should target Flores with confidence.
Keibert Ruiz has not had a "full-time" role in D.C. but has been very productive over the last few weeks. Since July 28, Ruiz has held a strong .333/.404/.412 line with six runs and eight RBI. Mack, like Ruiz, is also a great target for those needing a No. 2 catcher. The rookie catcher has endured some growing pains recently but still carries an impressive 9.5% barrel rate and 74.3 mph average bat speed.
On the season, he has launched 12 home runs (through 78 games).
Washington Nationals catcher Keibert Ruiz homers (8) on a fly ball to right field.
Home run 📊
Exit Velocity: 100.6 mph
Distance: 388 ft
Launch Angle: 34 deg pic.twitter.com/sRnJTmbCWn— TheNatsReport 🇺🇸 ⚾ (@TheNatsReport) August 22, 2026
In deeper two-catcher leagues. Brett Sullivan, Patrick Bailey, and the surging Mickey Gasper are worthy targets. Gasper has gone deep three times over the last week and should continue to see time in the Boston lineup on the strong side of a platoon.
