RADIO
Nick Mariano's fantasy baseball waiver wire targets for Week 17. Free-agent hitter pickups, emerging starting pitchers, and bullpen arms for every week of the 2026 MLB season.
All other Premium Tools can be accessed on the Premium Dashboard.
We hope that you caught your breath during the All-Star break, because now it's a downhill race over 10 weeks to fantasy baseball's finish line. For some of you, football starts to tug at those brain cells like a siren's song, but you must stay the course. We will push through the final months together and best those who divided their focus!
Let's be sure that you're reading waiver pieces and our strategy columns with your specific team needs in mind. If my top recommended adds are best suited to take you from a 10 to an 11 or 12 in steals across your roto standings, yet you have a "3" in home runs, then please apply that context. It's time to embark with my waiver wire targets for Week 17!
We'll use Yahoo rostered rates up to 40%, listing players in an approximate priority order (check our full waiver article for up to 70% rostered!). Please note that most statistics are gathered before Saturday's games, though I'll catch key news and happenings as I write. You can find me on X (@NMariano53) with any further questions.
Nick's Hitter Waiver Wire Targets
Catcher: Ryan Jeffers (32% rostered), Jonah Heim (2%), Dalton Rushing (18%), Francisco Alvarez (19%), Kyle Teel (13%), Joe Mack (3%), Agustin Ramirez (33%), Harry Ford (1%)
Jeffers opened up the second half with a three-run homer, his eighth on the year, and has hit safely in his three active games since returning to play on July 10. Seeing the power on display is always nice to see after a hitter is forced out due to a hamate injury. And Yankees trade buzz will increase the appeal with the venue switch alone.
While the Yankees have reportedly expressed interest in Ryan Jeffers, @jonmorosi explains that the Twins may not be ready to sell just yet… pic.twitter.com/js1gYB4PQB
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) July 18, 2026
Alvarez popped off for two solo shots on Thursday night’s second-half opener. This gives him six homers over the last 30 days, so he could give us a bump in the final months of play for those pushing through the lighter hitting from their current 12-teamer C.
Rushing has not been playing well, and there are loads of chemistry issue videos going around between him and the rest of the team, but he remains a solid fantasy dart. Will Smith is not progressing in his return from a neck injury, with Dave Roberts saying the team has shut him down for a week and that mid-August is the earliest target. Ride the Dodgers R+RBI train where possible.
I still want Heim at Sutter Health Park, but it was the team visiting the A’s who had an impact backstop story to track. Harry Ford’s first game up for Washington produced a 2-for-5 line with his first career home run, collecting three RBI and three runs scored in the 23-4 rout.
The problem is that Ford held a crooked .223/.370/.335 triple slash over 257 Triple-A PAs, supplying four home runs in the 58-game span. He even slid to an 0-for-3 rate on steals after cruising to a 35-for-44 clip at Double-A in ‘24. For now, he’ll share modest time with Keibert Ruiz, but the former first-round pick (2021) still carries name value to contextualize. But this series at Sacramento is followed by a Coors run, making him a deep-league dart.
Speaking of the Rockies, Hunter Goodman has plenty of trade winds swirling around his name. No one will be excited about the current backups on the roster, Braxton Fulford (.589 OPS) and Brett Sullivan (.650 OPS), so stash the name Bryan Betancourt away. The 22-year-old was recently bumped up to Triple-A after hitting 14 HRs with an .850 OPS at Double-A.
