September 14, 2017

Michael Griffin recommends catchers (C) who can be valuable waiver wire targets or adds to help fantasy owners for Week 24 of the 2017 fantasy baseball season.

Hi, everyone. We're now in the last frantic stretch of the regular season . Depending on your league settings, you may be in the playoffs or trying to save your first-place standing. Those who in the playoffs are probably well set in the catcher department. Still, we're going to help you all that we can.

Another sign that the season is nearly finished: brief intros without any funny (to me) gifs.

Here are some catcher waiver wire pickups for Week 24, to consider adding to your teams. We'll show you three players to snag in 10-12 player leagues, and also three to look out for in two-catcher leagues. All of these players are just at or below 50% ownership in Yahoo! fantasy leagues.

10-12 Team League Catcher Pickups

Matt Wieters (WAS) 43% owned

Matt Wieters is still not hitting well and he's found himself sliding down the Nationals' batting order. Still, people need fairly warm bodies at catcher, especially in deeper leagues. He's scored some runs in September and also driven in a few. He'll do if you need a catcher who starts fairly regularly.

Wilson Ramos (TB) 27 % owned

Wilson Ramos has had a rough couple of weeks, but he's shown signs of life over the past seven days, clubbing a homer and hitting over .400. We'll take whatever we can get when it comes to catchers right now. It's been another disappointing season overall at the backstop position, with only five catchers hitting over 20 homers thus far. Hopefully, 2018 will be better.

Robinson Chirinos (TEX) 30% Owned 

This is how insane things have been for the catching position: Fantasy owners have been snapping up Robinson Chirinos lately like he's the second coming of Johnny Bench or something. He has had a modest hitting streak of late, yes, and he's now got 17 homers. It may have also been from the panic that people felt when they saw Welington Castillo go down after being hit in the nether regions - he's OK, should be back after a couple of days. While some on here might see him as a two-catcher-league guy, I think he's earned this spot.

Two-Catcher League Pickups

Mike Zunino  (SEA) - 40% owned

Yes, I know that Mike Zunino has higher ownership numbers than Chirinos.  He's still two-catcher league material. Why? Because he is still incredibly streaky. He's got two four homers and five  seven RBIs in September. Those first two homers came on Sept. 1 and Sept. 2 and he just hit the third and fourth ones while I was writing this, hence the strikethroughs. Maybe I made him mad. Woo. Keep him in the two-catcher camp.

Christian Vazquez (BOS)  13% owned 

Christian Vazquez is still hovering around .300 and he's had three straight two-hit games and he's collected four RBIs in that span. Vazquez isn't going to stay that hot over the course of the next two weeks or so, but he's still worth a shot in the two-catcher format if you're pressed for someone to fill the second spot.

Jason Castro (MIN) 3% owned

Jason Castro has had an uptick in people grabbing him. Hmmm. Why could that be? Oh. He had a two-homer game on Sept. 12. Yes, that will pique people's interest. Sadly, that small percentage who owned him and started him BEFORE that game were the beneficiaries of his sudden power outburst. Prior to that, he'd had seven homers all season. Now he has nine... and unless he goes on a tear that would make even Giancarlo Stanton take notice, he's a low-risk, medium-reward pickup in a two-catcher league.

More Waiver Wire Pickups and Adds