Top fantasy baseball catcher waiver pickups for Week 6

Catcher remains a tricky position to solve on the waiver wire, amid injuries and the usual ugly statlines. Still, there’s some upside if you know where to look, so here are four of our preferred catcher targets this week.

Fantasy baseball waiver wire: Week 6 catcher targets

Francisco Alvarez, C, New York Mets

Roster percentage: 3.4%

Alvarez got off to a brutal start after getting the call up to the Majors in the wake of Omar Narvaez’s calf injury, but fear not: The top prospect’s power is still very real, and there are reasons to believe that the arrow is pointing up in a hurry. For starters, he popped his first homer of the year this past week, in a tough right-on-right matchup against Tyler Rogers:

The youngster is starting to get the lion’s share of starts behind the dish for the Mets over Tomas Nido, and he still carries as much upside as anyone at the position once he gets his feet under him.

Gabriel Moreno, C, Arizona Diamondbacks

Roster percentage: 10%

Big things were expected of Moreno after Carson Kelly went down with an injury this spring, and while the top prospect struggled to start the year, he’s started coming on recently — hitting over .400 over the last week. The former top prospect still hits the ball on the ground a bit too much, but he also owns an elite line drive rate, and he’s a very good bet to finish with a batting average at or above .300 with reasonable counting stats — which, given the state of the catcher position, makes him rosterable in just about every format.

Blake Sabol, C/OF, San Francisco Giants

Roster percentage: 0.6%

As a rule of thumb, you should always pay attention whenever a player has catcher eligibility with a path to playing time at other positions. That’s the case with Sabol, who can also moonlight in the outfield — and will probably have to considering the injury histories of guys like Joc Pederson and Michael Conforto — in addition to spelling Joey Bart behind the plate. Bart’s groin injury seems to be lingering, giving Sabol plenty of plate appearances, and while his strikeout rate is currently astronomical he currently ranks in the top 10 percent of the league in average exit velocity. His four homers and two steals don’t appear to be a fluke — his average sprint speed makes him a blazer by catchers’ standards — and give him unique upside.

Matt Thaiss, C, Los Angeles Angels

Roster percentage: 0.1%

Thaiss certainly won’t make anyone forget about the recently injured Logan O’Hoppe, but he’s on the strong side of a platoon with Chad Wallach and is slugging .909 over the last week. Just a hot streak? Maybe, but he could pop 15 homers in a lineup that’s great for counting stats.