Top fantasy baseball catcher waiver pickups for Week 12

Catcher remains as dire as ever for fantasy baseball purposes, but as we get deeper and deeper into the 2023 season, we’re beginning to get a sense of whose slow starts are more than a fluke and whose breakouts look like they’re for real — and who we might’ve buried a bit prematurely. So if you’re like most of us, looking for any kind of production from the catcher position, here are three backstops likely available on the waiver wire who could return surprisingly solid production for the rest of the year.

Fantasy baseball waiver wire: Week 12 top catcher pickups

Gary Sanchez, C, San Diego Padres

Roster percentage: 7.2%

Since joining San Diego on May 30, here’s a complete list of players who’ve homered as often as Sanchez has: Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez, Shohei Ohtani. That’s it, that’s the list. Sanchez has gone deep five times already for the Padres, just weeks after it seemed like his Major League career might be over for good. This might not last all year long — he washed out with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets for a reason — but the power has never been in question with the former All-Star, and he’s locked in right now.

Danny Jansen, C, Toronto Blue Jays

Roster percentage: 13.8%

Friends don’t let friends use an IL spot on a catcher, so most people likely moved on from Jansen when he went on the shelf with a groin injury late last month. But before going down, the 28-year-old was on a tear, hitting .286/.318/.595 over his last 11 games and relegating Alejandro Kirk to backup duty. Now he’s just days away from a return, and it looks like he hasn’t missed a beat:

He quietly put up a 126 OPS+ between 2021 and 2022 and could be a nice source of power all year.

Nick Fortes, C, Miami Marlins

Roster percentage: 0.2%

Seemingly everyone is hitting for Miami right now, and that includes Fortes, who’s slashing .320/.370/.460 since May 16, with seven RBI and nine runs scored over those 16 games. Don’t expect a ton of power, but the former fourth-round pick makes tons of contact — and with three steals already, he’s surprisingly quick for a catcher.