We’re nearly to the halfway point of the 2023 MLB season, and things are only getting wilder with each passing day. For fantasy baseball players, it’s time to throw out what you thought you knew around draft time and make adjustments. Time to decide whether you’re in it to win it this year, and what you might need to make that happen. Time to check narrative and sentiment at the door.
Nowhere is that more true than at catcher, that most dire of fantasy positions. 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 behind the plate, 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 15 top catcher pickups
Travis d’Arnaud, C, Atlanta Braves
Roster percentage: 15.2%
Sean Murphy missed a few games this past week with hamstring soreness, giving d’Arnaud a chance to step up as Atlanta’s everyday catcher. He took full advantage, going 6-for-10 with two homers. Murphy’s back now, and will continue to get regular at-bats at either catcher or DH. But d’Arnaud is now slashing .275/.413/.588 over his last 12 starts, and his .272 expected batting average and .501 expected slugging percentage show just how good he’s been at the plate this year. He won’t play as much as he would on just about every other team, but even the Braves could use that sort of production in the lineup on a regular basis, and d’Arnaud will still find enough starts to be productive in batting average, power and counting stats.
Yainer Diaz, C, Houston Astros
Roster percentage: 5.4%
Diaz hasn’t just taken Martin Maldonado’s job as Houston’s starting catcher, but the 24-year-old has even started drawing starts at DH as the team searches for answers offensively without Yordan Alvarez. Diaz has been scorching all month, slashing .323/.328/.646 in June with five homers in 17 games. He’s not going to hit above .300 forever — he’s far too free a swinger for that, as his 1.9% walk rate attests — but the .570 expected slugging percentage and 90.7-mph average exit velocity suggest the power is very real, and any catcher getting regular at-bats somewhere other than behind the plate is a huge asset.
Patrick Bailey, C, San Francisco Giants
Roster percentage: 6.7%
Bailey took over the starting job behind the plate for San Fran when top prospect Joey Bart went down with a groin injury, and the 2020 first-round pick hasn’t looked back since. He’s slashing .314/.344/.542 with five homers and 10 doubles in 31 starts since making his MLB debut back on May 20, and Statcast is a believer, pegging him with .312 expected average, .527 expected slugging and 46.6% hard-hit rate. The average is destined to come down, if only because of the massive gap between Bailey’s K rate (26%) and walk rate (3.9%), but he barrels the ball consistently — his 33% line-drive rate is among the highest of any catcher in baseball — and this Giants lineup is a good place to be for counting stats of late. He looks to be very much for real.
