Top 50 Dynasty Catchers for 2026 Fantasy Baseball

Welcome back, friends, to another week of my dynasty positional rankings. This week the Top 50 Dynasty Catchers for 2026 is on the menu after looking at relief pitches and starting pitchers the last two weeks.

When it comes to catchers, let’s just be brutally honest – many of them are not good at helping your offense. As a whole, the catching position ranked last in the major leagues in average, second to last in OBP and SLG and third to last in OPS this past season.

The Top 10 catchers are all players you would love to have on your team. The next 10 you can live with. After that things get dicey.

In leagues that start two catchers, it is always a fight to find a good No. 2 catcher and it is sometimes worth overpaying for that second solid starter as it will give you an advantage over many of the other teams. Otherwise, might as well go for a young catcher with upside as your No. 2 instead of a piddling old catcher who will certainly drag your stats down.

Here is a quick snapshot of the age breakdown of ranked catchers:

• 35+: 6
• 30-34: 11
• 25-29: 27
• 20-24: 6

This is a position that is geared toward younger players. Yes, I have six catchers ranked who are 35 or older and another 11 who are 30-34. But 66% of the players I ranked are 29-years-old or younger. Outside of a few veterans, I go for the young catchers.

So let’s get on with the Top 50 Dynasty Catchers for 2026.

TIER 5

*Age as of April 1, 2025

RANK	PLAYER	2025 TEAM	AGE
50	Gary Sanchez	BAL	33
49	Nick Fortes	TB	29
48	James McCann	ARI	35
47	Elias Diaz	SD	35
46	Freddy Fermin	SD	30
45	Alex Jackson	BAL	30
44	Jonah Heim	TEX	30
43	Yohel Pozo	STL	28
42	Henry Davis	PIT	26
41	Carter Jensen	KC	22

A Gaggle of Old Men

Of the 17 ranked catchers who are 30 or older, eight of them live in this tier. None of these old players should be starters on your team. The reason this tier exists is really for leagues that have 40-man rosters and thus catching depth is a must have.

Of the 30-and-over crowd listed above, Jonah Heim is at least worthy of being on a roster as he still hits with some power as he smacked 11 homers and has reached double digits in dingers every year since 2021.

The Under-30 Crowd

The two players to really care about here are Henry Davis and Carter Jensen. Do I think Davis is some super sleeper? No, not really. But he is a former Top 100 prospect who is still only 26, so he may figure things out at some point.

As for Jensen, in the limited amount of games he played in he did well. Unlike Davis, I would consider him a sleeper to watch, and if you are feeling bold, grab early. He finished the 2025 season ranked as the 39th best prospect by MLB thanks to a .290/.377/.501 slash line across Double-A and Triple-A this past season. In 20 games with the Royals, he continued to hit the ball as he slashed .300/.391/.550 with three homers and 13 RBI. Additionally he had a 17.4 K% to go with a 13.0 BB%.

TIER 4

RANK	PLAYER	2025 TEAM	AGE
40	Joey Bart	PIT	29
39	Kyle Higashioka	TEX	35
38	Luis Torrens	NYM	29
37	Tyler Heineman	TOR	34
36	Austin Wynns	ATH	35
35	Reese McGuire	CHC	31
34	Miguel Amaya	CHC	27
33	Liam Hicks	MIA	26
32	Patrick Bailey	SF	26
31	Danny Jansen	MIL	30

More Veterans

Like the players in Tier 5, these players are mostly depth players.

Out of this group the top two are Patrick Bailey and Danny Jansen. Bailey appeared in 135 games for the Giants this season after playing in 121 games last year. So the good news is he will likely be available to start every day. But otherwise his stats aren’t great.

Jansen ended the season with the Brewers after playing for Toronto and Boston in 2024 and Tampa Bay earlier this year before joining Milwaukee. He finished the season with 14 homers and 39 RBI and reached double digits in home runs in three of the previous four seasons.

TIER 3

RANK	PLAYER	2025 TEAM	AGE
30	Sean Murphy	ATL	31
29	Victor Caratini	HOU	32
28	Bo Naylor	CLE	26
27	Edgar Quero	CHW	22
26	Pedro Pages	STL	27
25	Adley Rutschman	BAL	28
24	Dalton Rushing	LAD	25
23	Carson Kelly	CHC	31
22	J.T. Realmuto	PHI	35
21	Ryan Jeffers	MIN	28

The Solid Veteran

You can do a lot worse than having Victor Caratini as one of your catchers. The veteran catcher can also play first base and is a switch hitter, which adds to his value. This past season he set career highs in homers (12) and RBI (46) and his OPS+ the last two years have been 111 and 101. In two catcher leagues he would be a solid add and in one-catcher leagues he would be a good depth catcher to have.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

Before this past season, I traded Adley Rutschman as part of a package that brought me Kerry Carpenter and Austin Wells. A few of my friends were stunned that I traded Rutschman. I consider myself lucky that I made the deal when I did.

The top pick of the 2019 has seen his production slip the last three years, going from a slash line of .277/.374/.435 in 2023 to .250/.318/.391 in ’24 to .220/.307/.366 this past season. Injuries played a part in his struggles this past year and maybe he will rebound to be closer to the player he was in 2023. But I am not banking on that.

TIER 2

RANK	PLAYER	2025 TEAM	AGE
20	Tyler Stephenson	CIN	29
19	Logan O’Hoppe	LAA	26
18	Carlos Narvaez	BOS	27
17	Gabriel Moreno	ARI	26
16	Dillon Dingler	DET	27
15	Alejandro Kirk	TOR	27
14	Samuel Basallo	BAL	21
13	Austin Wells	NYY	26
12	Kyle Teel	CWS	24
11	Francisco Alvarez	NYM	24

Just Stay Healthy!

Tyler Stephenson has tons of talent. His career slash line is .261/.338/.426 and his 162-game average is 18 homers and 75 RBI. The problem with Stephenson is staying on the field. He played in only 50 games in 2022 and 88 this past season. When healthy, Stephenson is one of the better hitting catchers in the game.

Ready To Bounce Back

Logan O’Hoppe was fantastic in 2024 when he hit 20 homers and drove in 56 runs in his first full season with the Angels. The 2025 season looked like it was going to be a breakout season for the young catcher as he hit 14 homers and drove in 30 runs through the first two months of the season. Then the wheels feel off. From June through the end of the season O’Hoppe hit only 5 home runs and drove in 13. Over his final 42 games he slashed .182/.240/.266 with two homers and six RBI.

Unlike some other catchers previously ranked, I firmly believe O’Hoppe will bounce back in 2026 and beyond and be a really great source of power from the catcher position.

A Nice Trio

Austin Wells isn’t going to help your batting average or OBP, but what he will do is hit home runs and drive in runs. His career AVG/OBP is .224/.294. But the career SLG is .423. This year he hit 21 homers and drove in 71 in 126 games and his career 162-game average is 24 homers and 87 RBI. I’ll take that production every year.

Drafted in the first round of the 2023 draft, Teel made his debut with the White Sox this season and had a solid rookie campaign. He slashed .273/.375/.411 with eight homers and 35 RBI in 78 games. His 162-game average is 17 homers and 73 RBI, and I think he is fully capable of reaching 20 homers. Over his last 53 games Teel hit all eight of his homers and drove in 29 while slashing .286/.376/.457.

Francisco Alvarez burst onto the scene in 2023 when he hit 25 homers and drove in 63 in 123 games for the Mets. But he didn’t come close to matching those numbers in 2024 (11 homers, 47 RBI in 100 games) but bounced back with a .256/.339/.447 slash line and 11 home runs and 32 RBI in 76 games. In 41 second half games, he hit eight homers and drove in 21 while slashing .276/.360/.561.

TIER 1

RANK	PLAYER	2025 TEAM	AGE
10	Salvador Perez	KC	35
9	Will Smith	LAD	31
8	Agustin Ramirez	MIA	24
7	Yainer Diaz	HOU	27
6	William Contreras	MIL	28
5	Drake Baldwin	ATL	25
4	Ben Rice	NYY	27
3	Hunter Goodman	COL	26
2	Shea Langeliers	ATH	28
1	Cal Raleigh	SEA	29

Yes, I know He Is Old.

Considering these rankings are for dynasty leagues, I still was unable to overlook Salvador Perez. There are some players who can simply hit, no matter what their age is. Perez, who will be 36 during most of next season, is one of those players.

The Royals catcher/first baseman/DH hit 30 homers and drove in 100 during the 2025 season. Since hitting 48 homers and driving in 121 in 2021, Perez has averaged 26 home runs and 90 RBI while slashing .254/.300/.447. His Average EV is still what it has been his entire career as well as his strikeout rate and home run rate, for the most part. Perez may be getting older, but he isn’t slowing down at the plate. If you have a young catcher in your system and need a player to plug in for the next few years, Perez is your man.

The Other Old Man

Will Smith will be 31 next season, but he is still a very productive hitter at the plate as he isn’t going to kill your slash line and will also provide some power, as displayed by his .497 SLG this season. His OPS+ thus year was 152 and it has never been lower than 127 in a full season.

Nice Consolation Prizes

If you can’t get one of the top five catchers, having to “settle” for Agustin Ramirez, Yainer Diaz or William Contreras is a nice consolation prize.

Ramirez had an outstanding rookie season for the Marlins as he smashed 21 homers, drove in 67 and stole 16 bases. The ability to steal bases is what really gives Ramirez some extra value, and the speed isn’t a one-season mirage. He swiped 22 bases in the minors in 2024 and had a total of 53 steals during his minor league career while being thrown out only 10 times.

Diaz would be a top five catcher if he would learn what the strike zone is. There isn’t a pitch thrown that Diaz won’t swing at. This year he had a 44.3% chase rate, ranking in the 1st percentile, and it was 42.6% (2nd percentile) in 2024. But when Diaz actually swings at pitches in the zone, he is a great hitter. His career slash line is .279/.305/.454 in 401 games. His 162-game average is 24 homers and 87 RBI.

William Contreras did not have his best season, slashing .260/.355/.399 with 17 homers and 76 RBI. But over the last three years his average season has been .276/.362/.441 with 19 homers and 82 RBI. If Contreras was in his 30s, I would be a little more concerned about his dip in numbers this year. But he’s going to be 28 next season, so I expect him to return to his normal level of play in 2026 and beyond.

Jumping the Gun?

I thought long and hard about where to rank Drake Baldwin. He had a great rookie year, slashing .274/.341/.469 with 19 homers and 80 RBI. He had a great K% (15.2, way below the MLB average of 22.2%), had an Average EV of 91.7 MPH and a 49.6 Hard Hit%. But after only one year, should he be ranked as a top 5 catcher? When you look at what he did in college and the minors, the answer to that is yes.

He had a career slash line of .317/.426/.549 at Missouri State and carried that over into the minors, where in 257 games he slashed .272/.379/.428 with 32 home runs and 158 RBI. His Statcast numbers place him in the 80th percentile or higher in a host of categories and he never really hit the rookie wall this year. In the first half of the season he slashed .285/.345/.478 with nine homers and 46 RBI and in the second half those numbers were .263/.336/.460 10-34.

The Next Best Three

Ben Rice, Hunter Goodman and Shea Langeliers can be ranked in any order you like. All three catchers hit with power, drive in runs, and provide a good slash line. Rice, who is also a first baseman, slugged .499 this year enroute to hitting 26 home runs and driving in 74. Rice’s future may be at first base, but for now he qualifies as a catcher and thus one of the best hitting catchers to go after.

Hunter Goodman was one of the few bright spots for the Colorado Rockies this season. Goodman gave fans a taste of what was to come this year after hitting 13 homers and driving in 36 run over 70 games in 2024. This season he slashed .278/.323/.520 with 31 home runs and 91 RBI. I am not a huge fan of his career K% of 27.3%, but if he keeps producing 30 homers and 90 RBI, and am more than willing to live with the strikeouts.

Over the last three seasons Langeliers has hit 22, 29 and 31 homers while seeing his slash line increase each season:

• 2023: .205/.268/.413
• 2024: .224/.288/.450
• 2025: .277/.325/.536

That is a great trend as he enters his prime. And while the batting average, OBP and SLG have only improved, his K% has decreased from 29.2% in 2023 to 19.7% this past season.

The Big Dumper

Cal Raleigh had one of the best seasons ever at the plate for a catcher, hitting 60 home runs, driving in 125 runs and slugging .589 to go along with an BA/SLG of .247/.359. He even added 14 steals this year. Will Raleigh hit 60 homers again, or even 50? Probably not. But what he will do is continue to hit a lot of home runs and drive in runs.

From 2022-24, Raleigh’s average season was 30 home runs and 79 RBI with a SLG of .457 and OPS+ of 117. Making Raleigh even more valuable is he is in the lineup ever day. He appeared in 159 games this season and in 145 in 2023 and 153 in 2024. Who doesn’t love a catcher who is in the lineup every day while producing the numbers he does?

Thank You

Thanks for reading and come back next week for the Top 50 first basemen. If you missed a previous post, just click a link below:

Top 50 Dynasty Relievers for 2026 Fantasy Baseball
Top 100 Dynasty Starting Pitchers for 2026 Fantasy Baseball