Taking a dive into the fantasy baseball catcher landscape is one of those annual dentist checkup-type things that you need to do every year whether you want to or not. And even if you’re not dreading it, you’re probably not really looking forward to it either. The good thing is, even if it’s not the most fun morning of your month, once it’s over you feel good to have it taken care of.
In the past, I think I’ve overanalyzed the catching position, particularly in terms of how much league size and parameters matter when it comes to selecting a backstop for your fantasy squad. While I don’t always 100% agree with Grey’s adage that (to quote him directly from his own catcher article this year) position scarcity doesn’t exist, at least when it comes to deep leagues, I do definitely feel that placing an unnecessary importance on it can lead to bad draft decisions. This year, I’m trying a new strategy that is so simple, that it just may work: drafting a catcher when, and only when, he is as close as realistically possible to being the best player I believe is available to add to my roster.
But how do we know which of these catchers might actually be one of the better players available? That part unfortunately isn’t so simple, but let’s see what we can do to find some guys that we actually wouldn’t mind drafting. The key for me this year, is to have a few names I don’t hate at various price points throughout a draft or auction, so that if a catcher I don’t mind falls to me at the right time, I know if it makes sense to pull the trigger.
So far using this plan, I’ve actually drafted William Contreras once (hopefully putting that in print won’t automatically get my RazzCard revoked), punted catchers to the very end of a draft once or twice, and grabbed a catcher or two that I think could be a decent value mid-draft several times. So, let’s finally get to some actual names to see who might make decent targets as draft season ramps up. We’ll start by taking Grey’s 2025 catcher rankings, compare them with current NFBC ADP, and I’ll sprinkle in some of my thoughts, to see where we might find some draft value.
As it turns out, Grey’s rankings and ADP match up quite well, as their top eight are the same list of guys, just in a slightly different order. But when we compare that ADP to other hitters and not just other catchers, that’s when we need to temper our catcher enthusiasm a bit. If we follow Grey’s adage to not take a catcher early and combine it with my plan to only take one if he’s one of the better players available (which are really basically two ways to phrase the same idea), we won’t be drafting a lot of top catchers. When I took William Contreras, it was because he had “slipped” (his ADP is 25, with a minimum of 13 (!) and a max of 44) to the second-half of third round in a 15-team league. I knew I wanted to take a hitter, and I actually thought Contreras had a decent chance of being the best option for my roster. There is a whole round or so of players at that price point (Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris, Josh Hader to name a few) that I’m just not that high on, so I figured I might as well take Contreras since I was pretty sure that the other hitters on the top of my wish list would still be there a round or two later.
The only other catcher that appears in this top group of eight that I’ve drafted this season (albeit somewhat reluctantly) was Will Smith, which I was most certainly not planning on doing. It was an OBP league, though, and I thought it was a decent gamble compared to my other available options in terms of the value he could provide if he has even a bit of a bounce back this year. Even if he doesn’t, which I think is more likely, it wasn’t a horrible addition to my team if he just does more or less what he did last year.
Once we’re outside the top eight, the next three catchers up according to Grey’s rankings all appear higher on his list versus their NFBC ADP catcher ranking: Tyler Stephenson (9th vs. 11th), Connor Wong (10th vs. 17th), and Ryan Jeffers (11th vs. 18th). I’m probably not going to be willing to overlook the batting average drain on Jeffers in most cases, but as a safe power/counting stats grab late-ish that also ends your catcher decision headache, he might make sense. I like Stephenson in the right setting, but haven’t drafted him and probably won’t, once we go back to the whole “other options available” view of things. There is almost always going to be an option I like better at this point in a draft, as Stephenson’s ADP is similar to players like Brice Turang, Dylan Crews, and Steven Kwan, and is currently higher than Bryan Woo, Jared Jones, and Kodai Senga.
I’m giving Connor Wong his own paragraph, as he has the biggest positive discrepancy (insert your own joke here, or just go back to Grey’s catcher post and read his Wong jokes!) between Grey’s ranking vs. ADP. He also is one of the players (catcher or otherwise) I have the most shares of already this season. I’m not planning my teams around him, but I think he could be a great value near his current ADP of 226. (Granted, this ADP number is somewhat meaningless out of context especially given how weird drafts can be in terms of catcher runs, but I do feel like he’s one of the few catchers who has similar theoretical value compared to other players in his ADP range). If he’s not good this year, it won’t be ideal, but it’s not like having a fourth or fifth round pick bust. And if he can just repeat last year (building on it of course would be the dream) he’s a solid value, as a catcher who can put up a plus batting average (.280 last year) or steal a few bags (8 in 2024), gives you a little edge in those categories that very few other catchers at any price point can provide.
Let’s drop down a bit to two more guys I’ve already drafted at least once, Ivan Herrera and Joey Bart. Herrera’s price has actually gone up recently with the word that Willson Contreras (who I like and thought I’d draft this year but whose cost has been sky high) will be playing first this season. I was big on Herrera last year and still am interested this year, but now that others are looking his way I may have to re-evaluate a bit (he has a crazy-huge pick discrepancy, as he’s gone as late as #539 and as early as #129). I’m hoping to add him to a few more teams, but I’m not going to be reaching anywhere near that #129 territory without knowing how playing time will shake out between Herrera and Pedro Pages, not to mention the worry that more playing time may lead to more exhaustion and less impressive hitting. (It’s hard not to get a little giddy to see that .301 in 229 at bats last year on his player page, but that certainly seems unlikely to repeat regardless of how often he’s in the lineup).
Bart’s ADP is all over the place as well (high of 147, low of 410), but if he falls anywhere near that latter number I like him better than most other options in that range. It might be largely because he singlehandedly boosted me in a couple of deep-ish leagues in the final third of last season after I’d grabbed him off waivers (he hit .288 with 5 homers last August). That may well have been a career month for him that he never comes close to repeating, but any potential upside in a catcher this late is worth considering I think, so I’m throwing a few eggs in this particular post-hype prospect basket.
Well, we’re pretty much down to the dregs at the bottom of the barrel already, so what to do in deeper leagues if we make it to the end of a draft or auction and still need a catcher or two? As I mentioned a couple weeks ago, I grabbed Alejandro Kirk to fill the very last spot on one of my rosters, which wasn’t exactly inspiring, but we’re not really looking for inspiration at this point. A few others who I don’t think will be great, and some of whom may not play much, but may end up sucking about the same amount as the catchers who are being drafted rounds ahead of them: Freddy Fermin, Kyle Higashioka, Gary Sanchez, Korey Lee, Victor Caratini, Jacob Stallings, and the aforementioned Pedro Pages. I also drafted now-Reds-backup-catcher Jose Trevino on one team. At this point, it’s really just picking one of the last chocolates out of the box and hoping you get one that’s only kind of gross instead of one you need to violently spit out of your mouth.
One more deep league thought about catchers, namely the notion that in some deep league scenarios, it could make sense to draft a catcher who may not play much (if at all) this year, but who might have some upside if he does. I’d put Adrian Del Castillo, Augustin Ramirez, and Kyle Teel as my players of interest in this category, and you can feel free to add guys like Dalton Rushing, Edgar Quero, and Samuel Basallo to your version of this list. Playing time with catchers can be tricky since there are many league setups where less may be more. Depending on your league parameters, and standings as the season progresses, there may be times when it isn’t worth the batting average or OBP hit you’ll take with players who aren’t providing enough counting stats to counteract the damage. In the past, I’ve had several rosters in draft and hold type leagues where I’ll purposely put a non-playing catcher into my active lineup since I know the alternate catching option(s) I have won’t be enough to move the needle in terms of stats where I can gain or lose ground in the standings, but could be enough to drop me a point in average with a handful of 0-4’s. Obviously, if you can find a young player who not only plays but contributes positive value, all the better.
If there are any catchers you’re targeting late, or a pricier guy you think is worth the cost, let us all know in the comments. And speaking of catchers, some of them are reporting to spring training as I type this, so let’s stop and celebrate that important winter milestone as Opening Day slowly inches closer!
