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Please see our player page for Adley Rutschman to see projections for today, the next 7 days and rest of season as well as stats and gamelogs designed with the fantasy baseball player in mind.

Catchers – you can’t live with them, and in fantasy baseball, we can’t live without them.

This is a position that is not deep and not that talented after the top tier of backstops. You may get a catcher who has power but kills your average and on-base percentage. Or you may get a catcher who hits well and gets on base, but has no power at all.

There are very few perfect catchers in baseball, and the few that are close are going to be tough to get or trade for due to the scarcity of those players. But you almost feel compelled to try to go after them or hang onto them a year or two too long because for every Adley Rutschmans, there are two Martin Maldonados who just kill your team.

I came up with forty catchers to rank, but that is mostly to help fantasy owners who play in 20-team (or more) leagues or the leagues that require two catchers. If you are in a 12- to 16-team league, the Tier 4 and perhaps Tier 3 players will likely mean nothing to you.

Anyway, let’s get to the 2024 Top Keepers – Catchers.

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Please don’t ask if this is a ranking for next year. It’s not a ranking for next year. It’s me recapping last season. Please, for the love that all is holy, understand this. It’s all I ask of you. Well, that and shower me with praise. The latter isn’t hard, the former is. Also, remembering which is the ‘latter’ and which is the ‘former’ is hard too. Quibbles and semantics, my good man and five lady-mans. It wouldn’t be fair for me to preseason rank the players, then rank them again in the postseason based on my opinion, so these postseason top 20 lists are ranked according to our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. It’s cold hard math, y’all! Anyway, here’s the top 20 catchers for 2023 fantasy baseball and how they compared to where I originally ranked them:

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It had been too long since we had a Mets appearance in the lede area. The last time I believe was Brett Baty, who then went oh-for-three months and was sent down. Before that it was Max Scherzer, who was having a HOF career to that point…or maybe it was Justin Verlander, who was also a first ballot guy…or was it Pete Alonso, who has the 2nd lowest BABIP of the last 20 years (.204. There have been 4,105 hitter seasons since 2000 of 450 PAs. Pete Alonso’s BABIP is only better than Aaron Hill’s .196 in 2010). No, no, no there’s no curse. It’s not the Curse of Bill Buckner’s Eternal Soul. This is all random chance. Congrats to Francisco Lindor (4-for-7, 6 RBIs and his 28th, 29th and 30th homer) on a great doubleheader. Here’s to many successful years trying to do anything worthwhile in a Mets uniform. I’m sure it will come very easy. I kid, of course. The Mets feel like the NL East’s answer to the Padres. How many games should they have won vs. how many did they? Maybe an extra 25 games? There’s a parallel universe where the Padres and Mets are meeting in the NLCS. In that parallel universe, ARod is your father. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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Liberatore sounds like a work of art by Picasso. “Did you see Liberatore? It’s his answer to Guernica. Masterful!” Or it sounds like something that is followed by a long list of side effects in a brand new weight loss drug commercial. Read really fast, “Liberatore can cause stomach bloating, stomach lining erosion, stomach ooh-oohs, stomach ah-ahs, stomach explosion and the runs.” Liberatore actually causing the runs with his pitching, but not last night! Matthew Liberatore went 8 IP, 0 ER, 2 hits, zero walks, 7 Ks, ERA at 5.72, and showed that promise that was hinted at when he was first called up. Liberatore, also, has some of the worst peripherals in baseball. Could he be good one day? Sure. Matthew Liberatore for 2024 fantasy? I’m interested, potentially. For this year? I have my doubts. I wouldn’t even Streamonator with him. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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Here’s a Story…What, too obvious? Sure, but Trevor Story returns and faces Brady Singer? You can’t tempt me with that. You can tempt me with Brady Singer (6 2/3 IP, 3 ER, 7 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 5.05). Can Streamonator, if you like, but, since June, his ERA is 3.53. But the real Story–God damn it! Trevor Story (0-for-4) as he was activated from the IL. He’s been gone so long when I googled Trevor Story, Google asked me, “Don’t you mean Trevor May?” I said no and it asked, “Trevor Williams?” I said absolutely not, and it asked, “Trevor Megill? Stephan? Larnach? Oh, I know! Trevor Rogers?” No, no, no, no, no, no and no. Trevor Story! From ages (or fromages, if you’re French), 23 to his 30 years old, he’s played in 839 games and has 174 HRs, stole 113 bags and hit .268. Putting on him what he did at age 25 in Coors to what he can do these final seven weeks seems unfair, but why do I have to be fair? He’s capable of 20/7/20/.280 /7 in 150 ABs. That’s great! Definitely worth rostering. Do I think he comes close to those numbers? I’d put the under on each. I’m really skeptical he’s going to be running. Welcome back, you have been anything but a neverending Story. A Start-and-Stopping Story? Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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Welcome back to second half MLB DFS picks with me, your host, @TheGreatKnoche. Wanted to give a quick update of all my fantasy exploits and where I am standing heading into the second half. Here at Razzball my Tuesday DFS picks are 6-8 in single-entry Double-up formats. We’ve cashed top 100 in 2 big tournaments […]

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On a street corner, Arte Moreno rings a bell, “Come and get your Angels here, come and get your Angels! No one is off limits! You want Ohtani? You’re gonna have to pay the price! Say, how about you send us Brandon Marsh for Ohtani? Deal done? Terrific! What about Griffin Canning? He just threw 5 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 9 baserunners, and had a career-high in strikeouts with 12 with an ERA at 4.52. You’ll give us ‘a disapproving look once worn by former Angels great, Ian Kinsler?’ Fantastic! He’s yours!” That’s Arte Moreno doing some trade deadline wheeling and/or dealing. Canning was a favorite of mine in previous years. Don’t look at which years it was I liked him, it’s too depressing how far back it goes. Right now, he’s having the best year of his career (9.4 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 3.88 xFIP), and looks headed to top his career-high of 90 1/3 IP, assuming they don’t keep throwing him for 120 pitches per start, like last night. He gained an extra mile on his fastball, and getting hitters mostly with his change, that’s been outstanding. Streamonator loved him yesterday, and I can’t say I’d start him without pause, but he might finally be making good on his promise. The last piece will be him becoming a Tampa Bay Ray! Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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