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Please see our player page for Keibert Ruiz 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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Nationals C Keibert Ruiz: I tried to trade for Ruiz in a two-catcher, 15-teamer where I’m in a tight race for the top, but I sort of didn’t try real hard because I’m solid at catcher, where I have Willson Contreras and Elias Diaz. Solid. Old. Streaky. Probably on the way down. Would’ve probably been smart to try harder. 

Royals C Freddy Fermin: The Royals have made gestures toward trading Sal Perez this off-season to make room for Fermin, who’s been in the lineup most nights anyway with Perez covering first in lieu of Vinnie Pasquantino and Nick Pratto. The exposure and the grind have chipped away at his once-pristine stat line, but he’s still hitting .284 with a 112 wRC+. That’s a starter in most fantasy leagues. 

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Lucas Giolito, Randal Grichuk, Hunter Renfroe, Reynaldo Lopez and Matt Moore were all placed on waivers by the Angels. Everyone makes fun of the Rockies, and they deserve it, but the Angels are the Rockies with better on-field talent. The Angels are a joke organization. They were going for it literally three weeks ago! They get nothing for any of these players, by the by. It’s not like they get draft picks or something. They just traded away prospects three weeks ago for these guys and they are just being released. All they get back is money. So, Arte Moreno can build a smaller hot tub inside his larger hot tub. On a real baseball note, the playoffs just became fascinating, since the waiver order is the reverse winning percentage, so maybe that late push by the Mariners to pass the Rangers wasn’t the best move. What does this mean for fantasy? Honestly, I doubt much. It’ll depend which teams pick up each guy, but you have to assume Grichuk and Renfroe are platoon players on better teams, and Giolito is a mess wherever he pitches. Unless he goes to the Rays, then he becomes a late-stage Cy Young candidate. As Matt Truss said, if the Angels pulled that nonsense in a fantasy league, Tommy Pham would smack the crap of out of them. Angels’ City Connect unis should just be white flags. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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What is up party people? The weeks keep flying by and the hits keep on coming. Some are better than others. Tommy Pham – When he’s not getting into a screaming match with fans he’s actually been hitting the ball pretty well. That’s now 13 straight games with a hit for him, very impressive. There’s also a sprinkling of power and speed mixed in. At the risk of getting slapped, let’s call this what it is: just a hot streak. Call me biased but I’d rather have Joc Pederson.

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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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“Hey, man, how come you have names written on the seashells in your bathroom that is decorated in Tommy Bahama?”
Fantasy Baseball Prospector, “I’m glad you asked me. I’ve had those seashells lined up on my bathroom shelf for the last five years, but no one ever visits me so I never had a chance–nay, an opportunity to tell anyone what those seashells really, and truly meant–”
“–hey, man, can you get to the point? I saw you have prospects’ names written on the shells. Why?”
FBP, “Here, this one has Alex Kirilloff‘s name on it. Please listen.”
I take the shell, and press it against my ear. From the shell, I hear, “Post-post-post-post-post-post-post-post,” like it’s waves lapping against the shore. “Whoa.”
“That’s right. Each shell has a different name, and if you press it to your ear you hear how many ‘posts’ are in front of post-hype prospect.” I reach for one shell that reads Garrett Hampson, and he stops me, saying, “That one never stops saying ‘post.'”

So, Alex Kirilloff seems to be breaking out, finally. Why do we care? Quite brucely, he was tagged at every point in the minors as being a guaranteed superstar. What stopped him was repeated wrist injuries. Clearly, those are not good for his hitting. His wrist is supposedly fine now. He was out the other day with a sore shoulder, but the Twins are saying he’s fine, so the superstar we always thought possible might finally be here. Up next, pressing Nolan Jones’s seashell to my ear. Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

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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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Welcome back from the break! Now let’s get that money! And by “money” I mean an ulcer from starting Lance Lynn for every one of his terrible starts and benching him for all his good starts. We’re gonna be so rich with that “money.” One guy who is absolutely going to be “money” in scare quotes is Grayson Rodriguez, who was recalled to start on Monday vs. the Dodgers. Orioles weighing calling up Grayson vs. the Marlins this past weekend or the Dodgers, “Hmm, death by one cut seems much nicer than by a thousand.” Of course, I’d pick Grayson back up! Do you not know me at all? Still seems prone to command issues, but his 1.96 ERA in Triple-A is a big ol’ whiff (by hitters) of what could be. He might be an ace for the final two months. Might also be “money,” and that’s not money money. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

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Trading season is upon us and it is time to capitalize on our fellow owner’s frustration. In Germany, they call this schadenfreude or for those of us playing American baseball that is taking pleasure in the misfortune of others! It is time to scour the league and find the ugly ducklings and try to convince our competitors that we are really helping them out by taking problems off their hands. If you can convince somebody Ronald Acuna is a problem, then stop reading now. If you are the other 99.99% of fantasy owners, our hitter profiles focus on a few prime trade candidates that can be just what you need to push into the summer.

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