Fantasy Baseball Today - 2025 Catcher Recap! Preseason ADP, Top-12 Finishers & More! (10/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

I know we've said it before but catcher is finally in a great spot (2:30)! ... What did preseason ADP look like (7:30)? ... What has gone wrong with Adley Rutschman (8:49)? ... What's the latest in the playoffs and around the league (17:25)? ... Let's recap the Top-12 catchers from this past season, starting with Cal Raleigh (25:30). ... Hunter Goodman had a huge breakout (30:55). ... Shea BANGeliers keeps improving (34:03). ... William Contreras had a down season, likely due to injury (39:00). ... Scott is in love with Ben Rice (43:20). ... The old man Salvador Perez hasn't slowed down (47:22). ... Ivan Herrera doesn't have catcher eligibility but should pick it up early next season (50:03). ... Will Smith made big improvements but will he keep it up (53:27)? ... There's a lot of excitement around Drake Baldwin and Agustin Ramirez (54:50). ... We wrap up with an early look at 2026 catcher rankings (1:00:42). Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. I think it's about time for position recaps. Let's do it.

Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, October 16th. I am Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we are recapping the catcher position from this past season. We'll look at preseason ADP, what went right, what went wrong, who finished in the top 12, and then an early look at 2026 rankings. I know that people listening to this podcast or even other baseball podcasts, fantasy baseball podcasts, you probably have heard this before. It's finally true.

Catcher is in a great spot, maybe the best that we've ever seen. And Chris, I know you have some. stats to back that up. Yeah, we've got a couple of ways we can look at it. We can look at there were 13 catchers who had at least 400 play appearances, played at least 20 games a catcher and had an OPS plus of at least 100. That is league average for all hitters. That is 13 tied for the most in a single season in major league history. And that does not include Augustine Ramirez, who had a 92 OPS plus, but was very good. Yvonne Huron, Herrera and Wilson Contreras did not catch 20 games, but were catcher eligible last season.

So that tells you part of the story. Here's another part of the story. Last five seasons, let's look at catchers based on the Fangraphs Player Rader, who were worth at least $15 by season. 2021, 4, 2022, 3, 2020, 2, 2024, 5, 2025, 8. So almost twice as many as any other season in the past five. lower that bar to 10 you go 5358 13 in 2025 we had 13 catchers who were worth at least $10 by the fan graph's player rater that is more than double the 2020 season 22 season or

2021 it was actually the same number as those three seasons combined so yeah this was an excellent season for catcher and I mean there there are other guys who didn't meet those thresholds who we really like like Kyle Teal who didn't meet the playing time thresholds but I think we think he's a very good hitter moving forward um catchers in a great spot moving forward even with you know Wilson contraris and yvonne herrera and there's one other guy losing catcher eligible moises by esteros and carter jensen were our kind of lower-end guys jensen's back he regained eligibility You secured catcher eligibility on the last day of the season.

Oh, okay. It got the same number of appearances at catcher and DH, so it'll default to the position he yelled previously, which is catcher. That's a solid number two catcher for 2026. I mean, he could be a number one catcher. You mentioned Kyle Teal didn't qualify for your stats there. I wasn't, he actually got a sizable number of played appearances. But Carter Jensen certainly didn't qualify for those stats you gave.

nor did Samuel Pesayo. Yep. Who, you know, we don't know for sure he has a role for the Orioles next year, but he's going to have a role. He's arguably the best pure hitting prospect right now, and he's catcher eligible. So those three, Pesayo, Teal, Jensen, they're all in my top 15 for next year. I mean, this isn't a catcher preview, so I don't know how deep we want to get into rankings. But, like, I have 16 catchers that I think. think are, you know, maybe even 17, because J.T. Real Muto is my 17th catcher.

Like, I think any of them would be perfectly fine, good starters in a one-catcher league. Obviously, that's way more than are needed to go around in a one-catcher league, unless you happen to play in a, you know, 20-team league or something like that. I mean, even like, depending on what the Yankees, we're probably going off the rails already, but like depending what the Yankees do at first base, Ben Rice and Austin Wells could both be viable starting fantasy options. You know, Wells is 18th for me.

He's right behind real muto. He's yeah, 18 for me as well. Sean Murphy, if he gets traded or plays DH full time. Yeah. There's, it's,

it's, I started last year's catcher, stayed of the position preview or piece on the fantasy baseball today newsletter. Last sentence of the first. was, so yeah, smart money is on catcher remaining mostly a wasteland for fantasy. Because that's been true for like 14 years that I've been doing this. And for the first time, it's finally not true. Yeah, and there have been times in the past where we saw a group of catcher prospects coming and we thought,

all right, this is going to be the turnaround for the catcher position. Now it feels like those names are actually coming through on some of the promise that we were, some of the hope that we were promised on with those names. So we have some holdovers, the guys that have done it for a while, Cow Raleigh, William Contreras, Shea Langelliers, Salvador Perez, old and reliable, mixed in with a bunch of these kind of young, budding superstars. Hunter Goodman has emerged.

Ben Rice, a little bit older than you'd think, but obviously still kind of young in terms of his fantasy career. And then all these prospects, right, Pesayo and Drake Baldwin. So just ultimately in a great spot. We'll talk about rankings more a little bit later on. want to take a look back at the preseason top 12 in terms of catcher ADP. This is according to fantasy pros which lumps together Yahoo, CBS, NFBC, fan tracks, and RT sports drafts. The top 12, William Contreras, Adley Ruchman, who's probably the biggest wild card at the position right now.

Yiner Diaz, Salvador Perez, Cal Raleigh, Wilson Catreras, Will Smith, Shea Langalearie, J.Ceerlianne, J.C. Rueh, Logan O'Hoppy, Austin Wells, Tyler, Steele, It feels so long ago that those were the names that we were talking about, top 12 at the position. According to the Fangraph's Player Raider, six of those actually finished top 12 by end of season. So 50% on the nose. Many other names emerged, as we mentioned. If we're just talking breakouts and busts based on 80P before the season, look, there is no bigger breakout than Cal Raleigh, right? What he just did? He went from a very good, viable starting catcher to MVP candidate historic season.

but also like Hunter Goodman and Ben Rice just had huge breakout seasons as well. Their preseason ADPs were outside of the top 300, both finished top six at the position. We'll talk about some of those a little bit later on. The biggest bust at the position, I think very clearly Adley Ruchman, with a hat tip to Geiner Diaz,

but I want to stop there for a second. Adley went on the aisle twice this year, oblique strains to each side, the left side, the right side here. And since he suffered that hand injury, in June of last year, 2024, he's played 161 games. Big sample, he's hitting 207, 13 homers,

a 623 OPS during that time, and the years prior, he was a stalwart at the position. So I mentioned already, to me, he's the biggest wallet card going into next season. I have no idea. Yeah, I mean, the play discipline is still really good,

and the quality of contact has just collapsed the past two seasons, which is weird. But it was never great, you know? He was kind of an accumulator type. Yeah, but it was really, really good plate discipline and good quality of contact from both sides of the plate. He played a ton. There were no real, like, he wasn't as good of a power hitter as you would hope his first two seasons in the league.

It was 13 and 20 homers in 113 and 154 games. But he hit for a good average in 2023. It was a good number of runs in RBI. and it just felt like he was going to keep building because you had, I think he underperformed his expected Wob in 20203. Yeah, he did by about 20 points. And so it was like, okay, 26 years old,

top prospect, all the pedigree, has the makings of a future MVP candidate. And it's just completely falling apart. In 2023, he had a 391 expected Wobo, which was well above league average. 2024, it was 339, 2025. it was 350. He's been below average now in three of the four seasons

in terms of his quality of contact. So that does raise some questions about whether 2023, is 2023 the real ceiling? Or can he get back to that as a baseline? The weirdest part, I think, is even before the hand injury last year, he was awesome.

The first three months of last season, Adley Ruchman was hitting 300, 15 home runs and 830 OPS. He was, was amazing. He was in MVP discussions. And then after the hand injury, it all fell apart. You know, this year, maybe you could just blame it all on the obliques as well. But even when he played, he wasn't good, even when he was healthy. So I just don't know what to do with it. It looks like this year he set a career high, a career best, average exit velocity and max

exit velocity. So that's part of the reason I find his decline perplexing is because it it doesn't look like his contact quality has suffered. And his plate discipline hasn't changed, as you pointed out, Chris. You know, polar rate's kind of my pet stat right now for hitters. It was great in 2024. It was the best it's ever been. It was horrible in 2023 when Rushman was the best he's ever been. So I don't know that you can attribute this fluctuation to that either.

It's been a real head scratcher. He greatly underperformed his expected stats. this year, which is part of the reason for hope. But, you know, we just talked about the great surplus at catcher and not just usable options, but really high upside choices. Even if you want to see the glass half full for Rushman, you say, okay, there's not a clear enough explanation for this decline, and he has, you know, he was arguably the best catcher prospect ever.

So great pedigree and all of that. Even if you want to see the glass half full, what's the incentive to? he could just pivot to somebody else. So for me, it would just be you want a way to catcher, in a one catcher league especially. You want a way to catcher, it basically comes down to, in my rankings, I think the last ones drafted are going to be in some order, Kyle Teal, Gabriel Moreno, and Adley Rutchman. You could throw Samuel Bessio in there as well. Maybe you could throw Francisco Alvarez, but I think one catcher leagues has played discipline has tended to hold him back. Um, comparing Moreno, Teal and Ruchman, I can see the case for Drake Baldwin having more

upside than Adley Ruchman or Augustine Ramirez with the the wide skill set he shows, although in head to head points, he might actually not be so great. Comparing Moreno, Teal, and Ruchman, I do think Ruchman's probably the highest upside of that group. So in a one catcher league, that's the case is just there will be. Like, even if you think, yeah, Adlerichmann's probably never getting back to that level again. He was such a difference maker in points leagues, his first two seasons especially,

especially 2023, that if you can get him as the last catcher drafted, if it doesn't work out, Basayo might go undrafted. Alejandro Kirk, who the run production and run numbers are very weak, but his skill set is tuned for a head-to-head points league. You know, Sean Murphy could be a very good points league player,

if he's playing more or less every day. So they are going to be alternatives. There's a ton of fallback options. So just one catcher league, you go for the highest upside pick if it doesn't work out. There are more than enough number one catchers to go around

at a one catcher league. And yeah, I mean, that's basically how I came down in my own rankings. I have Rushman 10th, which sounds like it might even be higher than you have them.

But only 10th, you know, when other than the, baseline stats themselves. I'm having a hard time explaining what's wrong with Rushman. And for whatever it's worth, not that, you know, a GM would ever say anything bad about a player. They do still have a ton of confidence in Adley, Rutchman.

So this is from GM Mike Elias after the season ended. Adley's the guy. He will be our front line catcher. Frustrating season for him coming off a frustrating second half. And he's aware of it. We're all aware of it. We're all working on it. there were some injuries sprinkled in this year that I think were a factor in him kind of getting

out of sync again. We saw flashes of him offensively the way that he can and should be. So still lots of confidence there in Adley Ruchman. Big offseason and just a big year in general coming hopefully for him in 2026. Big thanks to those watching live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe for fantasy baseball content all offseason long. Let's take a break. When we return, some quick news updates, playoff updates. We'll talk about that right after this.

Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. A few updates here, both on the playoffs and just some news around the league. The Dodgers are up to O on the Brewers behind two. Fantastic pitching performances by Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Yamamoto threw the first complete game in the postseason in eight years, which is just crazy to say out loud. He might be cementing himself as the SP4 in rankings for next season. in the eyes of some, maybe not in the eyes of you guys.

I was already kind of leaning that way, but, you know, there have already been people tweeting at us saying, hey, is Yamamoto just the SP4 now? I think it's still open to discussion, yeah. My evaluation hasn't really changed based on the postseason, and I was inclined, given how good Chris Sale looked coming back from the IL, I was inclined to put him forth. but if if you prefer Yamamoto

I don't you know it's it's the same tier they're all well behind the top three I think there might be that tier of three at the top and then maybe there's a tier of three after that that you know we've talked a lot about like four through 14 being kind of a big tier

but I might say sale Gilbert and Yamamoto are in kind of a tier of their own I have Yamamoto right now, third among that tier, so sixth overall. And it just comes down to everyone's best case scenario, Yamamoto's going to throw fewer innings and get fewer strikeouts. That's all it is. It's just that if everything goes right for the three of those guys,

Sal and Gilbert might strike out 20 to 30 more batters and throw. It's probably only like 15 to 20 more innings. But when they're all that good, you know, I do think it's close enough that you're, like, I just, I don't know how much better Yoshinob Yamamoto can get than what he gave us in 2025. And he was like the number, I think he was the number eight pitcher. And they're all but guaranteed to use a six-man rotation again. That's all it is.

That's the only case against Yamamoto. It's just they're going to use a six-man rotation. I guess the counter argument would be like Yamamoto is the safest of the three, but I don't know that I'd consider any starting pitcher that same. Yeah, exactly. And we've talked a lot about, like, I think Gilbert has the clearest injury red flag among the three because he missed time with a forearm elbow issue in 2025.

It was a relatively minor one, but that's the most recent ligament issue in an arm for either of them. Chris Sale, basically since he came back from the shoulder injury in, like, 2023, I think, he's had no arm issues. Yeah, it was a fractal. manufactured rib cage this year, but he's also on a 30 extension dive. He's also 36 years old and he's not getting any younger, right? So these things kind of not, you know, look, we can't predict a broken rib cage,

but you know, things could crop up a little bit more easier for a 36 year old. And then Yamamoto just last year, he had the shoulder, right? So look, you can kind of pick nits with all these guys. They're pitchers. It is a huge talking point, too, because I put out a poll on Twitter. I got so many different responses. So many people in on Christopher Sanchez, a lot of people in on Hunter Brown, Hunter Green,

Brian Wu. I got a lot of answers for people who want as the SP4. A couple of Blake Snells out there too, maybe some recency bias. But yeah, there are lots of options for that potential SP4 for next season. On the other side of the bracket, the Blue Jays are back in it.

They're currently blowing out the Mariners. Seattle remains up two to one in that series. See how that plays out. According to John Heyman, Alex Bregman is expected to opt out of his contract with the Red Sox and become a free agent. It hasn't officially happened yet, but it sounds like it's trending in that way. Padre's president, A.J. Preller said the organization will have conversations about moving Mason Miller and or Adrian Morejohn into the starting rotation next season.

So as we learn more, we'll obviously keep you up to date. Bregman was scheduled to make $42 million each of the next two seasons. And he didn't have a very good year in the end. I think he's just thinking long term. He could get more than $84 million on the market. What do you think is more likely? Bregman gets $150 million this offseason or Bregman gets $75, $80 million in three years.

Well, what happened to him last off season? I think this offseason... He got $115 million. Is a little bit... too different though. Yeah, but he got... Maybe other teams will have interest that didn't last off season. But like worst case scenario,

he could probably sign a similar contract. I also think... I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'm over thinking this, but... $42 million in a season is hard to come by. I think the potential lockout for next year too also might be a factor here.

Like if guys just want to kind of lock in a long-term thing, not having to worry about next year. I mean, I guess Bregman would have been under contract anyway, but I totally see the case for, you know, someone like Cody Bellinger who opted out. Yeah, let me just lock in a long-term deal before next offseason, which... If he was 28, I think staying the course might have made sense. He's 31. Yep.

Cubs president, Jed Hoyer, said Kate Horton was going to be on the NLCS roster if the team advanced. Horton was dealing with a rib fracture, but is expected to have a normal off-season. Anthony Volpe underwent surgery Tuesday to repair a... pair a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He hurt that shoulder on May 3rd of this year. And before the injury, he had five homers, four steals, a 7.68 OPS. After the injury, still had power and speed. 14 homers, 14 steals.

But just a 632 OPS from May 3rd on. And, you know, it just kind of feel like that was a problem for him all year. He had problems throwing the ball and all different kinds of things. He had a cortisone shot. So I think we're getting to the point. We're like, we kind of know who Anthony Volpe is, but if you want to have optimism, he had surgery. So there's that.

Rangers' top prospects, Sebastian Walcott, has been shut down from the Arizona Fall League due to arm fatigue. And it sounds like Japanese corner infielder, Kazuma Okamoto, will be posted this offseason. He's 29 years old. He hit 327 with 15 home runs in 69 games this past season.

And obviously, the headliner remains. Slugger Munataka Morikami, who's also expected to be posted. So we looks like we'll have at least a few slugging, good hitting players coming over from Japan this offseason. Which is good because third base is in a pretty bad spot. I just wrote my third base position, state of the position today. And after Bregman and Suarez, there is nothing on free agency. It's like Miguel And DuHarr might be the third best third baseman in free agency without those Japanese.

guys so uh okamoto has a 40 homer season to his name has 270 something career home runs doesn't have the strikeout issues marcomi has but murkami obviously has a 56 homer season murakami i just i found this note he slugged 659 this year the average ops in the central league in japan was 652 wow his slugging percentage was high than the average OPS. That is one, how good he was this season after a couple down years, and two, how horrible the offensive environment in Japan is.

All right, let's get back into catchers. We'll take a look back at the top 12 from this past season. This is according to the Fangraphs Player Rader, and this is for Roto slash categories. I'll also mention some points league nuggets in there as well. First up, no surprise.

The number one catcher was Cal Raleigh. Historic season, 60 home runs, the most ever by a catcher, most ever by a switch hitter. He scored 622 fantasy points. The next closest catcher had 426. Nearly a 200 point disparity between Cal Raleigh and the next catcher, which is this crazy stuff.

He has a huge playing time advantage. 705 played appearances led catchers by far. It was the 11th most in baseball. Scott, how did Cal Raleigh do this? And what are your expectations for next season? look, I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but I would say there's a 90% chance that Cal Raleigh regresses next year. The question is to what? Just 90? I mean, he did.

95? 99? I don't know. He hit a dozen more home runs than any other catchers ever hit in a season. And not to mention all the great switch hitters in the game that he surpassed with his home run total at the position that is most impacted by missed time normally. attrition hits catcher hard. And so that's part of the reason why players who play there aren't used to putting up historic totals like Cal Raleigh did. How did he do it?

I mean, he's always been a great power hitter. He ups the pull air rate even more. So that helped him leave even less fewer potential home runs on the table by pulling the ball in the air more. he's not going to hit 60 home runs again. I'm not sure any other catcher ever will hit 60 home runs again. So let's put that aside. I don't know really how to predict how many home runs he could hit.

I mean, his previous high was 34, which he hit in 2024, and I'm pretty sure that led the catcher position at the time. He almost doubled it. Is he going to regress all the way from 60 to 34? I doubt that. but like what it's such a wide range there a 26 home run range that what is the appropriate projection for where Raleigh's going to fall within that range I will point out I don't know this probably isn't any more scientific than any other approach but if you look at just

overall expected home runs on stat cast how many how many home runs did Cal Raleigh deserve to hit with how already impacted it what the trajectory was in all of that and it was 54 or 52 54 54 okay so okay maybe maybe you say he hits 54 that still seems a little high yeah um i would i would just kind of guess mid 40s sounds right to me but like it's it's just it's just picking a number that doesn't yeah that doesn't feel too extreme that's that's all i feel like I'm doing. Here's a question that I'm just thinking of. Do you think there's a chance with Harry Ford ready? Do you think there's a chance Kyle Raleigh sees less time behind the plate in order to keep his bat in the lineup more? I think they're just going to maximize it both ways. He's just going

to play a ton of catcher. And then when he's not a catcher, it's just DH. Basically what he's done the past couple of years. I don't. I'm just wondering if it switches to. I don't think Harry Ford factors into it at all. I think it's more likely they trade Harry Ford for a really good relief. Yeah, I'm not saying Harry Ford is, I'm not saying he loses playing time. Right, right. To be clear, I'm just saying, do you think maybe it's, you know, he's been 65, 35, 35 catcher DH? Do you could it, do they start thinking long term? Do they start thinking 50-50 now that we have what we think is a very good backup catcher instead of Mitch Garver? He's such a good defender too. Sure.

No, I get that. There's so much defensive value. This was actually, the most games he had played at DH prior to this year was 19. It doubled this year to 38. So I guess it kind of already started. True. Yeah. But I don't see it.

You know, he's still a pretty young guy, right? Raleigh is 28. He is turning 29 in November, yeah. Yeah. So I don't think. I don't think the approach in terms of how they distributed starts is going to change that much from what we saw this year. And, you know, he's always had a playing time advantage

over most every catcher. I mean, William Contreras is right there in terms of playing time. And Salvador Perez, I believe, is as well because he gets so much time at DH. And Augustine Ramirez seems like he'll have that as well. Yeah, just knowing the way that projections work, you mentioned mid-40, Scott, that's the exact number I was going to bring up.

If I set the over-under 44.5 for Cal Raleigh next season on home runs, do you take the over under? I think I would actually lean over, actually. I think I lean over too. Yeah. But there's more ways. There's more ways and go wrong. I'm a coward.

I think it's probably somewhere right in that range, though. The number two catcher this past season was Hunter Goodman. He was the third best catcher in total fantasy points. he averaged 2.8 fantasy points per game, which was tied for six at the position. He does take a hit in that format because of poor plate discipline, but huge breakout season, 278 batting average,

31 homers, 91 RBI, he hits the ball hard, he gets extra playing time at DH, great splits all around, even home road splits at Corus Field, which surprised me. Chris, I pretty much trusted the only concern, lack of track record, and the plate discipline. But everything else looks really good to me on Hunter Goodman.

Yeah, I mean, he outperformed his expected stats by 27 points in Ex Wobah. But that could, he plays that he plays a course field. That's actually pretty normal. Yeah. Um, that I think the average is right around 20 points for Rockies players. So that's actually more or less what you would expect. Like you said, he didn't really have extreme home road splits. And the thing that I think was perhaps the most, uh, promising about Hunter Goodman moving forward is that there was no.

no second half slide. That's always something I want to see with the breakouts is okay, the league caught up to you and I don't know, maybe teams just are like, yeah, who cares the Rockies? We don't have to do advanced scouting, but that's not what it is. Like you're still trying to get the toughest guys in the lineup out. You're still trying to get the, the scouting report out on them. And he was better in the second half than he wasn't the first half. So I'm mostly by it. It's possible that it's a fluke, But the quality of contact is really good.

He's got the excellent home ballpark. He had a really, really good minor league track record. I think there's a lot to like about Hunter Goodman. Yeah. If you'll remember from our award show, Frank, Hunter Goodman won the Rebuilder's Delight Award because I don't feel like he would have gotten this chance with an organization that was actually competing for something. He was not thought to be a good catcher.

He had strikeout issues. Did not. Wouldn't be somebody who would take a walk. At least that was the MO. But even in terms of, you look at his blocks above average rating, you look at his framing rating, they're in the red. Like, he ended up being a pretty good catcher for the Rockies.

It wasn't a disaster, at least. They came to value his bat so much that I missed him when talking about catchers who actually. get close to full-time at bats. Goodman is right there with William Contreras and Cal Raleigh. And to Chris's point, the consistency he showed in this breakout season. Only one month did Goodman have an OPS below 800. And I believe it was May, so it was early in the year. Yeah, because I remember that happening and being like, uh-oh. Here it comes. Yeah, he totally pulled out of it. He followed that May up with an OPS over 1,100 in June. Yeah.

I see no reason to, like, I have Goodman only behind Cal Raleigh in my roto rankings next year. Third and head-to-head points, but yeah, I'm buying it. The number three catcher was Shea Langalears. Shea Bangleers continues to improve every year. 3.3 fantasy points per game. That was second among catchers. Big improvements in plate discipline while still hitting the ball very hard. We saw career highs and batting average 277, home runs with 31.

OPS all the way up to 861 this year for Shea Langaleers. Scott, the biggest question here is whether or not Langaleers can maintain those improvements here over year. Yeah. The strikeout rate, I think, gives me the most confidence. The home runs, you know, obviously it helps that he plays in arguably the most Homer-friendly park in baseball in Sacramento. his expected home runs he was one of the biggest overperformers in terms of what Stackast expected him to hit versus what he actually hit I think he had seven more home runs than Stackcast said he should have had and you know part of that actually is the

venue he plays in what if I told you he had a better OPS on the road than at home this season which is kind of crazy that's interesting he had 30 his ex home runs at Sacramento was 32. The highest it was at any other AL park was 26. So that does seem to have played a big factor. Yeah. No, from what I've observed kind of looking at the leaders in outperforming that expected home run number, they're usually either players who had sky high home run totals like

Cal Raleigh and Kyle Schwerber or their players who played in good home run venues. like Shay Langalears or Taylor Ward. So I don't know that we need to make anything of it, I guess. Why bring it up? If I don't know we need to make anything of it. I don't know. I'm looking for interesting things to say about Shane Langaleers. One interesting thing I can point out is that if he hadn't missed most of June with a strained oblique,

he probably would have hit like 35 homers. So we are talking about, I think coming into the year we were calling Shay Langalears a poor man's cow Raleigh. Yeah. He may just be Cal Raleigh before Cal Raleigh became Cal Raleigh. With a much better batting average too. Better than that because of how much

a strikeout rate improved in 2020. He's kind of a different player now. He became a stud. Bottom line, Shea Langalears became a fantasy stud. Even at this very deep position, I have him fourth in both scoring for him. I agree. All right, let's take a quick break.

Our final break, when we return, we'll talk about William Contreras, the number four catcher, We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today, recapping the catcher position. The top three from 2025. We had Cal Raleigh, Hunter Goodman, and Shay Lang Lears.

Number four was William Contreras, who suffered a fractured finger early in the season that kind of derailed things for the first half, but still finished second in total fantasy points at the position has consistently finished as a top four catcher over the last three years. He was the number one catcher, the two years prior to this. and he was better in the second half, so perhaps that finger started to feel better.

He hit 281, 11 homers, 833 OPS, 93 mile per hour, average exit velocity, the final 60 games of the season. Chris, given the age, the track record, he's still in his prime. I would expect a little bit of a bounceback here for Contreras, assuming health, of course. He is my number two catcher in Roto,

ahead of Hunter Goodman, even though Hunter Goodman had the better season. it mostly comes down to just feeling a little more confident in William Contreras. There's no chance the floor. I think we saw what the floor dropping out looks like for William Contreras, and it's still a top 10 option at the position. Top five.

Top five option is that. Yeah, I do think there's a chance that Hunter Goodman's very, very poor play discipline catches up to him, and it does turn out to be a fluke. I don't expect that to be the case, but I think there's a better chance of that than with Contreras. So Conjuris will be my number two. the decline in his skill set that we saw or the decline in his production outmatched the decline in his skill set. He still hit the ball very, very hard, not quite as hard as he did in 2024.

But the play discipline was arguably a little better. The quality of contact was still very, very good. And like you said, once he got going, he basically hit like himself in the second half. So I don't really have any level of confidence. concern. The fact that he's the number two or three catcher this year rather than the number one just speaks to the other guys around him. Elevating themselves. So I feel very, very confident willing Contreras in 2026. He is one of the three best bets for runs, RBI, batting average, total counting stats. He falls a little short in power, but he should still get to around 20. And there's room to grow from there. Yeah, that's a couple things I was going to point out that maybe I guess you kind of got around to pointing out is once he got past the broken finger, once he had played through it in the appropriate amount of time for it to heal, he was basically back to normal. He's basically William Contreras again.

So I don't I don't read anything into his diminished production. I think it was just a partial season trend related to that finger injury. and I do have William Contreras second for points leagues behind Cal Raleigh because I think his skill set is best suited for points leagues. The reason I have him behind Goodman in Roto, third instead of second, is even at his best, William Contreras is like a 20-homer guy, and we just saw Goodman. And we just saw Goodman hit 31.

So, like, that's a pretty big gap in terms of power production. And I don't know that in any category, unless you want to say steals, but it's not like William Contreras is going to give you a significant number of those. I don't really see any category where he has a clear advantage over Goodman. So give me the 10 extra home runs.

Runs. He scored, even this year, he still scored 16 more runs than Hunter Goodman. Okay. And the RBI were, I guess there was about the same gap, but he drove in 92 the year before. I would expect RBI to be very, very close. Yeah, it'll be close.

I'll give you runs, but I'd rather have 10 more home runs than 15 more runs. Which isn't to say, like, you know, you point out, Contrera's probably a little more bankable than Goodman, but I'm buying Goodman. So I don't want to, I don't want to obsess over my concern level between those two. The number five catcher was his brother, Wilson Gattreras, who no longer has catcher eligibility. He is first base only in 2026, so we're going to move on past that. The number six catcher was Ben Rice. Not exactly sure where he's going to play for the Yankees next season, but we do know that he'll have catcher eligibility. Big breakout.

Honestly, feels like there's another level that Ben Rice can get to. He hit 255, 26 home runs, 836 OPS, elite stack cast data. batted ball metrics, expected stats. He owned all of it. And Scott, he could also be a cheat code for fantasy next season. If he's just the everyday first baseman, he's going to get more playing time than the average catcher. I am infatuated with Ben Rice.

We can already pencil it in next Valentine's Day. Players I love, Ben Rice. I'm already thinking about how that love poem is going to go. I just I love him I love him because he's already so good as you point out Frank and he should I'm not going to say he could be better he should be better

his expected so what he actually hit this year Ben Rice 255 slugged 499 his expected stats oh I thought I had him pulled up here he was like the 12th best hitter by expected well by this year 299 batting average and 581 slug.

Like way more than he actually produced and what he produced is great. And by the way, second, our final two months for Ben Rice, he actually hit 298 with a 918 OPS. So he was, for those final two months, he was living up to those expected stats.

We do have a little bit of, while catching concept there. While catching a lot more. While spending some time at catcher. His numbers against left handers are fine for a left-handed bat. that is the one hesitation with Ben Rice for me is just is Aaron Boone going to continue to subject him to this platoon role

we presume Paul Goldschman is gone are they going to bring in some other right-handed hitting first baseman or are they just going to turn Ben Rice loose with everyday bats because if they just turn Ben Rice loose with every day of bats you could make the case for him to be number two at catcher I don't know I don't know this but just watching the games and kind of feeling the vibe around the team, I think they love Ben Rice,

and I think they're going to give him every opportunity next season. I hope so. The thing is, we haven't even mentioned, he's a lefty and Yankee Stadium. Yeah. Who pulls 25% of his batted balls in the air. Yeah. I really don't think you can overstate how high the ceiling is here.

Right. He could hit 40 home runs next year. Yeah, I think that's, if he's playing first base, and he's hitting fourth, for the Yankees, which I think he probably should be, I think, yeah, there's huge potential. And look, even if he's not quite as good as the underlying numbers suggest,

because those can fluctuate from year to year, even if he loses 40 points in expected Wobah from 2025 to 26, that would still make him, I believe, the third best catcher, if he lost 40 points off his expected Wobah. That is how high he was operating this season. So yeah, it's hard to be too excited. I think his price is going to just go crazy in 2026 drafts, though. Yeah, I am.

It's going to be like a top 60 pick. Very interested to see where that turns out for Ben Rice. And Scott, if it turns out that you love Max Fried next season as well, your Valentine's Day is a set. I mean, you could just go with fried rice right there. So there you go. That could be tricky. All right, let's continue on. The number seven catcher was Salvador Pres.

The ageless wonder continues to get it done. So consistent has finished as a top seven catcher, six years in a row. 30 homers, 100 RBI, has 100 RBI and back-to-backed seasons. Still hits the ball hard, underperformed his expected stats by a lot. Chris, I know you've brought this up before. Maybe it's just because he's the slowest player in all of baseball. baseball. I feel like that kind of happened to Miguel Cabrera towards the end of his career as well. But still a playing time standout. The only thing, the obvious thing, right? Like, he's old. He's getting old, right? It feels like a game of hot potato. You just don't want to be the one left drafting Salvador Perez the year that it falls apart. But even with that, Chris, it's we don't, we don't have any signs of that even happening. Not even close, to be honest. Yeah, I think being scared off of him because of his age is reasonable. But what I think, think we're going to start to see happen is what we saw with Nelson Cruz and David Ortiz at the

end of their careers where everybody was it would kind of became like an everybody became scared of them to the point where there just wasn't very much downside in drafting them until the I mean in Nelson Cruz and David Ortiz's case the bottom never came out they just kind of retired before they stopped being great but I think the price is going to be cheap enough in this catching context that he's probably going to be a fine bet, even if you have those concerns. I think Ben Rice is going to go ahead of him. I think. Sure.

Yeah. Will Smith is going to go ahead of him. Langalears, Goodman, Contreras, Calrari. Honestly, some of these prospects might go ahead of him, too. Like Augustine Ramirez. You might see Auguste and Reyes ahead of him. Yeah. You might have to rank.

Um, because I have him sixth. I went seventh. Okay. So I went with probably have Will Smith over him and I have. I want Smith ahead of him. I have Salvy over Smith. Salvi's eighth in points leagues,

that's not his better format. But sixth for Roto. That's reasonable. Yeah. So if he does end up sliding as you're predicting, and I think it's a reasonable prediction,

then I'll probably end up with a lot of him. If he goes about where I haven't ranked, then I'll probably Yeah, agree. Pass him over because I like so many of the younger up-and-comers who I rank below him better than him. But he is, you know,

he's a home run for the position, he's a home run an RBI monster. And I think Salvador Perez next year is going to have more combined appearances at DH in first base than catcher. Like, catcher's going to be kind of his secondary position with the emergence of Carter Jensen.

Because, like, he's not that good if a catcher anyway. And things have been trending that way for a while now. But that would be good, a good outcome for him in fantasy because it'll help, it'll help them last longer, less wear and tear. The number eight catcher was Yvonne Herrera, who no longer has catcher eligibility,

but we do expect him to pick it up at some point next season. So I will include him here in this discussion. Another breakout among a big group of breakouts this year. We didn't really get the full extent of it because he went on the aisle twice, but hit 284 with 19 homers, eight steals, 837 OPS. Love the skill set, strong plate discipline, hits the ball hard. Chris, I'll go back to you on this one because I know you were a huge fan of Herrera coming. into the year.

We just don't know how long it's going to take for him to gain catcher eligibility. They have a couple other catchers on their team, right? They have, you know, prospect, I believe Jimmy Crooks, right? And they have Pedro Potheads. So they've got a couple of top of catcher prospects in like top 100. It could take longer than we expect. Yeah, I honestly think in one catcher leagues, the actual cheat code might be, spend your last two picks on whichever.

of Moreno or Ruchman or who was the other guy I mentioned? Kyle Teal, whichever one is there at the end with your second to last pick and then Herrera with your last pick because this guy absolutely has top five upside at this position. I think we saw it this season. I think we've seen it over the past two seasons.

We're talking about, you know, he's played 189 games over the past two years with like an 825 OPS. He kind of just looks like William Contreras except possibly with better power. The plate discipline is excellent. He makes a ton of contact. He hits the ball really hard. The expected stats have gotten better.

I don't really think there's a knock on Ivan Herrera except can he be a full-time catcher or will they feel confident in him being a DH full-time? I worry, I think he's good enough to do it. I worry a little bit about the injuries as well. He dealt with knee and hamstring to the same leg this year and he just had off-season elbow surgery too. Expected to be ready for spring training,

but that's a lot to deal with in one year. So I do worry a little bit about the injuries for Herrera heading into the next season, but just in terms of the bat and the skills that he's shown, A-plus across the board there for Yvonne Herrera. Here's something that I feel like flew under the radar. He started 65 of the Cardinals' final 66. six games.

I think most at DH, maybe had to have been all the H. Two or three in the outfield, I believe, but that's- Forward and left field, the other D-H-H-Berr but the point is like, if we're counting on Ivan Herrera to regain catcher eligibility,

he's gonna play way more than most catchers. Yeah. Unless the Cardinals add a bunch of other bats this off season, but I don't think any of us is suspect that. It's just a matter of when, right? On CBS, you only need five catcher appearances, so, I mean,

even if he only catches once or twice a week, you'll, you'll, get it like three weeks in, right? If he's as good as he was last year, he's worth using as a DH. True, but where we want him is for catcher. No, no, no, but I'm saying like that's like when Victor Martinez gave up catcher

and became a full-time DH, it was still draftable in all leagues. No, but what I'm saying is that even before he gets catcher eligibility, it's not like you just have to stash him on your bench. If what he did the last two seasons is real, that's just a starting caliber player at every position in fantasy.

The number nine catcher this year was Will Smith, who missed some time with injury down the stretch, but this was one of the best seasons of his career. He averaged three fantasy points per game, which was fourth best among catchers. Hit 296 with 17 home runs on 901 OPS in 110 games. He improved his on base and quality of contact. I guess similar question to Shay Lang Lear's, right? It's a little bit different for Will Smith because this is the middle of his career. He's a little bit further along.

But Scott, how much do you buy these improvements from Will Smith kind of maintaining your over year for next year. And he has such a lengthy track record. I think it's fair to assume he's going to give up some of this. And we actually saw the batting average regress in the second half. But that's not the biggest concern for Will Smith. Relative to everybody else we've talked about at this position so far, he has a major playing time disadvantage because he can't shift over to DH when he's not

catching. That is not an option for him with Shohei Otani there. So it really hinders him. As many great bats and as many as are getting that advantage of playing DH on their off days, Will Smith

I think is decidedly second tier for as good of a hitter as he is. The number 10 and 11 catchers this past season, two young bucks. And from your teams, the Braves and the Marlins respectively. We have Drake Baldwin at number 10, Augustine Ramirez at number 11, Baldwin, 274 with 19 homers, 80 RBI, 810 OPS, makes a lot of contact, hits the ball hard, strong expected

stats. Biggest question, playing time. Will he continue to split time with Sean Murphy? Will they bring in a DH? If not, maybe both of those guys could just play all the time. And Augustine Ramirez, such a unique skill set, right? Kind of looks like the second coming of J.C. Real Muto, 21 home runs. steals as a rookie plays a ton of D8 so lots to be excited about with both of these guys Scott I'll throw to you for Drake Baldwin and then Chris you could just pick it up with Ramirez after that I think Drake Baldwin as a hitter is is near flawless I think he's so good I'd want to rank him as high as

sixth or seventh at this position if not for the major major major major playing time question I just brought up playing time as a question for will Smith, it's much bigger for Drake Baldwin. It's the clearest playing time issue of any catcher we've mentioned so far. And there are several ways it could be resolved. Sean Murphy himself gets traded. They leave the DH spot open so that both catchers play every day. But if Murphy stays, they bring back Ozuna to DH, they bring in somebody else to

DH or bring in another outfielder, shift jerks and pro far to DH, then that playing time concern is going to remain for Baldwin. And that's why I have to rank them behind Augustine Ramirez. who's very exciting in his own right, but I think has some clearer flaws than Drake Baldwin. Yeah, Chris, what's so interesting about Ramirez is him being a bad fielder might act. It actually helps his fantasy value, which is crazy. Yeah, at least in the short term, right?

Like, as long as we can get him 20 games at catcher, he might be unplayably bad there to the point where he just, the Marlins have Liam Hicks is okay. They have Joe Mack, who's a very good catcher prospect. So I think the ideal outcome is Augustine Ramirez doesn't play any catcher next season. I don't really see any reason for that to happen. And so in a dynasty perspective, that's pretty upsetting because the bar is obviously much higher at other positions. But the skill set is so much fun, especially for roto leagues.

He hits for power. He hits the ball hard. He's got, you know, he's a free swinger, but he makes a lot of contact. he's got a little bit of that like yiner dyes approach um i will say watching a lot of augustine ramirez this season it's all very awkward like his swing doesn't look natural it's not smooth um and that's the one thing that like holds me back he's also like not as good of an athlete as his 16 steals might make you think 31st percentile sprint speed 15 of which came uh after the all-star break and I feel like most of them were in like September, right?

13 between August and September. I don't know how sustainable the steals are. I do think there is some room for the floor to drop out a little bit with Augustine Ramirez, but the skill set is so unique, the possibility of getting 20 steals and 20 homers from a catcher, 25 homers potentially, and the playing time edge that he could give you if he's a DH every day. There's a lot to like here in Roto. I think in points he's probably pretty fringy for one. catcher league, but in Roto, I think you can make a case for Augustine Ramirez as high as 6th.

You know, I think because Augustine Ramirez controls the strike zone so well, and because batting average was a liability for him this year, I actually like him a little more for points leagues. He's one of the ones I rank ahead of Salvador Perez in points leagues. Two point seven, eight points per game was right there with Ben Rice, actually, and ahead of Drake Baldwin. As aggressive as he is as a swinger, 19% strikeout rate is really good. He does make a lot of contact. So I guess to that point. And he also underperformed stats were pretty solid. 139 combined runs in RBI and 136 games. If you could get 8080 out of him, that seems pretty reasonable too. And he underperformed the expected stats by quite a bit too. I mean, it's XBA was 270. His batting

average was 231. So I think there's a little bit more meat on the bone there for Augustine Ramirez. He's one where I'm very high variance. I'm very interested to see where the high stakes NFBC ADP comes into Ramirez, because the way you guys spoke about Ben Rice, I could see similar enthusiasm for a catcher that could go 2020, right? I mean, it's just not a skill set we see very often. So in Roto leagues, I could see the price being pretty high there. I could see him being the number six catcher in those leagues.

The number 12 catcher this past season was Alejandro Kirk. more of an accumulator, but it was a big bounce back for him. Finally had the position to himself. No Danny Jansen in the mix here for the Blue Jays. Hit 282, 15 home runs, 76 RBI. Very similar season to his 2022, but he had that 23 and 24 in there that were quite bad seasons for him. So we saw a big jump in quality of contact.

Now we need Alejandro Kirk to maintain that, but he was good throughout the season. He makes a lot of contact. And he also bats clean. for the Blue Jays. Like they trust this guy. So we'll have more offseason to talk about him. I do want to quickly wrap up with our early rankings here. So I'm going to move past Alejandro Kirk and take a look at this. We'll also talk about early catcher rankings on our FBT Express episode, which will be in the main feed. So be sure to check that out as well.

Taking a look at the top 12 for each of you guys. I'll start with the top six. So for Scott, you have Cal Raleigh, Hunter Goodman, William Contreras, Shea Langalearie. Ben Rice and Salvador Perez for Chris, Cal Raleigh William Contreras, so once about ahead Hunter Goodman, Shea Langalears, Will Smith, and Ben Rice. Mentioned the difference between Goodman and

Willie Petraeus. The only other difference is that Chris has Will Smith a little bit higher. As we were talking through, I moved Will Smith below and pushed Salvador Perez back up to sixth. Boom! There you go. I love to agree. The back half of your top 12s for Scott, it's Will Smith, Augustine Ramirez, Drake Baldwin, Adley Ruchman, Samuel Basayo, and Yiner Diaz.

For Chris, it's Salvador, well, Will Smith, I guess. At number seven, Augustine Ramirez, Yiner Diaz, Drake Baldwin, Kyle Teal, and Gabriel Moreno. So, Chris, you have Yiner Diaz a little bit higher at 9. Scott has him at 12. We haven't spoke about Yiner Diaz. Are you potentially buying a bounce back here for Diaz in 26? Yeah, I think there's plenty. of room for a bounceback. He was one of the biggest underperformers in the entire league

from his expected stats. Now, there are, we can offer reasons why that is. We saw a bunch of those kind of free swinging types like Iner Diaz underperformed this year, but that hadn't really been an issue throughout his career. I thought he was being overdrafted coming into this season. I think people were expecting too much from him in terms of the playing time, but I think he's a much better hitter than he showed in 2025. Still not used to saying 2025. It is a little worrying that we didn't get the second half bounce back from him the way we did from William Contreras. He was a little better in the second half, Yanor Diaz, but it wasn't nearly as much of a bounce back.

But I don't know. This position, I don't know, seven through 14 feels really fluid for me. and I'm throwing Francisco Alvarez into that tier based on what he did after he came back from AAA. I just, I thought he was so impressive, especially coming back from the multiple finger injuries, that I kind of think that's just a big tier there. And I'm,

if I have two catchers among the top 14 in a two catcher league, I feel like I have a really good, solid group there. Yeah, I NERDES, by the way, just wanted to mention it was an abysmal April, but from May on, He hit 271 with 18 homers and a 739 OPS, which is pretty close to what we were expecting. Yeah, he was he was solid. It's just the year before he hit 299.

And the year before that, he hit 282. And so I think the reason his value got inflated in Roto leagues especially is people were thinking, okay, batting average stand out at catcher. How could this go wrong? Well, you know, with players who have that swing at anything, approach there's a lot of variance within now i still think yiner daz is one of the better bets for batting average at the position but every player has a pretty wide range of outcomes when it comes to batting average especially free swingers like that so you just can't you just don't want to presume too much

that's why i only have him 12th but i don't really disagree with any of chris's assessment for your yiner dias i just within that fluid range there are some others i prefer and i actually like i said at the start of the show, I actually call it more like a top 16 rather than top 14. I'm guessing the two I have in that that Chris doesn't have are the rookies for next year, Samuel Bessio and Carter Jensen. I have Bessio in the, he's 13 for me. Okay, so who else is it? So 15 for me is Kirk and then Real Muto. Yeah, I have them both outside of my 16. 16, I have Alvarez, 15 Carter Jensen, 14. Thiel, 13 Gabriel Moreno. Okay, I didn't realize

Jensen had, I had done my rankings before the last night. There's one other. There's one other. Who's the other one? Oh, you know what? One of you guys might have ranked? No. I don't have Ivan Herrera. I don't know. I'm sorry. This is, this is a bad

use of air time. Nobody's interested in this. Anywho, I mean, the point is that the position, even in a one catcher league, could go 14 or 16 deep, so it is incredibly deep. You don't want to wait for your second catcher. It meters out at about 25. Even the second catcher group, I'm looking like,

if we can get Dalton rushing some playing time, I still have a lot of faith in him. I got him down at 31. If Moises Basayo or Bayesteros is going to play pretty regularly, I think he could. He's not a catcher to start out. Right, right. but if he gets catcher eligible.

I think Edgar Carrow's a decent option and who's going to play a decent amount for the White Sox. Yeah, I think it's just nice that we don't have to talk ourselves into like Tyler Stevenson and Logan Ohop. Like last year, if Dylan Dingler had the same season but the catcher position was the same as it was last year, Dylan Dingler's probably like a top 12 catcher.

He had a fine season. He probably is. And he's a fantastic defender too, so he's going to play a lot. I think he's an okay number two catcher. I just, it's nice that we don't have to talk ourselves into. Dylan Dingler is a decent number one. Yeah, as Stevenson, you mentioned him. For 12 team leagues, I don't even have him as a two-catcher option.

He's 25th for me. He's 25th for me, yeah. Before we wrap up, let's just do a quick, little 30 seconds on each of these players because, you know, obviously people looking forward to next year want to hear about some exciting names. And so Scott, Samo Bessio, who you have as your number 11 catcher, one of the top prospects of season. Chris, you'll get Kyle Teal, who also was a top prospect and had a big second half. I'm going to talk about Gabriel Moreno, but let's a quick 30 seconds on each, Scott. Why do you have Samuel Bessio so high at number 11? What are you expecting?

Like I said, I think, I don't know if we'd call him the number one prospect anymore, but he's certainly in the discussion. And in terms of just being a pure masher, he might be at the top of the list. You look at his readings in the minors. It looks a lot like Kyle Schwabber, for instance. Didn't show well in his September call up, but it's too early to cast judgment on that. And he'll be catcher eligible next year. He might be the primary first baseman or DH for the Orioles. We'll see.

But it's just kind of, it's just an investment in the pedigree and belief in the upside. And at what point in these very deep catcher rankings is it worth making that investment? I think that's really difficult to say. But initially, I come out at 11th at the position. Chris, talk to me about Kyle Teal. Kyle Teal is not really a standout in any way He's kind of a jack of all trades Type of hitter

He's got a pretty good eye at the plate There's a little swing and miss There's a little bit of power There should be a pretty good batting average You add it all up and it's the kind of thing that In past years he's probably like a top six type catcher And this year he's a fringe number one But we saw a big second half from him

It was an 833 OPS. He hit 288 with eight homers and 210 plate appearances. I think Kyle Teal has 20 homer upside while hitting 280. And he was a pretty good base stealer in the minor. So, like, I could see some of that pre-peak JT. Rao Muto where he steals like 8 to 10 bases as well. Yeah, I could see that as well for Kyle Teal. When I was digging into Gabriel Moreno, I really came away impressed on him

and feels like he's been around forever. He's only turning 26 years old. in February. He's dealt with a lot of injuries, so obviously that's the downside for him. But I kind of feel like he set the foundation for a breakout next year. He started lifting the ball more than ever before. That's always been a big problem for Gabriel Moreno. He has great plate discipline. He's a great defender. Depending on who the debacks bring in, if anybody, as DH, I think we could get even more playing time from Moreno next season as well. And the final 30 games after returning from a hand injury, hit 311 with four homers, 20 RBI, 863 OPS,

just a 26% ground ball rate during that time. I'm pretty excited about what we can get from a hopefully healthy Gabriel Moreno in 26. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week.

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