Fantasy Baseball Today - Early 2026 Catcher Rankings! Ben Rice Breakout Coming! (10/17 Fantasy Baseball podcast)
Episode Date: October 17, 2025No surprise but Cal Raleigh is at the top! Hunter Goodman over William Contreras? Scott is in love with Ben Rice for next season. There's a lot of excitement for Drake Baldwin and Agustin Ramirez. Wha...t's next for Adley Rutschman? Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 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
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It's time for way too early positional rankings for 2026, starting with catcher.
Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome in to FBT Express on Friday, October 17th.
I am Frank Stample joined by Scott White, taking a look at Scott's way too early
catcher rankings for 26.
I'll throw these at you in groups of three, Scott.
And your top three, no surprise with number one.
It's Cal Raleigh, the big dumper, coming off a historic 60 home run.
season. And then number two, you have Hunter Goodman. Number three, William Contreras. So,
look, no surprise. Cal Raleigh's up at the top. Some people might be a little surprised to see
you have Hunter Goodman over William Contreras for next year. Yeah, they shouldn't be that surprised.
I mean, he was great all season long. And that's, I think, what makes it so convincing for me
is just the consistency of the season for Goodman. Because a lot of times in these,
out of nowhere breakouts like we saw for Goodman.
It'll really just be this one or two month surge that kind of bolsters the numbers.
But in Goodman's case, there was just one month where he had an OPS below 800.
And it was May.
It was early in the season.
So there was no case of the league kind of catching up to him.
The reason I prefer him to William Contreras, strictly for Categories leagues,
five by five leagues.
I do have Contreras ahead and had at points.
But the reason I prefer Goodman in those categories least,
you just go by the five categories.
And the clearest advantage I see is in the home run category,
Goodman versus William Contreras.
You know, even if we presume a complete bounce back for Contreras next year,
which I do because he was basically fine once he got past the broken finger this year,
you're still talking about him finishing around 20 homers when Goodman,
we see him as a 30 homer guy.
So that's why I give Goodman the Edge.
4, 5, and 6 in your early catcher rankings, you have Shay Lang Lears, Ben Rice, and Salvador Perez on our full-length podcast.
You gave us a little sneak peek for Valentine's Day.
Ben Rice, one of the players you already love.
I do.
Yeah, I mean, it's an infatuation for sure, Ben Rice.
And I'd hesitate to call him my favorite hitter in the entire player pool.
but oh my gosh
I think he's so good
he already was so good
like even just taking his numbers
at face value in 2025
it's perfectly acceptable
to rank him fifth
at catcher for next year
but as good as he was
he was one of the biggest
underachievers
by the stat cast metrics
so his actual batting average
255 has expected
batting average 299
his actual slug
was 499
his expected slug 581.
And a lot of times when players underperform their expected stats,
it comes down to pull air rate.
They're just not pulling the ball in the air in enough.
That is not the issue for Ben Rice.
His pull air rate 25%.
It was in the red.
And he's pulling the ball as a left-handed hitter at Yankee Stadium,
which makes it seem even more likely.
He'll live up to those expected stats in the long run.
He kind of did over the final two months of 20.
2025, batting 298 with a 918 OPS.
I think this ranking is conservative, honestly,
because it's not necessarily counting on him
living up to those expected stats,
and it's also not accounting for the possibility
he's a full-time first basement for the Yankees next year
that they do away with the platoon,
as they should, looking at Ben Rice's lefty-righty splits.
It's really not an issue for him.
He should just be playing every day.
And if he's a true everyday player
with catcher eligibility, who has ground to gain statistically looking at those metrics,
he might be the number two catcher in fantasy next year behind just Raleigh.
As somebody who watches and follows the Yankees very closely, Scott, I can tell you they
love Ben Rice.
And I am anticipating that he will be in a full-time role in whatever role that is,
whether it's mostly first base, a little bit of catcher, a little bit of DH, I believe that he will get full-time
at Bats here in 2026.
Let's take a quick break.
We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back in FBT Express,
looking at some way too early catcher rankings
for next season. Let's recap Scott's top six.
Cal Raleigh, Hunter, Goodman,
William Contreras, Chey Langalearie,
Ben Rice, Salvador Perez.
7, 8, and 9, we have Will Smith,
followed by two exciting rookies from this past season,
Augustine Ramirez and Drake Baldwin.
Scott, Augustine Ramirez,
such an intriguing skill set.
He gives you power and speed.
Drake Baldwin,
just all around a fantastic hitter
as a rookie.
Put up 80 RBI.
It was awesome.
We just don't know
exactly what the playing time
is going to look like
next season yet
with the Atlanta Braves.
Yeah, so I would say
this group of three
contains the first two catchers
where it's like,
okay, playing time's going to hold them back.
Will Smith is one
because he isn't able
to just DH on his off days
because they got Shohei Otani there.
He just heads to the bench and sits pretty often for a catcher who's as good as he is offensively.
So that's why Will Smith ranks this low.
But the only reason I rank Drake Baldwin behind Augustine Ramirez is that he has the steepest playing time concern of all with Sean Murphy, presumably still with the Braves.
Now, they could trade Sean Murphy.
they could leave the DH spot vacant with Marcelo Zun entering free agency
and maybe have both pet catchers play regularly that way.
I kind of doubt that's going to happen either of those scenarios.
So Baldwin will have to continue to split at-bats with Murphy.
It's a shame because I think Drake Baldwin, his hitting profiles, and you're flawless.
Like, he could be, I could put him right behind there, right behind Ben Rice,
have him sixth the catcher if I trusted Drake Baldwin to get every day at bats.
But since I don't, since I think it's unlikely even, I got him put him ninth,
even behind Augustine Ramirez, who ended up hitting only 231 and had a pretty bumpy finish to the season.
But, you know, a lot of the underlying characteristics look great for Augustine Ramirez,
and he does not have those playing time concerns.
He is somebody who tends to play DH when he takes a day off from catching.
10, 11, and 12 at catcher.
You have Adley Ruchman, his teammate, Samuel Bessayo,
and Jainer Diaz, who took a step back this past season.
Scott, I find the Orioles catcher situation fascinating for fantasy.
Adley Ruchman, really since the end of June, 24,
when he suffered that hand injury, has not looked like the same hitter.
And then on the other side there, you have Samuel Bessio,
who is this young prospect catcher phenom,
who's probably going to play some D.H., some first base.
and the Orioles have already locked him in
with the contract extension.
So I think the playing time is going to be there,
but I do have some pretty big questions.
What are we going to get from Adley-Rutchman?
I think it's a fair question to ask for both of these players.
Rushman, you know, it's two bad years in a row.
Both were impacted by injury.
The underlying data still looks good.
His X-Vlocity readings were actually the best they've ever been this past year.
So I don't see a lot other than just, oh, he was injured so he wasn't quite himself.
I don't see a lot of reason to explain what's gone wrong for Adley Rushman the past couple years.
So broadly speaking, I'm optimistic.
It's just catcher has become so plentiful with so many high upside options that what incentive is there to gamble on a bounce back from Rushman?
And by the same token, what incentive is there to gamble on a breakthrough for Samuel Bessio, who didn't look very good in September?
I don't think that says a lot about his long-term future, but it does raise some doubts about how good he's going to be in 2025.
I am ranking them, I think, fairly optimistically here, fairly glass-half-full at, let's say,
see, what was it?
It was for Rushman, it was 10th, and for Samuel Bessio, it was 11th.
It's a case of no one set of rankings can speak to every format because, you know,
I default to 12 team, one catcher leagues.
Those are more common than 15 team, two catcher leagues, for instance.
And in one catcher leagues, if you take a shot on the upside of a Rushman or Basio and you miss,
okay, you're falling back on like Kyle Teal
or Gabriel Moreno off the waiver wire.
It's not a big deal.
But in deeper leagues and two catcher leagues,
maybe I would rank Rushman and Basayo
a little lower plate safer.
And Scott mentioned ranking these catchers.
He actually ranked more than just 12.
You could find his rankings on the website now.
CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball.
He has an article where he ranked the top 20 catchers
for both Roto slash category leagues
and for Head 10 Points League.
So regardless of what,
format you could play in. You do play in. You can take an early look at that, kind of get the wheels
turning for 2026. For more extensive fantasy baseball coverage, listen to our full-length podcast,
Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else podcasts are found. Thanks for listening
to Fantasy Baseball Today Express, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.