Catcher is a much better fantasy position than it used to be, but it still has pretty big drop offs that fantasy managers need to be aware of. The position is filled with a plethora of interesting young players and older vets to pick from, but the deeper the league you are in, the tougher the position becomes.
Chad and I tackled the two largest position groups to start off these rankings, so naturally, we’re starting off this week with the smallest and most straight forward: catcher.
Jake Mailhot’s Ottoneu Position Rankings: C | MI | OF
Chad Young’s Ottoneu Position Rankings: C | MI | OF
You can find all of the information about the format and methodology in Chad’s introduction to these rankings. I’ve matched his tiers so that it’s easy to compare across rankings and to provide a common language to discuss these rankings.
Here are few more notes about my process:
Projected points. I’ve been building my own homebrewed projections for the past decade plus, ever since I started playing Ottoneu, and they form the basis for the rankings below. They’re nothing overly complicated; essentially just a MARCEL-esque projection using three years of historical data filtered through a rough aging curve and adjusted for the current run environment. I also include a collection of three public projection systems (ZiPS, Steamer, and PECOTA) to provide some additional context. That gives each player six data sources that form their projection. Currently, the projections below only include Steamer and the ZiPS25 projections that were posted last year, not the updated 2025 projections that Dan Szymborski is currently rolling out.
P/G vs P/PA. Points per game played is the gold standard by which you should be evaluating players in Ottoneu. I won’t argue with that. That measure does have some drawbacks, particularly for players who pinch hit, pinch run, or are used as defensive substitutions often. Those limited appearances can skew a player’s P/G lower than what they’re producing when they’re getting three or four plate appearances when they start a game. To provide a little more context for these kinds of players, I’ve also included points per plate appearance below. That measure should give us a better idea of how a player produces no matter how he’s used by his team.
Catcher is the awkward step-child of your fantasy roster — you have to invite them to the family reunion but no one is really excited to see them once they’re there. If you’re able to roster one of the top options, you’re probably pretty happy with their production; if you’re not willing to commit that much budget space to the position, there are plenty of cheap options to find if you wait.
Rather than give notes on every player like Chad, I’ll give my general thoughts on each tier below and discuss the outlier players I like more or less than his rankings. Let’s get into it.
With catcher being such a unique position where your catcher may only play in two-thirds of his team’s games in any given week, regular playing time is at a premium. So when a player is eligible at catcher in fantasy, but is regularly playing other positions like first base or designated hitter, and therefore getting more playing time than if he was stuck behind the plate, it’s a slight competitive advantage over other players at the position. That’s the main reason why I have Willson Contreras and Perez ranked a tier higher than Chad. I’m willing to pay that premium to get their level of production in my lineup without having to worry about a replacement level catcher to make up the ~30–40 games my primary catcher will miss.
In his first full season as the Cardinals backstop, Herrera impressed with a .351 wOBA and excellent batted ball peripherals to back up that performance. He’s projected to start the season in a timeshare with Pedro Pagés, but I’m willing to bet that his bat will quickly prove that he’s the superior option and will wind up the primary catcher by midseason.
After a promising rookie campaign in 2023, Alvarez followed it up with a weird season in ‘24. His wOBA was exactly the same but his power output fell pretty significantly and his BABIP increased by a nice 69 points. The root causes were a jump in his groundball rate by more than eight points and a barrel rate that was nearly cut in half. Even though his overall production stayed stable, the shape of it is a bit concerning and has me worried about his potential ceiling.
From the giant lists covering OF and MI to one of the shorter and least interesting lists – catcher. Last year, I was pretty excited about the catcher position and this year, I am not. In the intro to my rankings last year, I called out a number of young catchers that were emerging or ready to break out that left me feeling confident I could find catcher production. That didn’t so much work out.
My colleague, Lucas Kelly, covered his keep or cut decisions at catcher yesterday and that was a good reminder that I should probably be diving deeper into my rosters to figure out my off-season plans.
I play in a couple of dynasty leagues, one of which is a 12-team, one-catcher 5×5 roto league in which I spent much of the off-season trying to trade J.T. Realmuto because I also had Keibert Ruiz. Ruiz has been disappointing and is no longer on my roster, but I picked up David Fry and so I am still trying to trade Realmuto. And despite a typically solid start from Realmuto, there are still no takers. Yet I feel like my rosters have had a ton of disappointing catchers. The aforementioned Ruiz. Bo Naylor. Yainer Diaz. So why does no one want or need Realmuto? What is happening at the catcher position?
We are in the midst of a Catcher Renaissance. I can’t remember the last time the position was this deep. Mainly because I have a terrible memory for instantly recalling such things, but also because I just don’t think we’ve seen this kind of quality at the position in years. It is led by a mix of under-30 superstars and veteran studs who remain dominant into their early- and mid-30s. Of course, a positional renaissance doesn’t come just from strength at the top. The expanding middle class is loaded with potential gems, many of whom will become the next wave of stars at the position. There were 12 catchers under age-30 who posted a 100 or better wRC+ last year and 15 in that age range (with a lot of overlap, of course) who hit at least 13 HRs.
You can maneuver through the rankings and decide how you want to attack catcher. If you miss out on the studs, there is plenty of alluring backfill, especially for 1-C leagues. But even in 2-C leagues, I can easily identify at least 24 guys I’d gladly take 2 of meaning I’m golden in a 12-teamer and probably set up well even in a 15-teamer as many of those 24 will be taken in time to ensure I’m not picking over the last six for either of my options. I’d expect my catcher portfolio to be very diversified across my multiple leagues, especially compared to last year when I had 912 shares of Tyler Stephenson. OK, I didn’t play 912 leagues… who do you think I am, Justin Mason?!
As we move into draft season, I will be updating these rankings occasionally, when there is news to justify changes. The original rankings will stay at the bottom of the article to maintain my player notes. The original catcher rankings were posted 1/23 and the most recent update is 2/26.
