Chad Young’s C Tiered Rankings for 4×4 Ottoneu

As we continue our race against time (gotta get these in before you need to make final cut decisions!), Jake and I will turn our attention to catcher today and tomorrow. Catcher has been a weird position the last few years. Traditionally a weak fantasy position, it has gotten a lot stronger. But every year around this time, I feel like it is deeper than ever and every September, I look back at a slew of disappointments. And yes, it is deeper than it used to be, but that doesn’t mean it is all that great.

(If you want, you can skip the intro and my thoughts on the position, and go right to the rankings. As a reminder, my process and a long FAQ on my rankings can be found in my rankings preview.)

I talked about that same phenomenon in last year’s catcher rankings, so this isn’t new, and my strategy hasn’t changed a ton, to be honest. I still want to have a reliable catcher on every roster, but this year my focus will be less on a “top five” type catcher and more on that word “reliable.”

If you look at my top 10 below, you see some names that certainly are reliable (Cal Raleigh at #1 comes to mind), but there are also a lot of catchers who are riskier in that group. Ivan Herrera isn’t all that well established and even Ben Rice has a limited track record, as good as he looks.

As a result, I am considering floor more heavily than ever in terms of finding one of my two catchers. For me, this means that if I go after Rice or Herrera as my planned top catcher, I am more likely to go after someone I am confident will play regularly and be at least somewhat decent with my second spot. Two years ago, I was too willing to trust breakouts and waited on catcher, and it often bit me. Last year, too often I chased upside and so even if I spent on catchers, I had a lot of boom-or-bust, and too often, they busted.

This year, the plan is to pair upside with floor. If that doesn’t seem like a groundbreaking strategy, that’s because it isn’t. But it hasn’t seemed necessary at catcher, where the perceived depth at the position made it appear you could find catcher production when you needed it.

I shared this in the Ottoneu Slack community a couple of weeks ago, and it is sticking with me as I prep for cuts and auctions. Another member of the community, @Henry, noted that there are 20 catchers projected by Steamer for positive offensive fWAR in 2026. That seems great and suggests that there are catchers out there to be had. But looking back, I found this:

Going into 2025, there were 24 catchers projected for positive offensive fWAR per Steamer. Last year in MLB there were 15 C who posted positive offensive fWAR in 200+ PA. I remember feeling GREAT about catcher at this time last year and thinking things would be awesome and then they weren’t bad, but they weren’t as good as I hoped.

All of this to say – catcher looks deep! Catcher looks like a position you can find production cheaply and easily! But this isn’t new and it hasn’t worked out how we hoped the last couple of years, so be prepared for that probable (or at least possible) outcome again. Attrition at catcher do to injury or exhaustion or just poor performance is high.

Now that I have given my warnings, let’s look at my Ottoneu 4×4 tiered rankings for catcher!

4×4 C Rankings for Ottoneu