Justin Mason’s Top 40 Catchers for 2020
It is that time of year again! With the new year upon us, I am releasing my first set of ranks during this week and next for those doing early drafts or prep over the holidays. All ADP and position eligibility are based on NFBC Draft Champions leagues.
Justin Mason’s Top 40 Catchers
| Rank | Player | Team | Position(s) | ADP | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | J.T. Realmuto | PHI | C | 59.82 | Career highs in homers, runs, and RBI while maintaining average in first year in Philly. |
| 2 | Gary Sanchez | NYY | C | 88.27 | All the tools to be the top catcher and a steal in two-catcher leagues. |
| 3 | Yasmani Grandal | CWS | 1B, C | 103.55 | Move from Miller Park is a small downgrade, but not enough for me to move him out of the 3 spot. |
| 4 | Willson Contreras | CHC | C | 126.64 | Rebounded nicely in 2019. If he can stay on the field, he could explode this year. |
| 5 | Mitch Garver | MIN | C | 116.64 | He has to regress, but how much? |
| 6 | Omar Narvaez | MLW | C | 238.45 | As long as he doesn’t lose time for defense, he could be a monster moving to Miller Park. |
| 7 | Will Smith | LAD | C | 152.45 | Feels very safe, but eerily reminds me of Danny Jansen coming into 2019 and that last month was dreadful. |
| 8 | Wilson Ramos | NYM | C | 192.27 | Where did the power go? |
| 9 | Carson Kelly | ARZ | C | 228.55 | .348 OBP with 18 homers is a nice get after pick 200. |
| 10 | Sal Perez | KC | C | 195.18 | Should be healthy, but we won’t know for sure until we see him. Can’t imagine Matheny gives him the same workload coming off the injury either. |
| 11 | Jorge Alfaro | MIA | C | 224.18 | That average should drop, but rest is pretty legit. |
| 12 | Yadier Molina | STL | C | 268.91 | Safe floor perfect for two-catcher leagues. |
| 13 | Christian Vazquez | BOS | C | 199.27 | Powerless catcher hit 23 bombs last year. Big step back expected. |
| 14 | Travis d’Arnaud | ATL | 1B, C | 264.09 | Surprising he stayed healthy. Could be a nice value if he can again. |
| 15 | Buster Posey | SF | C | 283.77 | This rank is either way too low or way too high depending on health. |
| 16 | Sean Murphy | OAK | C | 239.09 | This is a hedge. I expect he gets full run, but I don’t see a ton of upside. Maybe 18 HR/,250 BA upside? |
| 17 | Francisco Mejia | SD | C | 247.09 | Timeshare hurts potential |
| 18 | Danny Jansen | TOR | C | 296.27 | Bounceback chance after falling flat. |
| 19 | Kurt Suzuki | WAS | C | 295.36 | Safe floor with no real ceiling. |
| 20 | Chance Sisco | BAL | C | 427.55 | Probably still falling for the prospect pedigree a bit, but I believe the breakout is coming. |
| 21 | Roberto Perez | CLE | C | 295.27 | Propped up by both HRs and RBI totals last season, but I expect both will fall back. |
| 22 | James McCann | CWS | C | 290 | Breakout season quieted by Grandal signing. |
| 23 | Tom Murphy | SEA | C | 307.23 | Fake player. |
| 24 | Tucker Barnhart | CIN | C | 347.73 | Fell off in 2019 and needs to perform to avoid getting leapfrogged by Stephenson |
| 25 | Mike Zunino | TB | C | 464.32 | Average hurts his upside. |
| 26 | Reese McGuire | TOR | C | 435.59 | Defensive specialist that overperformed offensively last season. |
| 27 | Robinson Chirinos | FA | C | 326.32 | Landing spot means a lot here. |
| 28 | Willians Astudillo | MIN | C | 329.91 | Fan favorite needs a place to play. |
| 29 | Pedro Severino | BAL | C | 387.95 | Played well enough to hold off Sisco last year. Don’t buy that will happen again. |
| 30 | Victor Caratini | CHC | C, 1B | 371.18 | Gets added at bats when Rizzo is hurting. |
| 31 | Joey Bart | SF | C | 439 | Injury in AFL set him back, but if the Giants trade Brandon Belt, that could open a spot for him at some point. |
| 32 | Yan Gomes | WAS | C | 442.36 | Second fiddle to an old guy. |
| 33 | Tyler Flowers | ATL | C | 434.55 | Back home to ATL with an injury risk guy as his time share partner. |
| 34 | Welington Castillo | FA | C | 443.95 | Not draftable until we see landing spot. |
| 35 | Jacobs Stallings | PIT | C | 528.59 | Apparently the guy in Pitt? |
| 36 | Tony Wolters | COL | C | 518.23 | How is a starting catcher in Colorado ranked this low? Please sign someone. |
| 37 | Daulton Varsho | ARZ | C | 537.64 | Cannot play defense, but apparently the D-Backs do not care. Bat is ready. |
| 38 | Tyler Shephenson | CIN | C | 684.86 | Impressive in AFL this year. Could make debut pretty quick. |
| 39 | Austin Hedges | SD | C | 613.91 | Defense first catcher that has some pop, but can kill your average. |
| 40 | Austin Allen | OAK | C | 673.82 | Has promise and a chance to compete for time. |
Justin is the co-host on The Sleeper and The Bust Podcast and writes for Rotographs covering the Roto Riteup as well as other periodic articles. In addition to his work at Rotographs, Justin is the lead fantasy writer/analyst and co-owner for FriendswithFantasyBenefits.com, and the owner of The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational. He is also a certified addiction treatment counselor. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMasonFWFB.
Probably the toughest position to rank, with all of the 2019 breakouts.
Catchers ranked higher than I rank them: Molina (I don’t think a 37 year old catcher is safe), Posey, Mejia.
Suzuki should probably be higher than 19.
I feel Gomes is the one that should be higher than 32. You look at playing time last year- Gomes had 50 more PA’s than Suzuki did. That’s not going to change- and if anything Gomes might get even more.
Carson Kelly at that ADP seems like a steal to me. Probably because there are playing time concerns, right?
They carried three catchers for much of 2019 and he still carved out time.
And they are going away from the 3 catcher system this year.
Kelly seems like a safe bet to at least repeat – assuming he improves at home vs RHP (.143 in 105 AB)…and he surely will. He may be a bit worse overall vs LHP and the playing time should be the same (even if struggles vs RHP at home continue) or increase.
Great list!
I’m definitely on the same bandwagon as you are re: Tom Murphy
The Tom Murphy bandwagon is just a wagon.
What a mess C is. in a re-draft league I might wait and try to pick up two Cs heading into the year. I see a lot of value in Carson Kelly at that price, and I think you might be underselling Vazquez. The undertow of the Sox lineup will still be strong and he has improved his statcast metrics to be at least league average now (exit velocity, hard hit rate). I was really disapointed in Jansen last year and I know that he kind of deserved his W/rc of 68, but his plate discipline wasn’t bad and he was obviously focusing on defense which rated out pretty well and the coaches obviously told him to work on and the coaches were happy he did since he continued to play so I might give him a mulligan.
Sure, the Toronto coaching staff obviously thought enough of Jansen to keep pencilling him into the lineup. And a player’s first exposure to everyday MLB pitching can crystallize what to work on in the ensuing offseason to achieve a performance jump.
That said, Jansen was brutal at the plate last year (.207/.279/.360) after looking like the kind of professional hitter in the minors that should step right in at the MLB level and at least reliably reach base — if he gets off to a slow start again next season, there is a substantial chance he could find himself back as a AAA Buffalo Bison in short order.
I call this the Semien effect. A guy works hard to improve his defense at an important position. Said work affects his offense since the coaching staff preaches defense defense defense. Coaching staff is happy as he improves. Once he improves, he turns to offense and improves in that area. I would not undersell how hard a defensive position C is and how much Jansen worked at it. if he can eventually apply that work to hitting…I think he’s got a long leash in TOR.
Will Smith has nothing in common with Jansen. Smith hit his way to where he is – Jansen was the latest example in overvaluing plate discipline. To be clear, I would have no surprise if Smith was terrible this year but Jansen was almost certain to fail based on some silly expectations. At some point we should recognize that the projections for prospects are always trash – don’t hold that against poor Will Smith. I will be drafting a platoon of two scrubs on the same team this year and finishing in the top 3 to 5 at worst in terms of production. Sure it costs a bench spot but that is better than a draft pick… maybe its not but it might be.
Danny Jansen is a good hitting catcher. He hit 13 homers and had 43 RBI. His average was a bad fluke. He can hit .250 with power. Just watch.
Jansen’s strikeout rate increased from 13.6% in 2018 at AAA to 20.6% last year, while his walk rate declined from 12.2% to 8.1% — those are not metrics that are subject to flukiness over the number of plate appearances Jansen received, so what made him stick out in the minors more or less disappeared at the major league level last year. With a year under his belt and an offseason to work on things, there is certainly hope he can make a performance jump, but you cannot reasonably chalk up last season just to a bad fluke.
Uh what? Will Smith and Danny Jansen aren’t too dissimilar. They’re both catchers with good pop/discipline and have chops behind the plate. Jansen can hit well, and Smith can too.
Grandal is also moving to the AL where he will be getting extra at bats in the DH spot. It’s probably not enough to move him ahead of Sanchez but it’s something.
Kind of tough to get many more at bats than he had last year. Had 632 PA’s. 50th in MLB last season. however, the quality may be different as he won’t be starting 124 games at catcher to only 16 at 1b and 1 at HD. Would guess the number would get to around 110 games at catcher and then another 30-40 at 1b or DH.
Nice list. From a dynasty/keeper perspective, looking forward to seeing whether Will Smith or Sean Murphy returns the most long-term value.