2017 Catcher Rankings

We're kicking off our position-by-position preview posts for the 2017 fantasy baseball season with the catcher position. This is probably the easiest position to get a good hold on just because the clear lack of options.

One thing I really like to look at here is average draft position (ADP). We are still very early on so these numbers are going to change quite a bit until most leagues have their draft, but here's what I'm seeing right now in terms of ADP at the catcher position:

 

From that you can see there, it's a top heavy position. Let's break this down into tiers and try to not get too verbose.

 

Tier One: Buster Posey, Gary Sanchez, Jonathan Lucroy

 

A popular draft strategy, and one that I have adopted myself over my years playing fantasy baseball, is to grab the top guys in thin positions. This has typically been middle infield, although that's not the case at all this year - but we'll get into that later. The only position in my eyes that's extremely thin is catcher. If you want to capitalize on that advantage, you'll be drafting one of these three guys. Posey is clearly the safest option. He's played a minimum of 146 games in the five seasons since his leg injury in 2011. He has a career .307 batting average and has hit double digit home runs in these last five seasons. There's not a lot more to say, you're going to get production from this guy, it's just a matter of if you want to use a top 5 round pick on him.

Gary Sanchez is the most interesting guy on the list to talk about. If you're reading this, you already know about the 20 home runs he hit in 201 major league at-bats last year. What you might not know is that he hit just ten home runs in his 284 at-bats in AAA last season before his call-up. His minor league career triple-slash line (average, on-base, slugging) is .275/.339/.460 - very solid numbers, but it doesn't look like a guy who's going to be challenging for home run titles in the majors.

 

So who is the real Gary Sanchez? Is he worth the 2nd overall catcher ranking? My short answer is yes. The upside cancels out the risk of regression (and there will be regression, the question is how much). He plays in a hitter friendly ballpark and showcased some eye-popping exit velocity numbers last season. In my eyes there's no way this guy doesn't hit double-digit home runs (barring injury) and could even be a positive in batting average for you. I probably won't be reaching this high for him in drafts, but I won't put any blame on anybody who does.

 

Jonathan Lucroy rounds out the top tier, although it seems to be a pretty big drop off from Posey and Sanchez to get to Lucroy. The guy is 30 years old and has played a ton of games behind the plate the last four years. He had a miserable 2015 season before bouncing back in 2016, a year in which he was traded from the Brewers to the Rangers at the deadline. After the move to Texas, his power numbers increased (.539 slugging, 11 HR in 152 AB with the Rangers), but his batting average dipped. Long story short, Lucroy is a very good hitter that will put up very positive numbers for your fantasy team when he's healthy. He's in the middle of a very strong Rangers offense and will add some extra home runs on playing in that ballpark.

 

If you miss on these three guys, you're probably going to have some frustration trying to get production out of catcher, but you can find some solace in the fact that the majority of your league will have the same problem.

 

Tier 2: Willson Contreras, Evan Gattis, J.T. Realmuto, Salvador Perez, Yasmani Grandal

 

For standard 10 to 12 team leagues, you're going to want to grab one of these guys if you miss out on the top three. There is just a huge drop off in my eyes after this handful of catchers. You'll be able to have most of your team filled out before grabbing one of these guys, and you could get some really nice value if the rest of the league waits on catcher as well. Let's take a quick look at each guy.

 

Contreras - He was excellent with the Cubs in his rookie year hitting .282/.357/.488 with 12 homers in 252 at-bats. Very solid numbers all around and he was probably one of the best free agent additions in fantasy leagues last year. However, I see some regression coming for Contreras. He had a .339 BABIP last year while striking out a good bit (23.7% strikeout percentage), and he didn't make great contact (17.9% line drive percentage). He's young enough to improve, and there will be guys on base for him hitting near the bottom of one of baseball's best lineups, but I don't think I'll be reaching this high to have him on my team.

 

Gattis - You know what you're going to get here. He's going to be near the top of the league in home runs for catchers, and he's not going to do much else. If your team is looking pretty solid with batting average after your first handful of picks and you need some home runs, Gattis a guy worth checking out. One risk would be that he'll probably be asked to play more catcher this year and less DH with Brian McCann on the team now, so there's a bit of a heightened injury risk, but I wouldn't pass on drafting him just because of that.

 

Realmuto -  The 25 year old is entering his 3rd full season with the Marlins and was looked at last year as a catcher with big offensive upside. He responded with a .303/.343/.428 slash line with 11 homers. Solid numbers from your catcher. There doesn't seem to be a ton of upside with him, but he's not a guy that's going to kill your team week to week. If he falls late enough, this is a guy I'll be targeting to just get some steady numbers out of catcher.

 

Perez - A fan favorite, Salvador has back-to-back 20 homer seasons and has made the all-star team four years in a row. He non-power numbers took a step back last year as he hit for just a .247 batting average. That was on the heels of a .280 BABIP and a 4.0% walk rate, neither number suggesting his numbers were just bad luck. He hasn't had any injury problems and is a great bet for 15+ homers, so there's value in Perez if the price is right.

 

Grandal - Another popular player here that a lot of people are excited to draft this year. Personally I'm not real sure why anybody would be too excited about this guy. He had some big numbers in 2015 when he first came to the Dodgers, but he cooled down in a hurry there. Last year he hit 27 home runs in 126 games (390 at-bats) which is spectacular, but is going to be tough to repeat. He has a career .238 batting average, so he's really going to hurt your team if he doesn't get to similar power numbers as last year. You could certainly do worse than Grandal, and as I said there's a pretty big drop off after this tier, so he's a guy you might need to grab just because of the opportunity cost.

 

Tier 3: The rest

 

At this point you're only drafting a catcher because your league rules tell you that you have to. You've got some guys that have been good producers in their career, but are so old you just can't feel good about them in Brian McCann, Yadier Molina, and Russell Martin that you could take a gamble on, but that's not what I'm going to be doing this year. There's power upside in Wilson Ramos, Stephen Vogt, and Mike Zunino, but they'll probably hurt your batting average to the point where the extra few homers isn't going to be worthwhile. If your league goes catcher-crazy and the top 8 guys are gone, I would recommend just completely punting the catcher position and load up at the positions the other owners are neglecting.

 

My current catcher rankings: