Profiling the top 30 catchers, and rookies to watch for fantasy baseball 2025
The rankings for the catchers listed here are for standard 5×5 Roto leagues (mixed universe). This format may be obsolete for those who play Points leagues, Head-to-Head, Best Ball, DFS or sim games. I try to note where format makes a difference, but it's called 'standard' for a reason, and we have to start somewhere.
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These rankings are for 2025 only. I ranked the players at the position they played the most but tried to note when they qualify elsewhere — and often, it makes more sense to draft them elsewhere.
Access The Athletic's guide for abbreviations used in fantasy baseball.
Besides his manifest ability, or rather what so fully supports that ability, is Contreras swings at strikes but does not swing at balls. You might dismiss his 9 SBs in light of his 25th-percentile sprint speed, but I think it supports them — his steals don't need speed, and if you can't bank on nine, you can bank on seven. Yadier Molina, who stole at least eight bases four times in his career, was even slower. Contreras has already beaten the sophomore decline that afflicts so many promising young catchers, and at age 27, he may not have peaked.
That said, he does not belong in the second round of 12-teamers. You can make a case for him in the third round, but you won't get it over on me — look at his five roto categories or his points and compare them to the hitters (and pitchers) going around him. I'm not into sacrificing with my foundation. Furthermore, other catchers will equal Contreras or beat Contreras or come close enough to help you while going in later rounds.
It can't hurt that he's no longer catching much. It helps with extra PAs, and he's running true on a Hall of Fame track. Perez won't be the bargain he was last year, but there's nothing wrong with snagging him once Diaz (below) goes.
He laughed off the second-year curse on young catchers despite his subpar defense. The big jump in GB rate cut into his power, resulting in a league-leading 22 GIDP. He's a free-swinger, but his mere 17.3% Ks justify it to some extent. He was near-elite for catcher PAs at 619 in 2024 and bats cleanup with strong OBP bats ahead of him. But still, his edge on most other catchers does not justify taking him before a baker's dozen better hitters and pitchers.
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He was mighty consistent for a catcher, and now he's not a catcher. Age (33) alone is not a sufficient reason to back off of him this season. Statistically, a career-high 12.6% walk rate balances a career-high 16.4% Sw/Str rate. Both seem incidental to his 47% Hard Hits for the past five years. Less of an injury risk now that he won't be catching, he's been going ahead of Will Smith and J.T. Realmuto in early drafts based on more PAs. Of course, being C-eligible but not having to catch is an edge, but last year — and going back a bit further — nobody thought Willson Contreras was the equal of either Smith or Realmuto. Their quality can beat the Contreras quantity, especially when part of their quality is production quantity in lineups far superior to the Cardinals'.
Smith is tempting at his current ADP of 104. The only objection is that Realmuto is going at 155. If you want to make a strategy of taking them both a little before ADP, well, last year, they would have been considered two rare gifts. Smith was pretty good for a bad year, and nothing changed in his profile, except he was a little banged up. He very likely has the best RBI slot in all of baseball. Too bad there's only one DH on the Dodgers.
Finally, we can enjoy the fruits of all those years he went in the third round. Realmuto is now shunned by an army of bitter buyers. For the first time since 2015, he's a bargain. Again, like Smith, nothing changed except that he was hurt, and if there is more injury risk at age 34, there is also a good chance Realmuto fills the designated hitter role more. His wheels (79% sprint speed) continue to hold up.
Last year has me spooked, like in the ghost-of-Matt Wieters sense. Rutschman produced an especially unsettling .219/.290/.342 line against righties. The big change was a spike in his O-zone swings, which seems fixable, but it wasn't supposed to happen. He hits better when he's not catching — so far anyway — which makes sense but is hardly cause for dancing in the streets. There may be some variation on Late-Blooming Catcher syndrome at work here. Maybe I'm dead wrong — we were all smitten for good reason — but for this year anyway, I'm not paying top dollar.
Raleigh is an automatic DFS pick on the road against a finesse fly-ball pitcher with a bad bullpen behind him — lefty/righty doesn't matter. But he is going too high this year in Roto games. Yes, his power is prodigious. But he is a 51.2% career fly-ball hitter with a career 28.9% Ks, and he plays half his games in hitter hell. His .232 BA of 2024 is his high end, and Raleigh is now a lifetime .218 hitter, capable of .197 for a full season.
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It's huge that Moreno didn't dive into the tank in his second year as a regular, as many catchers do. He started slowly in 2024 before hitting .324 in the final three months. Without more fly balls, he won't hit 20 HRs, but they did creep up, and a .285 AVG sure is nice at catcher. Moreno is worth a little reach to be a C2 in mixed leagues. One negative is that he's such a good catcher that he will not DH much, if at all.
His hit tool is there for all to see, and all the numbers back it up for AVG/OBP. He has only occasional power, but he has enough to possibly develop as he turns 25 in June. I like him a lot, but young catchers are prone to sophomore swan dives into the muck. I think Herrera will be an exception — maybe I'm wrong, but it's evident that the guy hits major-league pitching.
This ranking is on-the-come, considering what he has done. His strikeouts are not bad by 2025 standards; his swing decisions are quite good; his swing-and-miss is not too bad; and he's not a strict pull hitter, although that could change. He bats cleanup for the Yankees, and they gave Wells some starts against lefties, though he didn't do much against them. He was a defensive plus, which is a good sign — it constitutes practical proof that he can learn. I figure he gets at least a little better.
Langeliers is close to useless against anything not in his zone, but fortunately, his zone is middle-to-down-and-away, a zone pitchers aim for dependably. He should get some AVG benefit from being out of Oakland, but considering he's a career .215 hitter, don't expect actual help.
I have him lower than most because, as much as I liked him last year, I did not like his 38.2% Ks after the All-Star break. They streak, they slump, I get it, but that many strikeouts in his most recent performance fairly screams that his career .243 batting average is too high. He will still pop home runs, but I'm not betting on growth.
He would rank higher but for the injury news. For a young catcher, no regress is progress. Alvarez is a good pitch cheater, a bad pitch blocker and has a good arm despite throwing out just 18% of base-stealers. It might appear he traded power for an incremental gain in contact, but after watching him a lot, I don't think that's quite right. His Hard Hits and max-EV are fine. I think he was at times focused on situational hitting — a sacrifice of sorts, maybe, but more in the line of developing his whole hitting game. Remember, Alvarez plays this year at age 23.
This ranking assumes a full season, but that's looking shaky — out 4-6 weeks with a cracked rib — so discount accordingly.
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Murphy is out from under the dark shadow of Travis d'Arnaud, though we are entitled to wonder if the Braves will find Murphy another partner. He's coming off a bad year. His skills were out of whack, probably due to an oblique injury and a hit-by-pitch on his throwing elbow. His best days may be behind him at age 30, but I see small risk in banking on .250 with 20 HRs.
It's a little early to label him a Late-Blooming Catcher at age 27, but then he was the second overall pick in the 2018 MLB Draft. Maybe top picks bloom earlier. Bart still strikes out too much to sustain his .265 AVG, but his power is real, and he can certainly pop 25 HRs. He should see some DH time. Bart's a nice, cheap play in DFS when facing a lefty and a bad bullpen.
On July 8 of last season, his OPS was .689. On Aug. 29, it was .820. Then he calmed down to finish at .782. That's what Stephenson is, give or take — likely dependent on the state of his body. At age 28, he may have another level, but it's not bettable.
Garver's coming off a down year, as predicted by the high-K/high-fly-ball catechism. It's not truth, but the good-year-bad-year pattern is bettable both ways. You might say his Ks shot up, but to me, that is a symptom rather than a cause, in addition to having to hit in Seattle, where he's still hitting. This does dampen the projection, but Garver can pretty easily hit 25+ HRs, and catchers who are no better will go higher. Consider him a nice late fallback option.
Kirk is stuck in neutral. I've always liked him, but so far, he hasn't really delivered, yet the case for Kirk stands: great contact, 42.4% career Hard Hits, and he uses the whole field — he should be hitting .280+. His power doesn't look promising, but neither does anything holding him back. Neutral — I guess that's the bet, but I will push it a little. Even though Kirk has never attempted a stolen base in the major leagues — which is just wrong — I like him as a fallback C2.
Jeffers had 465 PAs, 13th among catchers; not long ago, that many PAs would have put him higher. Jeffers cut his Ks to 20.2%, but alas, in tandem with his Hard Hits falling from 42.7% to 33.8%. He still hit 21 home runs, which looks repeatable given the PAs. I'd like him more if I thought he would play more, but the Twins like that catcher-partner thing.
Ruiz took a step back with the bat. He makes elite contact, but much of it is weak due to swinging at non-strikes. Still, he should get back over .250 with 15 HRs, and he usually bats 5-6 in the order rather than 8-9.
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Give them credit; the Red Sox saw something others did not. His Statcast page says Wong can't hit at all, yet he did. Maybe he's not this good — indeed, that is the bet — but he's a decent hitter.
His defensive numbers look worse than he is. Stallings is a pretty good catcher with a very bad pitching staff. He hit well enough to keep his job, though it must be said that no Rockies catcher ever keeps his job for long. This elevated ranking is only because of the ballpark, but there he still is.
He's pretty good in his own way. At this point, Fermin is a better catcher than Salvador Perez — Perez is still competent, but Fermin is a weapon. Perez played a lot of first base when Vinny Pasquantino was out, so perhaps Fermin will play less this year, but then the Royals might make Perez the regular DH and backup catcher. There's not much hope for a power surge, given Fermin's ground balls and soft hits, but Ks were down and walks up, and he has a better than average chase rate. It's conceivable that Fermin could push .300.
Jansen's a career .220 hitter despite just 19.8% Ks because he is an extreme fly-ball hitter without a lot of hard hits. Jansen is also extremely passive, showing that he is hunting meatballs but not getting many. He has good power and stands to be the Rays' regular backstop with negligible competition. He's not the worst C2 in mixed leagues, but I wouldn't be happy.
If the Orioles plan to play him against lefties, which they might with Rutschman at DH, Sanchez is not your basic backup catcher. It's hard to believe he has played 10 seasons.
The grounds for hope are Rogers' declining strikeouts for two years in a row and what appears to be horrible luck vs. lefties last year. When I say 'hope,' I mean that Rogers might be an acceptable hole-filler in mixed leagues. At least he'll hit a few home runs.
Fortes has no star potential, but with just 12.2% Ks, I think the odds tilt in his favor to hit for a decent average with occasional pop. On 50-man rosters, you must roster at least four catchers. I like Fortes as a reserve if other managers let you, and I won't wait long. He's not a bad C2 in NL-only leagues at the right price. He is the regular, and he is a good catcher.
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All signs point to Naylor having Late-Blooming Catcher syndrome, which means stay away for now. He will hit some homers and steal the odd base, but his strikeouts jumped, and the walks fell — for now, hitting even .230 is asking a lot, probably too much.
The Diamondbacks face the interesting problem of getting Del Castilla's bat into the lineup. He's not the catcher Gabriel Moreno is — players ran wild on Del Castilla — but he might be good enough to DH, at least against righties. Arizona clearly has plans for the second-round pick. He may have a strikeout problem, but he gets his barrels. Consider him a spring watch.
Rushing, who bats left, raked in the high minors and looks ready for the majors. It's hard to believe Austin Barnes stands in his way. Since Rushing also plays some outfield and first base, he might even make the team.
A key piece of the Garrett Crochet trade, Teel will likely get at least a look this year at age 23. He bats left with high-average power potential and even some speed. Teel figures to struggle with strikeouts and could struggle to catch a bad pitching staff. But these things can be beaten. He's another spring watch.
Pay attention when they say a catcher's bat will play at first base and, likewise, when they reach Triple A in their age 19 season. Basallo is fairly likely to get a look this year, but more than a look is doubtful unless injuries force the O's hand. He made good (hard) contact in the minors, but that will take a hit in the majors. In addition, he takes his walks and runs well. He's prime trade bait if the O's go looking for a big pitcher.
The big piece in the Chisholm trade, Ramírez enjoyed a breakout season in the high minors — 25/22 in 123 games. His contact should play in the bigs. What is unlikely is that Ramírez sticks at catcher. It's worth an eye to see what the Marlins do, but if he hits, Miami will find a way to incorporate him.
(Top photo of William and Willson Contreras: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)
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