Ranking catchers has always been one of the toughest things to do as a Fantasy Baseball analyst, and that looks like it will still be the case in 2026. But, for the first time in the decade-plus I’ve been doing this, it’s because there might actually be more viable options than lineup spots in most leagues.
That’s certainly true for one-catcher leagues, where we’ve had trouble finding room for guys like Alejandro Kirk, Kyle Teel, and Drake Baldwin this season. But even in two-catcher leagues, we might be leaving off young, upside-y names like Dalton Rushing or older, solid veterans like Tyler Stephenson or Ryan Jeffers. For the first time I can remember, we won’t just be ranking also-rans by default.
I’m not even close to being ready to start ranking for 2026, but I’m starting the process this week. The plan is to have a rough draft of rankings ready for you in the FBT Newsletter on the first Monday after the season ends, and I’m going to spend the next two weeks working on that. Along the way, I want to work through my process out loud, so the next couple of weeks of newsletters will feature some of my thoughts on the toughest players to rank at each position.
We’ll still have recaps of the comings and goings around baseball, but I also know that most league championships are happening now, and there just isn’t much you can do at this point to change your fortunes. The die has been cast, so let’s peek ahead at 2026. Starting with some thoughts on four catchers who will cause some headaches:
Please subscribe to our newsletter to gain the inside track on winning a league championship.
Cal Raleigh, Mariners*
The asterisk is there because this is one guy who is remarkably easy to rank among his peers – he’s the No. 1 catcher, and No. 2 is miles behind him coming off one of the best seasons ever by a catcher. With 13 games left on the schedule, Raleigh has 24 more homers, 16 more runs, 26 more RBI, and even two more steals than anyone else at the position. He represented the single biggest advantage you could have over the competition at any position, and would be a top-three pick if we knew he was just going to repeat his 2025.
But that’s not how it works. Raleigh almost certainly won’t be quite this locked in ever again, and we’ve already seen some of that regression, as he has hit .218/.328/.480 in the second half. Albeit with a still-mighty 48-homer pace with 100-plus runs and RBI. That’s phenomenal, but is it worth a first-round pick? I’m more comfortable with a second-round price tag on Raleigh, and it might be more like a late-second – the attrition rate at catcher just introduces a lot more risk than you’re taking on with other players at that range. A second-round catcher is still rare, but I’m guessing that won’t be enough for me to draft Raleigh more often than not in 2026.
I may be overthinking that one.
Contreras was, of course, the consensus No. 1 catcher coming into the season, which is the main reason his No. 4 ranking at the position is such a disappointment. He hasn’t been bad, but you paid for a difference maker and you’ve had to settle for, well, “hasn’t been bad.” Of course, he’s pretty quietly looked like himself in the second half, hitting .293/.367/.500, which makes it a lot easier to pin his earlier struggles on that fractured left finger we learned he was playing through in May. There’s been a definite step back, but he still makes a lot of contact, still hits for power, and still has a big playing time edge on most other players at the position. Despite the disappointment, I’m leaning toward ranking him second ahead of some of the 2025 breakout stars like Hunter Goodman and Shea Langeliers.
Agustin Ramirez, Marlins
In this case, the fact that Ramirez is a pretty bad defensive player works in his favor – the Marlins are willing to give him enough playing time behind the plate that he’ll stay catcher eligible, but otherwise they are content to stick him at first base. The big question here is how much of Ramirez’s batting average struggles as a rookie are something we should expect to carry over moving forward, because the rest of the skill set is pretty terrific – he has 20 homers and 12 steals in 124 games, and seeing as he should get something like everyday at-bats moving forward, projecting 25-15 isn’t unreasonable.
But that .230 average sticks out even among catchers. A .250 BABIP suggests there’s some bad luck here, though, and his quality-of-contact metrics back that up. He’s sporting a .273 expected batting average and .344 xwOBA (compared to a .302 actual mark that would make him one of the biggest underperformers in the league. Ramirez doesn’t have great plate discipline, but he actually makes quite a bit of contact thanks to an aggressive approach. That aggressive approach may lend some inherent volatility to the profile, but if Ramirez can really hit something like .275 with his rare-for-the-position power and speed, it’s not unreasonable to think he has No. 2 upside. He’ll rank a bit lower than that, but should still be someone very much worth getting excited about.
Drake Baldwin, Braves
This one isn’t really about talent. It’s about circumstances. Baldwin was a top prospect, and he has looked like a star as a rookie, putting together a .268/.337/.439 line that is solid enough even without the even better underlying numbers. If Baldwin is the Braves’ primary catcher, slated for five starts per week in 2026, he might be a top-five option at the position, capable of 25-plus homers with a good batting average and useful counting stats. The problem is, we just don’t know what that role is going to be. If Sean Murphy is traded this offseason, Baldwin immediately leaps into the second tier at the position with the likes of Hunter Goodman and Shea Langeliers. But if Murphy is back, I would expect something like a pretty even split behind the plate, which might leave Baldwin as more of a No. 2 option at the position. Hopefully, we have some clarity long before drafts start to take place.
This one … I just don’t know. Two years ago, he looked like the present and future of the position, having hit .268/.369/.439 across his first two major-league seasons. There wasn’t as much power as you’d like, but the underlying metrics suggested there was plenty of room for him to take a big step forward in his mid-20s.
Instead, Rutschman absolutely collapsed. We thought you could blame it on a hand injury he played through in 2024, but then he came back in 2025 and was somehow even worse this season. He has dealt with multiple oblique injuries that landed him on the IL, but Rutschman wasn’t hitting even when he was healthy, so I don’t think that excuse works here. That attrition I was talking about earlier? Catchers have the toughest job on the field, and the Orioles have asked so much from Rutschman since he was a rookie that I do wonder if he’ll ever be that same guy again. He’s not old, but at catcher, the peaks start later and the end tends to come earlier than at other positions, so I can’t say I have much confidence in him bouncing back at this point.
On the other hand, the floor is still a useful player, something I’m not sure you can say about most guys at the position, even now. I don’t think I’ll be ranking Rutschman as a top-12 guy anymore, but I don’t think he’ll be far off, and if everyone else is even more out on him than me, I’ll take the discount for a cheap No. 2 catcher with upside.