Early 2026 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Top 20 at catcher reveals incredible surplus at typically weak position

What you're about to see will shock you.

Imagine a tidal wave washing over the Mojave Desert. That's what's happened to catcher in the span of just a couple years. Between prospects making good like Agustin Ramirez and Drake Baldwin, players reaching new heights like Cal Raleigh and Shea Langeliers, and total surprises like Hunter Goodman and Ben Rice, not to mention usual standbys mostly holding steady, the position is loaded in a way we've never seen before.

• Early rankings: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP

It's so deep that there's almost no point in investing in it in one-catcher leagues, unless you're shooting for Raleigh. You'll find just as much talent on the waiver wire as in the draft. It's so deep that up-and-comers like Ivan Herrera and Moises Ballesteros can lose eligibility at the position, qualifying only at DH next year, and we hardly even notice. Just imagine when they regain catcher eligibility next year, as seems likely for Herrera especially.

There's room for disagreement at every position, of course, but that's especially true for this one. Any of Nos. 4-16 could rank as high as fourth next year without it being a major upset, which is why drafters in one-catcher leagues almost can't mess it up. Sure, not every catcher drafted will pan out, but there are more than enough redundancies to make up for the ones who don't.

Note that the focus here is standard 5x5 scoring (such as Rotisserie leagues), but scroll a little further, and you'll see my rankings for points leagues.  

Top 20 catchers for 2026

1	Cal Raleigh Seattle Mariners C
How could anyone else claim the top spot? Raleigh had one of the all-time great home run seasons, and he did it at the position with the most natural barriers to accumulating such totals. He's always excelled in the counting stats, getting more consistent at-bats than the average catcher thanks to his defensive prowess, and now that he's raised his threshold for all of those counting stats, there's even less reason to sweat the low batting average.
2	Hunter Goodman Colorado Rockies C
Arguably the biggest surprise at a position full of them, Goodman went from having a bit role as a bat-first backup to being the heart of the Rockies lineup. He shifts over to DH on his "off" days, distancing himself from other catchers in run and RBI production, and his month-to-month breakdown is as steady as they come, showing that his numbers weren't inflated by some impossibly hot stretch.
3	William Contreras Milwaukee Brewers C
Contreras' streak of being the top catcher in Fantasy ended with a year in which he attempted to play through a broken finger, putting him in an early hole. It was a non-issue by the second half, when he got back to delivering his usual numbers, but for as good of a hitter as he is overall, the home run output now seems rather pedestrian at a position with so many emerging sluggers.
4	Shea Langeliers Athletics C
A favorable venue shift and marked reduction in strikeout rate both contributed to career-best numbers for Langeliers, who might have exceeded 35 homers if he hadn't missed most of June with a strained oblique. He's clearly a tier behind, though, since he's the first of these catchers who doesn't automatically slot in at DH on his off days. Also, Statcast estimates he should have hit about 25 percent fewer home runs than he actually did.
5	Ben Rice New York Yankees 1B
Rice rates in the 90th percentile or better in all of the major Statcast measurements, so it's a wonder that he -- a left-handed hitter with good pull-air tendencies playing half his games at Yankee Stadium -- isn't an absolute monster. Maybe that's coming in 2026, when he'll presumably have free rein at first base. My ranking has to safeguard against the possibility of a platoon and/or continued underachievement, but Rice may have the second-highest ceiling of anyone with catcher eligibility.
6	Salvador Perez Kansas City Royals C
A slow start gave Perez the appearance of being cooked at age 35, but then he rebounded to deliver some of the best home run and RBI totals of anyone not named Cal Raleigh, with no noteworthy changes to his underlying data set. At some point, it'll come to an end, but if he's able to spend more time at first base and DH with the emergence of Carter Jensen , it may not be for a couple years yet.
7	Will Smith Los Angeles Dodgers C
Teams usually find a way to keep catchers who hit like Smith in the lineup even when they need a day off from catching, but that's not an option for the Dodgers with Shohei Ohtani occupying DH. So Smith is at a real playing disadvantage that pushes him this far down the rankings even though the percentages say he's not much worse than William Contreras .
8	Agustin Ramirez Miami Marlins C
The Marlins seem to know what they have in Ramirez, making use of the DH spot to keep his bat in the lineup every day even as he endured some of the usual growing pains for a rookie. Whatever flaws exist in his hitting profile are minor -- too many ground balls, maybe, and not enough walks -- and to that point, Statcast marks him as one of the biggest underachievers in batting average. He also offers rare steals potential for a catcher, modest though it is.
9	Drake Baldwin Atlanta Braves C
Baldwin presents a nearly flawless hitting profile, complete with premium exit velocities, a low strikeout rate, an all-fields approach, and no drastic platoon splits. He would probably rank at least three spots higher if not for the presence of Sean Murphy , who will still demand his share of at-bats coming off hip surgery. Unless the DH role is left vacant so that both Braves catchers can play regularly, Baldwin's at-bats figure to be the most limited of anyone ranked so far.
10	Adley Rutschman Baltimore Orioles C
It would be easier to dismiss Rutschman's miserable 2025 as a lost season, given the repeated IL stints, if he didn't crash so hard to end the 2024 season as well. Nothing in the underlying data would explain what's gone wrong for him -- he's as disciplined as ever and has expected stats far exceeding his actual ones -- so between that and his sparkling pedigree, you'll want to give him the benefit of the doubt still. The surplus of catcher talent makes it harder to do, though.
11	Samuel Basallo Baltimore Orioles C
Arguably the top hitting prospect at the time of his promotion, Basallo seems destined to move off catcher eventually but has secured another year of eligibility there thanks to Rutschman's injuries. For all the upside he offers, particularly with regard to home runs, there's no ranking him higher than this at a position where so many other young hitters have proven their worth already, and it's not totally clear he'll have a job all to himself anyway.
12	Yainer Diaz Houston Astros C
Diaz's 2025 shows how little margin for error players who scarcely walk have in Fantasy. His core attributes haven't changed, but because the results were a little off -- probably more as a matter of variance than anything else -- his season felt like a disaster. This ranking is meant to moderate expectations for him, yet he still seems like one of the better bets for batting average at the position.
13	Gabriel Moreno Arizona Diamondbacks C
It's tempting to rank Moreno even higher than this given the growth he showed after returning from a fractured finger in late August -- namely, a greatly elevated launch angle to tap into his latent power. He already possesses some of the best bat skills at the position, excelling in Head-to-Head points leagues thanks to his strikeout-to-walk ratio, and if he can eke out 20 homers as well, he'll be a standout in all formats.
14	Kyle Teel Chicago White Sox C
Though it didn't get the same fanfare as Drake Baldwin's or Agustin Ramirez's, Teel had an impressive rookie showing of his own. He didn't hit the ball particularly hard on average, but he impressed with his peak exit velocities and angled the ball well for home runs, all while walking at an elite rate. There are playing time concerns related to his left-handedness and the presence of Edgar Quero, but of the two White Sox catcher call-ups, Teel made the stronger impression.
15	Carter Jensen Kansas City Royals C
Jensen got only a 20-game sample to end 2025, but he did everything right in it, not only slashing .300/.391/.550 (which modeled his .290/.377/.501 slash line in the minors) but also delivering premium exit velocities and exhibiting superlative plate discipline. You don't want to make too much of too little, particularly given all the other exciting options at this position, but Jensen looks like the real deal.
16	Francisco Alvarez New York Mets C
We're to a point where seeing is believing with Alvarez, who will only be turning 24 in the offseason but has left ample room for doubt with his all-too-frequent injuries over the past couple years. There's still a lot to like about the one-time No. 1 catcher prospect, who made some of the hardest contact of any catcher in 2025 and was especially productive after returning from a minor league stint in July.
17	J.T. Realmuto Philadelphia Phillies C
Realmuto's decline has been so gradual that it's been easy to blame on variance or health matters the past couple years, but now there can be no denying that he's on the downswing as he enters free agency. It's not clear that 20 homers is still within reach for the will-be 35-year-old, who may find the playing time less prevalent with his new club, presuming he's not back with the Phillies .
18	Austin Wells New York Yankees C
If Ben Rice is indeed the Yankees ' primary first baseman next year, then it will also be good news for Wells, who was forced to sit more in the second half as a way to provide extra at-bats to his data darling teammate. Wells kind of brought it on himself, though, losing about 50 points from his 2024 OBP even while improving his home run output. He's looking one-dimensional as a hitter, but that one dimension, power, is what's most coveted in a low-dollar second catcher.
19	Alejandro Kirk Toronto Blue Jays C
No longer forced to split catcher duties with Danny Jansen, Kirk seemed poised for a breakout in 2025 and got off to that kind of start, but his exit velocities and ground-ball rate normalized in the second half, pulling his batting average back below .300. His five-category projection isn't so different from Dillon Dingler's (see below), but he's far better in points leagues, where his stellar strikeout-to-walk ratio actually counts for something.
20	Dillon Dingler Detroit Tigers C
The breakout catcher no one is talking about, Dingler did his best Yainer Diaz impression in 2025, placing in the 98th percentile for xBA with a line-drive rate that would rank first among qualifiers, according to FanGraphs. Unfortunately, playing at Comerica Park puts his actual batting average closer to good than great, leaving us wishing he'd tap into power a little more, and his poor walk rate makes him all but useless in points leagues.

What changes in points leagues?

1. Cal Raleigh, SEA
2. William Contreras, MIL
3. Hunter Goodman, COL
4. Shea Langeliers, ATH
5. Ben Rice, NYY
6. Will Smith, LAD
7. Agustin Ramirez, MIA
8. Salvador Perez, KC
9. Drake Baldwin, ATL
10. Adley Rutschman, BAL
11. Samuel Basallo, BAL
12. Gabriel Moreno, ARI
13. Kyle Teel, CHW
14. Carter Jensen, KC
15. Alejandro Kirk, TOR
16. Yainer Diaz, HOU
17. Francisco Alvarez, NYM
18. J.T. Realmuto, PHI
19. Austin Wells, NYY
20. Dillon Dingler, DET