Cal Raleigh had a historic 2025 season, but is he worth his top 20 price tag?
Finding productive catchers is key in fantasy baseball leagues, particularly those that require starting two catchers. After the top tier, ADP gaps widen quickly, creating opportunities to find steady producers, post-hype rebounds, and even a few prospects who could outperform their draft cost. At the same time, name value and career-best seasons are pushing some catchers higher than their underlying skills support. Below are several catcher sleepers who can return profit in 2026 drafts, followed by a group of popular options who carry more downside than their ADP suggests.
Sleepers
Yainer Diaz, Houston Astros
Diaz has been the clear No. 10 catcher in ADP this winter, with a steep drop-off at the position after him. While there’s no award for consistency, maybe there should be in this case. Diaz ranks first in batting average, fourth in home runs, fifth in RBI, and tied for sixth in runs scored among qualified catchers over the last three seasons. That type of production would normally warrant a higher ranking, but more inexperienced hitters like Ben Rice, Hunter Goodman, Agustin Ramirez, and Drake Baldwin have captured the imagination of fantasy managers chasing ceiling over certainty.
It’s true Diaz saw some legitimate decline last season, with his xBA dropping from .296 in 2024 to .268, along with a modest dip in hard-hit rate. Still, he maintained a strong 17% strikeout rate and remains locked into a favorable spot in a strong Astros lineup. Given Diaz’s high floor heading into his age-27 season, fantasy managers should feel comfortable buying at his current price.
Alejandro Kirk, Toronto Blue Jays
Kirk was an All-Star and Silver Slugger in his first full season in 2022, hitting .285-14-63 with 59 runs scored. He struggled to return to that level over the next two seasons, but last year marked a clear step back in the right direction with Danny Jansen gone and a new hitting instructor in Toronto. Even so, Kirk’s ADP near 155 places him just 12th among catchers, reflecting lingering skepticism about his ability to sustain the rebound.
The underlying improvements support last season’s production. Kirk remained an elite contact hitter with a 12% strikeout rate while posting notable gains in exit velocity, hard-hit rate, and launch angle. Those changes helped push him back into the heart of the order, hitting primarily in the 4–6 spots. The potential season-ending injury to Anthony Santander should again open up run-producing opportunities, making Kirk undervalued at his current ADP, which likely belongs 20–30 picks earlier.
Gabriel Moreno, Arizona Diamondbacks
Coming off a season in which Moreno played only 83 games due to multiple IL stints, this is a classic buy-low situation. But there’s more to like here than just health-related optimism.
Moreno continues to showcase the elite contact skills that made him a top prospect in Toronto, carrying a career .281 batting average through four seasons. The emerging variable is power. Moreno posted career highs with nine home runs and a .433 slugging percentage last season, driven by a sharp increase in launch angle and a jump in flyball rate to 26%, up from 21% in 2024. While his all-fields approach caps his true power ceiling, there’s a clear path to a .280 hitter with 12–15 home runs and potential long-term middle-of-the-order placement. With an ADP near 170, Moreno offers strong value.
Danny Jansen, Texas Rangers
Jansen’s profile is well established. He’s reached double-digit home runs in five of seven full MLB seasons, but has hit above .230 only once. Even with limited upside at age 31, his skill set offers stability at a bargain price.
Jansen joins the Rangers, where he’ll share time with 36-year-old Kyle Higashioka. Higashioka played a career-high 94 games last season and brings a similar offensive profile. While Globe Life Field is a slight downgrade overall, it still plays above average for right-handed power. Given Jansen’s consistency, his floor as a second catcher is superior to several names drafted ahead of him, including Bo Naylor, Victor Caratini, Freddy Fermin, Sean Murphy, Harry Ford, and Patrick Bailey, despite an ADP hovering around 450.
Joe Mack, Miami Marlins
The buzz is building on Mack, but there’s still time to get in early. The Marlins catching prospect has yet to make his MLB debut, but could break camp with the team if he has a strong spring, especially if Agustin Ramirez continues to struggle defensively.
Unlike Ramirez, Mack is a strong defender with an elite arm, posting a 30% caught-stealing rate in the minors. He spent nearly a full season at Triple-A last year and held his own offensively, hitting .250-18-53 in 412 plate appearances. Mack has topped 20 home runs in back-to-back seasons, and while plate discipline remains a concern, the combination of power and defense makes him a strong candidate to seize a starting role. His ADP near 450 is likely to rise quickly.
Busts
Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners
The question isn’t whether Raleigh is the top catcher on the board, it’s whether he belongs among the top 20 players in two-catcher leagues. His 60 home runs and 125 RBI last season were historic, and his durability has been excellent, playing 145 games in each of the last three seasons.
However, the underlying metrics don’t fully support that level of explosion. His gains in exit velocity (0.3 mph), hard-hit rate (1.5%), and barrel rate (4.1%) were modest. A 5.1% increase in flyball rate and a career-high 54.5% pull rate drove much of the power surge, but his .589 slugging percentage outpaced a .547 xSLG. Raleigh also slowed in the second half, hitting 22 home runs with a slugging percentage more than 100 points lower than his first-half mark. Add in a career .226 batting average and a .231 xBA last season, and expecting another elite season becomes risky. A projection closer to 40 home runs with a batting-average drag makes his early ADP difficult to justify.
Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals
Perez has been one of the most durable and consistent catchers of his generation. Outside of his lost 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery, he’s delivered at least 20 home runs and 64 RBI in every full season since 2015, including a remarkable 30-homer, 100-RBI campaign at age 35 last year.
That said, warning signs are emerging. Perez posted his lowest average exit velocity since 2017 and hit just .225 in the second half. Historically, his 2025 season was an outlier—he became the first primary catcher age 35 or older to hit 30 home runs since Carlton Fisk in 1985, and only four catchers in the past 50 years have even reached 20 at that age. With an ADP inside the top 100, fantasy managers are paying for history rather than probability, especially when safer options like Will Smith and Yainer Diaz are available slightly later.
J.T. Realmuto, Philadelphia Phillies
There’s little debate that Realmuto’s decline phase is underway. Once an elite fantasy catcher, he has seen steady erosion in production over the past three seasons. While it was encouraging to see him avoid major injuries last year, the skills decline remains concerning.
Realmuto regressed defensively and offensively in 2025, showing drops in barrel rate, bat speed, sprint speed, and expected stats across the board. His performance against left-handed pitching also slipped. Despite this, his ADP still sits near 200, largely driven by name value. Catchers drafted behind him—such as Carter Jensen, Dillon Dingler, and Austin Wells—offer considerably more upside.
Logan O’Hoppe, Los Angeles Angels
O’Hoppe’s development has stalled in Anaheim. While the raw power remains evident, other areas of his game continue to trend in the wrong direction. His defense graded near the bottom of the league last season, and his strikeout rate climbed again, from 29.7% in 2024 to 30.8%.
O’Hoppe struggled badly against fastballs, hitting just .226, and his xSLG dropped nearly 40 points. Once known for strong plate discipline in the minors, he posted nearly six times as many strikeouts as walks last season and swung at 38% of first pitches. The power upside still exists, but his second-half line of .182-2-6 in 155 plate appearances highlights how far he is from putting it all together.
Carlos Narvaez, Boston Red Sox
Narvaez capitalized on opportunity last season, jumping Connor Wong on the depth chart and delivering 15 home runs with a .726 OPS. While his defensive reputation was already strong, the offensive breakout was unexpected.
The second half tells a more cautionary story. After pitchers adjusted, Narvaez hit just .187-7-19 with a .619 OPS over 161 plate appearances, seeing a steady diet of fastballs (60%+). His .220 xBA suggests overachievement, and his minor league track record offers little reassurance, as he never topped 12 home runs in a season and posted a career .400 slugging percentage at Triple-A. Being drafted as the 24th catcher with an ADP near 300, Narvaez looks overpriced relative to his true skill set.
--Seth Trachtman
