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Fantasy Baseball 2017 Positional Preview: Catchers

A look at the catcher position for the 2017 Fantasy Baseball season.

Jonathan Lucroy finished 2016 as the #1 catcher in fantasy. Can he do it again in 2017?
Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images

Check out my Top 250:
Fantasy Baseball 2017 Top 250

The 2017 Fantasy Baseball season is fast approaching. With that, I thought it would be helpful to break my top 250 down into positional rankings! In addition to giving you the top players to draft at each position, I’ll offer up a breakout player, a sleeper, a bust, and an overall strategy of how to go about drafting each position. Let’s start this series behind the plate with catchers!

Top 25 Catchers

Pos Rank Player Team Age PR League
Pos Rank Player Team Age PR League
1 Buster Posey SF 30 131 NL
2 Jonathan Lucroy TEX 30 115 AL
3 Gary Sanchez NYY 24 326 AL
4 Willson Contreras CHC 24 439 NL
5 J.T. Realmuto MIA 26 147 NL
6 Brian McCann HOU 33 355 AL
7 Evan Gattis HOU 30 206 AL
8 Salvador Perez KC 26 323 AL
9 Yasmani Grandal LAD 28 321 NL
10 Welington Castillo BAL 29 327 AL
11 Matt Wieters WAS 30 372 NL
12 Cameron Rupp PHI 28 424 NL
13 Sandy Leon BOS 27 428 AL
14 Yadier Molina STL 34 203 NL
15 Russell Martin TOR 34 329 AL
16 Stephen Vogt OAK 32 401 AL
17 Wilson Ramos TB 29 133 AL
18 Francisco Cervelli PIT 30 523 NL
19 Travis d'Arnaud NYM 27 911 NL
20 Tony Wolters COL 24 641 NL
21 Austin Hedges SD 24 N/A NL
22 Yan Gomes CLE 29 N/A AL
23 Mike Zunino SEA 26 N/A AL
24 Devin Mesoraco CIN 28 N/A NL
25 James McCann DET 26 683 AL

*If Kyle Schwarber is eligible at catcher in your league he would fall at #3 for me
*PR stands for 'Player Rater' which is a measure of how good a player was in a standard 5x5 roto league

Breakout player – Wilson Contreras
Sleepers – Sandy Leon, Austin Hedges
Busts – Salvador Perez, Russell Martin

Position Overview

The catcher position is by far the weakest in fantasy baseball. So weak in fact, only 4 catchers finished inside the top 150 overall players and none were in the top 100. This makes having an elite option at catcher important to me. I have Jonathan Lucroy just behind Buster Posey because I feel a full healthy season with the Rangers gives Lucroy enough to be the top overall catcher (which he was in 2016). The next tier, Gary Sanchez, Willson Contreras, and J.T. Realmuto, round out the list of catchers I feel can achieve top 150 overall value. In leagues that only roster one catcher, if you miss out on the top 5, I’d suggest waiting until the last few rounds of your draft to fill that spot. I like grabbing Welington Castillo, Cameron Rupp, or Sandy Leon if I wait until the final rounds of my draft.

Tune in tomorrow for a rundown of first baseman! See you then and thanks for the read.

Other positional previews:
First Base
Second Base
Shortstop
Third Base
Outfield
Starting Pitcher
Relief Pitcher