clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

2020 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Top 30 catchers (Updated)

We gave you our consensus back in January. Now it’s time for a refresher!

Toronto Blue Jays v Philadelphia Phillies Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images

If you’d like to hearken back to January of 2020, I’ll share the link to our original consensus rankings. But I’ll include that January ranking in our new table, so there’s really no need—unless you’re just that bored at home, which is entirely possible in the current times.

Mark Abell and Jonathan Butler were kind enough to join me in today’s effort. So you have our original staff consensus (which should count for something) as well as three updated sets of rankings. Here goes:

New Consenus

Player Name Team Jan Rank JB June Rank Mark June Rank HC June Rank New Avg Rank
Player Name Team Jan Rank JB June Rank Mark June Rank HC June Rank New Avg Rank
J.T. Realmuto PHI 1 1 1 1 1
Gary Sanchez NYY 2 2 2 2 2
Yasmani Grandal CWS 3 3 3 3 3
Willson Contreras CHC 5 4 4 4 4.25
Mitch Garver MIN 4 6 6 5 5.25
Salvador Perez KC 7 5 5 6 5.75
Will Smith LAD 6 7 9 7 7.25
Wilson Ramos NYM 8 8 7 8 7.75
Carson Kelly ARI 9 10 8 10 9.25
Jorge Alfaro MIA 10 12 10 11 10.75
Omar Narvaez MIL 12 9 13 9 10.75
Christian Vazquez BOS 11 11 11 12 11.25
Sean Murphy OAK 13 13 16 14 14
Danny Jansen TOR 16 15 12 13 14
Tom Murphy SEA 15 14 13 15 14.25
Travis d'Arnaud ATL 14 16 17 17 16
Francisco Mejia SDP 17 18 15 16 16.5
Yadier Molina STL 18 17 14 18 16.75
Buster Posey SFG 20 20 18 20 19.5
Kurt Suzuki WAS 21 19 21 19 20
Roberto Perez CLE 19 22 20 22 20.75
Jason Castro LAA 22 21 22 21 21.5
Robinson Chirinos TEX 23 23 23 25 23.5
Tucker Barnhart CIN 24 27 19 26 24
Chance Sisco BAL 27 25 24 30 26.5
Austin Romine DET 36 24 25 23 27
Jacob Stallings PIT 31 26 31 24 28
James McCann CWS 28 29 26 31 28.5
Yan Gomes WAS 26 33 27 34 30
Tyler Flowers ATL 29 30 29 33 30.25

There’s a lot going on there, so I’ll simplify things a bit:

Catcher Changes

Player Name Team New Rank Old Rank Change
Player Name Team New Rank Old Rank Change
J.T. Realmuto PHI 1 1 -
Gary Sanchez NYY 2 2 -
Yasmani Grandal CWS 3 3 -
Willson Contreras CHC 4 5 1+
Mitch Garver MIN 5 4 -1
Salvador Perez KC 6 7 1+
Will Smith LAD 7 6 -1
Wilson Ramos NYM 8 8 -
Carson Kelly ARI 9 9 -
Jorge Alfaro MIA 10 10 -
Omar Narvaez MIL 11 12 1+
Christian Vazquez BOS 12 11 -1
Sean Murphy OAK 13 14 1+
Danny Jansen TOR 14 18 4+
Tom Murphy SEA 15 15 -
Travis d'Arnaud ATL 16 13 -3
Francisco Mejia SDP 17 17 -
Yadier Molina STL 18 16 -2
Buster Posey SFG 19 21 2+
Kurt Suzuki WAS 20 20 -
Roberto Perez CLE 21 19 -2
Jason Castro LAA 22 22 -
Robinson Chirinos TEX 23 23 -
Tucker Barnhart CIN 24 24 -
Chance Sisco BAL 25 27 2+
Austin Romine DET 26 30 4+
Jacob Stallings PIT 27 31 4+
James McCann CWS 28 28 -
Yan Gomes WAS 29 26 -3
Tyler Flowers ATL 30 26 -4

Moving up in a big way are:

Danny Jansen (C18 to C14)
Austin Romine (C30 to C26)
Jacob Stallings (C31 to C27)

We also have Buster Posey and Chance Sisco bumping up two spots, but I don’t think those moves are as notable. The above three are easy enough to explain. Jansen’s fortunes shifted (at least in the court of public opinion) when fellow Toronto backstop Reese McGuire was arrested for “exposure of sexual organs” in February of this year. However, Jansen’s defensive growth last year (Gold Glove finalist) coupled with his hitting ability probably meant he was already the frontrunner. Add in a blistering spring (9-for-17, 4 HR, 13 RBI) and that’s a recipe for moving up the ladder. He’s one of my favorite C2 options in 2020.

Romine and Stallings aren’t overly interesting, but neither of their respective clubs have added catcher depth to challenge their playing time. They each profile better as third catchers for your fake teams, but both have a chance to be decent in batting average, which isn’t nothing. And you never know what might happen in a shortened season.

Now for the “movers” in the other direction...

Travis d’Arnaud (C13 to C16)
Yan Gomes (C26 to C29)
Tyler Flowers (C26 to C30)

It’s interesting to me that both Braves catchers pop up here. I think the timeshare (which I already wrote about) isn’t good for either player. Of course, maybe the short season means the Braves will run d’Arnaud into the ground, making him an absurd value. There’s still no telling what will transpire in 2020. But the timeshare is a concern.

As for Yan Gomes, do we really care that much? That’s a correction we probably should have made earlier, anyway. Romine and Stallings bumping ahead of Gomes makes sense—those two are at least slated to see the vast majority of catching work for their respective teams...while it’s feasible that Kurt Suzuki (the better hitter) gets more work than Gomes in a short season.

And that’s it for this edition of updated rankings! Next up is first base, and I wonder if we’ll get a little bit more action once we move away from catchers. I’d think so.