Bobby Sylvester’s Catcher Rankings

Fantasy baseball drafts are right around the corner, and that means it is time for me to release my positional rankings one by one. We’ll start the series with catchers, which is an utter wasteland this season. Think of it as you do tight ends for football. There is one absolute standout player (Gary Sanchez), five mediocre, but reliable hitters, then a whole bunch of question marks. If there was ever a year to reach at catcher, 2018 is that year. Gary Sanchez is so far and away the best of the pack that I’ll be grabbing him as early as 20th overall in drafts, just to make sure I don’t end up with Mike Zunino and his potential .190 batting average or (gulp) a 33-year-old journeyman like Robinson Chirinos in deep leagues or two-catcher leagues. If for whatever reason you miss out on the top two catchers, my advice is to wait until the very last round to grab Alex Avila, who’s batted ball rates indicate he is all set to hit .290 with some serious pop this year for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In deeper leagues, I’m all in on Francisco Mejia, who may be the most polished offensive rookie this season. He may not get the call until May, but when he does, he should be a top 12 catcher from the get-go. With all that said, let me show you my top 40 ranked catchers and tell you what I think about each of the top 20 catchers.

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