2019 Fantasy Baseball Rankings (AL)

How why are you willing to take a guy who batted .186 last season? Turns out the answer is pretty high for Sanchez, who's challenging J.T. Realmuto as the top catcher off the board. He did, after all, hit .284/.354/.568 in 754 prior MLB plate appearances. A groin injury also hampered his production, and he additionally underwent offseason shoulder surgery. He struggled mightily against breaking balls, but actually deposited more walks without significant contact declines. The average could easily rise back to .250 with around 30 long balls, but is that enough to justify an investment around pick 60? Catcher is worse than usual, but that's still too steep in one-catcher formats.

After batting .323 across three minor league levels in 2017, Jansen hit .275 with 12 homers and five steals through 88 games in AAA in 2018 before earning an August call-up to the Blue Jays. He hit .247 with three homers over 31 games in Toronto, and it's reasonable to expect him to maintain a similar pace over his first full Big League season with the potential for more. Given the sorry state of the catcher position, it could make sense to take a chance on Jansen's unknown upside once the seven or eight surefire starters at the position are off the board.

Zunino killed his fantasy teams in batting average last year, but he was up at .251 the year before so you'd have to think he will settle somewhere in between this year. When it comes with 20 homers and 50 RBIs at the catcher position, the batting average is much easier to swallow.

It is tempting to draft everyone's favorite short chubby catcher, but the fact of the matter is that he likely won't even open the season on the big league club. There is some intrigue here if/when he gets called up, but until then, he belongs on the waivers.