Yes… that’s my 1-year-old son superimposed next to Yadi, unfortunately he’s not yet draft eligible and won’t be in these rankings.
There’s one common issue with fantasy baseball player rankings – they don’t translate to custom league settings. Most sets of player rankings are built toward a traditional roto 5×5 setting and most people play in leagues with custom settings, which is why I created fScore rankings based on core fantasy skills.
NOTE: I recommend reading the hitting fScores article on FWFB before proceeding below.
There are five main skills that go into an effective fantasy baseball hitter.
- Contact ability (fContact)
- Plate Discipline (fDiscipline)
- Power (fPower)
- Speed (fSpeed)
- Durability (fDurability)
Ranking Notes:
TIER 1
Realmuto, Smith and Perez:
Realmuto got the nod for me over Will Smith planely because of playing time, though I do expect Smith to get more playing time going into next year.
Most people have Salvy as the number one catcher. The fScore rankings have him in about the same spot as Realmuto and Smith, but he’s the oldest of the group, has the worst plate discipline and while I do expect he will hit around 30 homers, I don’t expect anywhere close to his record 2021 number.
TIER 2
Varsho, Grandal, Ruiz, Rutschman, Contreras, Zunino, Kiner-Falefa, Sanchez, Melendez, Stephenson and Murphy:
Theoretically Grandal should be ranked ahead of Varsho in OBP or points leagues, but I think Varsho will get more playing time with the additional position eligibility and the speed at the catcher position puts him in a good spot. 2022 will show if Varsho is the catcher eligible player I think he can be, or if he was just a fad.
Moving down, Kiebert’s plate discipline really puts him in a similar tier as Grandal… really he could be Grandal light – similar profile with less power.
I’m probably higher on Rutschman than most, but he could be the best catcher in baseball by the end of 2023, maybe sooner. He has that kind of upside.
We will also learn more when we find out how the new CBA treats service time manipulation.
I have IKF on here, but I don’t think he’s going to be catcher eligible to start the year in any league, however now that the Rangers added Seager and Semien, he could get it back in a super utility capacity.
M.J. Melendez should be up early and could double team with Salvy as C / DH.
Tyler Stephenson is finally free!
TIER 3
Kelly, Vazquez, Kirk, Moreno, Haase, Stassi, Diaz, Torrens, Molina, Bart and D’Arnaud:
Carson Kelly is pretty solid across the board and could move up to tier 2 if he can get the playing time back in 2022.
Gabriel Moreno is a stud, but I’m not sure how the Blue Jays are going to treat him since they already have Kirk, Jansen and McGuire.
It should be noted the only reason D’Arnaud is so low is that he seems to always be injured. I wouldn’t draft him as a #1 catcher in any standard league for this reason.
The tier 3 guys are all pretty much meant for Roto, Ottonoeu and super deep leagues.
TIER 4
Contreras, Nola, Narvaez, Garver, McCann, Barnhart, Campusano, Jeffers, Gomes, Langliers and Farmer:
Here’s your break in case of emergency tier. Some of these guys have the skill to work up into better positions or could be used in some sort of utility capacity like Kyle Farmer.
TIER 5
Raleigh, Huff, Mejia and everyone else:
Be aware of these guys, but they are non draftable right now in almost any format.
Rank | Name | fContact | fDiscipline | fPower | fSpeed | fDurability | TOTAL | FUTURE |
1 | J.T. Realmuto | 0.98 | 0.88 | 1.19 | 1.1 | 0.95 | 1.02 | 1.13 |
2 | Will Smith | 1.09 | 1.46 | 1.25 | 0.71 | 0.77 | 1.06 | 1.08 |
3 | Salvador Perez | 0.95 | 0.67 | 1.56 | 0.56 | 1 | 0.95 | 1.09 |
4 | Daulton Varsho | 0.98 | 0.97 | 1.09 | 1.14 | 0.75 | 0.99 | 1.07 |
5 | Yasmani Grandal | 1.04 | 1.56 | 1.46 | 0.46 | 0.68 | 1.04 | 0.84 |
6 | Keibert Ruiz | 1.11 | 1.42 | 1.13 | 0.43 | 0.77 | 0.97 | 0.98 |
7 | Adley Rutschman | 1 | 1.34 | 1.21 | 0.5 | 0.67 | 0.95 | 1.27 |
8 | Wilson Contreras | 0.92 | 0.9 | 1.29 | 0.55 | 0.82 | 0.9 | 1 |
9 | Mike Zunino | 0.9 | 0.77 | 1.87 | 0.46 | 0.6 | 0.92 | 1.05 |
10 | Isiah Kiner-Falefa | 1.07 | 1.11 | 0.59 | 0.95 | 1.01 | 0.95 | 1.02 |
11 | Gary Sanchez | 0.95 | 0.96 | 1.49 | 0.46 | 0.77 | 0.93 | 0.94 |
12 | M.J. Melendez | 0.87 | 0.99 | 1.78 | 0.78 | 0.72 | 1.03 | 1.09 |
13 | Tyler Stephenson | 1.02 | 1.27 | 0.97 | 0.5 | 0.68 | 0.89 | 0.97 |
14 | Sean Murphy | 0.97 | 1.02 | 1.29 | 0.48 | 0.66 | 0.89 | 0.96 |
15 | Carson Kelly | 1.01 | 1.08 | 1.04 | 0.47 | 0.67 | 0.85 | 0.87 |
16 | Christian Vazquez | 1.04 | 1.03 | 0.76 | 0.46 | 0.88 | 0.84 | 0.85 |
17 | Alejandro Kirk | 1.08 | 1.27 | 1.2 | 0.47 | 0.55 | 0.91 | 0.91 |
18 | Gabriel Moreno | 0.92 | 1.17 | 1.49 | 0.95 | 0.63 | 1.03 | 1.09 |
19 | Eric Haase | 0.88 | 0.75 | 1.38 | 0.65 | 0.59 | 0.85 | 0.87 |
20 | Max Stassi | 0.93 | 0.91 | 1.18 | 0.49 | 0.56 | 0.81 | 0.89 |
21 | Elias Diaz | 1.05 | 0.99 | 1.1 | 0.48 | 0.64 | 0.85 | 0.87 |
22 | Luis Torrens | 0.96 | 0.97 | 1.05 | 0.49 | 0.72 | 0.84 | 0.87 |
23 | Yadier Molina | 1.04 | 0.9 | 0.75 | 0.58 | 0.81 | 0.82 | 0.86 |
24 | Joey Bart | 0.76 | 0.79 | 1.25 | 0.57 | 0.61 | 0.8 | 0.86 |
25 | Travis D’Arnaud | 0.99 | 0.92 | 1.12 | 0.51 | 0.6 | 0.83 | 0.79 |
26 | William Contreras | 0.9 | 1.05 | 1.28 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.83 | 0.86 |
27 | Austin Nola | 1.09 | 1.25 | 0.77 | 0.51 | 0.64 | 0.85 | 0.79 |
28 | Omar Narvaez | 0.99 | 0.98 | 0.82 | 0.46 | 0.76 | 0.8 | 0.81 |
29 | Mitch Garver | 0.92 | 1.05 | 1.02 | 0.48 | 0.44 | 0.78 | 0.82 |
30 | James McCann | 0.95 | 0.82 | 0.97 | 0.41 | 0.69 | 0.77 | 0.84 |
31 | Tucker Barnhart | 0.98 | 1.3 | 0.81 | 0.46 | 0.68 | 0.85 | 0.84 |
32 | Luis Campusano | 0.88 | 1.01 | 1.09 | 0.46 | 0.64 | 0.77 | 0.85 |
33 | Ryan Jeffers | 0.87 | 0.74 | 1.4 | 0.37 | 0.62 | 0.8 | 0.84 |
34 | Yan Gomes | 1.03 | 0.83 | 1.06 | 0.56 | 0.63 | 0.82 | 0.82 |
35 | Shea Langliers | 0.85 | 0.67 | 1.08 | 0.46 | 0.77 | 0.77 | 0.84 |
36 | Kyle Farmer | 1.01 | 0.82 | 0.87 | 0.6 | 0.77 | 0.82 | 0.81 |
37 | Cal Raleigh | 0.84 | 0.63 | 1.01 | 0.55 | 0.62 | 0.73 | 0.76 |
38 | Sam Huff | 0.77 | 0.57 | 1.3 | 0.44 | 0.63 | 0.74 | 0.81 |
39 | Francisco Mejia | 1.02 | 0.82 | 0.83 | 0.5 | 0.45 | 0.72 | 0.72 |
NOTE: If you would like the excel version so you can sort the fScores for your own leagues, please reach out to me on Twitter and I’ll be more than happy to share with you free of charge.
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