Great American Ball Park is a lovely place to set up shop, and the Reds want Stephenson to play 140-plus games in 2023. 319/.372/.482 slash leaps off the page, and even if he regresses to what he posted in the full 2021 season (.286/.366/.431), that should be a profit at Yahoo ADP 178. Tyler Stephenson was ready for a breakout last year, but injuries held him to 50 games. Injuries kept Contreras’ counting stats down a little bit last year, and that makes him a decent value this month (Yahoo ADP: 114). Louis lineup will order, but it’s possible Contreras could open the season in the No. Because he stayed in the NL Central, he won’t have a major adjustment period - he already knows the pitchers and parks he’ll be dealing with most of the time. Sometimes we get nervous when players change teams midcareer on a big contract, but Willson Contreras doesn’t concern me. ![]() His shiny-new-toy ADP of 61 in the NFBC rooms is too lofty for me, but he’s in the 80s per Yahoo ADP, which is where I could consider him. Rutschman also lost some batting points from the shift last year, which won’t be a problem for 2023. Those batted-ball results figure to improve as he gets more experience and confidence with sitting on a pitch. Rutschman showed elite zone judgment and bat control as a rookie, though his hard-hit metrics were an eyelash underwhelming. ![]() The next big thingīaltimore catcher Adley Rutschman looks like the star player Matt Wieters was projected to be. Considering Toronto’s deep lineup and the fences moving in, I’m open-minded to selecting Varsho if the room gives me something reasonable. Varsho enters his age-26 season - a plausible time for a career year - and his Yahoo ADP (72.6) is three rounds cheaper than his NFBC tag. A catcher-eligible player without the burdens of catching much (if at all) - it’s a glorious thing. The non-catcher catcherĭaulton Varsho was primarily an outfielder for Arizona last year, and the Blue Jays acquired him and handed him the left-field job. I should mention that Realmuto’s ADP is far more affordable in early Yahoo drafts (44.7). (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) Realmuto is the cream of the fantasy catcher crop. ![]() As stated earlier, I’m likely to wait a little bit on my catcher fills. But he’s also entering an age-32 season, and I don’t like to buy after a player just had a career season, even if Realmuto’s 2022 production wasn’t far removed from his averages. Buoyed by a deep lineup around him and a hitter-friendly park, I’m confident Realmuto can come close to justifying his current 26.94 ADP (NFBC drafts, January-onward). He’s coming off a career season, posting his best OPS+ and stealing an absurd 21 bases on 22 attempts. Realmuto is our Travis Kelce, the obvious No. We want to be flexible on draft day and adjust to new opportunities that present themselves. ![]() And any draft plan I ever construct is written in pencil. I’m probably going to shop in the second collection of the catcher pool - a second-tier player who could jump a level - but as always, it comes down to league personality and dynamics. As with tight ends, we accept that catchers play an attrition position, the most physically demanding defensive assignment in baseball. The standard Yahoo fantasy format requires just one fill of each, which means you have the choice of going with a vanity pick, a second-tier option with first-tier upside or bargain options. Even with Buster Posey retiring, Yadier Molina running out of steam and Isiah Kiner-Falefa losing catcher eligibility, the backstops improved as a group last year.įantasy football players will see the obvious parallel between tight ends and catchers. Only Salvador Perez made that list in 2021. Realmuto, catcher-eligible Daulton Varsho and Will Smith were all top-100 finishers in 5x5 value. The catching position took a step forward in 2022, when J.T. Without them, we’re looking at a passed ball on every pitch. Catcher isn’t the sexiest position in fantasy baseball, but it’s where we’ll start our position preview series for 2023.
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