RotoProspects is providing MLB rankings and projections broken into tiers to dominate your fantasy baseball draft.
J.T. Realmuto (pictured above) and Daulton Varsho represent the top tier in our 2023 MLB catcher tiered rankings and projections, followed by Salvador Perez and Will Smith in Tier 2. Obviously any of these four guys will give you a distinct advantage over your fellow owners who don’t get one of these guys.
Tier 3 of our catcher rankings includes Willson Contreras, Adley Rutschman, Alejandro Kirk, Sean Murphy, MJ Melendez and William Contreras. We have generally been targeting Murphy in this tier due to his change of scenery in Atlanta. He takes his hitting skills to an amazing lineup which should see his counting numbers skyrocket compared to last season.
Tier 4 includes Cal Raleigh, Tyler Stephenson, Danny Jansen and Keibert Ruiz. Raleigh is the target here coming off his power performance last year, but Ruiz was just inked to an eight-year deal, so the Nats obviously love his extremely low career K% of 11.6.
Tier 5 includes Travis d’Arnaud, Shea Langeliers, Jonah Heim and Yasmani Grandal. After several stellar seasons, Grandal took a huge step back last season. Look for him in this tier if you believe (like we do) that he can recapture some of the great OBP numbers he put up from 2018-2021.
Tier 6 includes Gabriel Moreno, Christian Vazquez, Logan O’Hoppe, Elias Diaz, Eric Haase, Nick Fortes, Christian Bethancourt and Luis Campusano. O’Hoppe could be a real dark horse here, as he may get the main catching duties for the Angels this season after putting up a .961 OPS in Double-A in 2022.
Tier 7 includes Joey Bart, Mike Zunino, Jake Rogers, Jorge Alfaro, Jose Trevino, Carson Kelly, Bo Naylor, Endy Rodriguez, Austin Nola, Yan Gomes, Francisco Mejia, Gary Sanchez, Omar Narvaez, Martin Maldonado, Kyle Higashioka, Jacob Stallings, Reese McGuire, Ryan Jeffers and Max Stassi. If you’re throwing darts in this range, maybe go for the high ceiling of Naylor, who put up an .889 OPS with 21 HRs in Double-A and Triple A last season and even got a sip of coffee in Cleveland.