2016 Fantasy Catcher Rankings: The Buck Stops at the Backstop

Anyone that has read my columns over the past 15 years knows that I’m a big fan of the catcher position, and as usual, I kick off my rankings with the 2016 Fantasy Catcher Rankings.

The position often gets looked over because the 30-HR hitters at this position are few and far between.

And if you come across a 20-steal catcher, you likely stepped into a time machine and went back to the year 2000 to draft Jason Kendall.

The Fantasy catcher rankings for 2016 are full of players that have flashed some brilliance at the plate at different points in their careers, as recently as 2015, too. But for the most part, this group is a talented bunch that is saddled with the tools of ignorance and the responsibilities of a defensive beast of burden on the field.

Catchers take longer to develop, which makes the rise of young Cubs catcher Kyle Schwarber an intriguing one, even though we shall soon be calling him “young Cubs outfielder Kyle Schwarber.”

Great hitters at this position are often asked to move over to play first base (or the left field in Schwarber’s case), because teams value their bat, and they want to keep them healthy. However, most catchers are asked to do what they can in the batter’s box, as long as they manage their pitching staff and throw baserunners out from behind the plate.

It’s a Fantasy position with a lot of difficult issues surrounding it, made even trickier by the fact you have to draft two Fantasy Baseball catchers for Rotisserie leagues. That means some below-average catchers, a position that really does have more below-average hitters than most other positions, make their way into starting lineups of 12-team leagues.

With that said, there is still no reason to fear this position, and I’ve already mapped out “6 Simple Rules to Drafting Fantasy Baseball Catchers.” It’s a tough position to navigate each spring, but if you do it right, you’ll be much farther ahead of your counterparts in their search for the right Fantasy catchers.

2016 Fantasy Rankings: C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF | SP | RP | Top 250 | Rookies

2016 Fantasy Catcher Rankings

These 2016 Fantasy Catcher Rankings are for 5×5 Rotisserie Mixed leagues, and we’ll work to update these frequently. You can also check out the SCFE staff rankings on 2016 Fantasy Catchers here.

2016 Fantasy Rankings: C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF | SP | RP | Top 250 | Rookies

As you can see, the 2016 Fantasy Catcher Rankings are thin on elite bats, but there are still plenty of decent catchers to go around – at least for the first 15 rounds or so!