It’s the end of June. The fantasy baseball season is almost halfway over. The days are long, but the seasons are short.
Catchers are often a lesser consideration in fantasy baseball leagues that require just one starter, but we want a right answer at every position. So let’s throw the backstops through the Shuffle Up car wash today and figure out how they rank for the rest of the season. Please roll up your windows, put your car in neutral.
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Everything to this point is an audition. Assume a 5×5 scoring system. Players at the same salary are considered even. Consider this list as you self scout your roster, work on trades and pickups, or perhaps even draft a team from scratch.
One disclaimer up front: most of this column is a love letter to Seattle superstar Cal Raleigh. He’s earned it.
The Big Tickets
Raleigh isn’t playing for just the Mariners anymore, or your fantasy team. He’s playing for history.
The best offensive catching season of all time was Mike Piazza in 1997. In his age-28 season with the Dodgers, Piazza batted .362 with 104 runs, 40 home runs, 124 RBI and five steals. When you hash out ballpark and era adjustment, it settles in at 185 OPS+. If you prefer Offensive WAR, Baseball Reference offers 9.0.
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The next closest seasons on modern record are Joe Mauer in 2009 (171 OPS+, 7.7 Offensive War) and Buster Posey in 2012 (171 OPS+, 7,3 Offensive WAR). Piazza and Mauer are Hall of Famers; Posey is surely headed there soon after his timetable opening.
Raleigh has a shot to blow this all out of the water. He’s more than halfway home, in fact, to the best catcher season (or fantasy catcher season) of all time.
Raleigh’s currently holding a 202 OPS+ (for context, this makes him an eyelash less valuable than Barry Bonds in 1992 and 1993 — those were both MVP seasons). If you want the Offensive War (which is a cumulative, counting stat) he’s at 5.0. He’s only played 76 games!
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Maybe you don’t want all these modern stats. Let’s say you just want the fantasy numbers. Among 2025 catchers, Raleigh is second in hits, first in runs (19 ahead of William Contreras), first in homers (his 32 dingers lead the majors; he has a 15-homer lead over Logan O’Hoppe among catchers) and first in RBI (18 clear of Contreras, again). And just for overkill, the nine steals are tops, too (sorry Contreras, you’re four back). And it’s tied to a career-best .278 average.
Fantasy managers get nothing for Raleigh’s defense, but he’s also coming off a Gold Glove season. He’s not just a hitter. He’s a fantastic ballplayer peaking in his age-28 season.
With all due respect to Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and even Pete Crow-Armstrong, the most impactful thing any fantasy manager could have done this year was draft Raleigh. His global ADP from March was 77.9, the sixth backstop off the board. Contreras, Yainer Díaz, the befuddling Adley Rutschman, Salvador Pérez and Willson Contreras all went before Raleigh.
We are all witnesses. We’ve never seen dominance like this before at the catcher position.
Legitimate Building Blocks
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Pérez is having his worst season out of seven, but many of the bad-luck signs are flashing. According to the batted-ball data, he’s been 45 points unlucky in batting average and 108 points unlucky with slugging percentage. I know the age-35 season makes you nervous, but I’d trade for him in a second.
O’Hoppe crushes the ball when he makes contact, but he has leaky plate-discipline metrics and opposing pitchers took advantage of that for most of this month (.132/.164/.321). At least O’Hoppe knocked some home runs last week, so perhaps he’s providing the needed adjustment. It’s still just his second full season as a regular.
Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down
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Miami doesn’t have a deep lineup but Ramírez always slots somewhere in the top four and he routinely picks up DH work when he’s not catching. We love those stress-free paths to extra volume.
Baldwin could get back to double digits if there’s anything to the Sean Murphy trade rumors. The Braves are five games under .500, the biggest disappointment in the National League.
Perhaps all the mileage finally caught up to Realmuto, who has his worst OPS+ since becoming a regular 10 years ago. His slugging percentage is 83 points below career norms, and his Savant page is full of average or below-average sliders. This is what a typical aging curve looks like.
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Bargain Bin
Courtesy Injury Ranks — Not for Debate
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