Top 25 Dynasty Catcher Prospects - 2024
Finding a consistent backstop to fuel your lineup can be a challenge. Let's look at the top 25 up-and-coming catchers who you can stash now so you can be rewarded later
Nobody who has debuted in the big leagues will appear on this list. This will purely be a ranking of catcher prospects who I think will be both effective players and contribute to your fantasy teams.
There will be some speculative names in the lower minors ranked based on upside who may switch positions or have already switched positions. If they’ve caught in the minor leagues, I’m going to assume they’ll at least have the opportunity to catch in the major leagues.
I value OBP and OPS more than I do AVG as the trend is for fantasy leagues to tread towards OPS scoring if they haven’t already.
Proximity may factor in but doesn’t play a huge role here as these rankings will be predicated on each players perceived value/upside/and floor.
Being ranked high on this list doesn’t guarantee that a player is going to suddenly contribute like Adley Rutschman, for example. You can never be too right or too wrong when it comes to prospects, as they are just that. At best, they do turn into productive fantasy contributers like Rutschman. And at worst, the higher their perceived value is the more you can bargain for in a trade coming back your way to benefit your already existing roster. Here’s my top 25:
1) SAMUEL BASALLO (BAL):
Basallo is without a doubt my top catching prospect. He’s likely to move to first-base but as of this writing you can go ahead and try buying as he may have C eligibility upon arriving to the majors. For how long? I don’t know. What I do know is Basallo is a 19 year old who has shown an advanced approach, burgeoning hit tool and excellent power development while improving at each level in the minors. He was 18 years old playing at 3 different levels during the 2023 season.
In 83 games at A ball to start the 2023 campaign, Basallo slashed .299/.384/.503 while posting a BB% of 11.6% and a K% of 20.7%. He hit 12 Home Runs and had an ISO of .205. Good Stuff. Here’s where it gets better:
In his final 31 games between A+ and AA, Basallo slashed .351/.450/.685 while increasing his BB% to 15.3% and lowering his K% to 16.0%. He hit 8 Home Runs in his final 31 games and had an absurd ISO of .333 to go with a 198 wRC+. This put him atop the HitTilt+ leaderboard for 2023 which is incredibly impressive stuff given his age and level:
He posts excellent EV’s given his age and had a truly breakout 2023 which puts him atop my Catcher Prospect rankings for 2024. Go get him if you still can
2) KYLE TEEL (BOS):
Teel was taken with the 14th pick in the 2023 draft and quickly ascended from the Complex leagues (3 games) all the way to AA (9 games).
He played 14 games in A+ between those stops and his 23 game sample between A+ and AA shows that he didn’t skip a beat from his excellent college career at Virginia.
In those 23 games, Teel slashed .357/.476/.464 while posting a BB% of 18.1% and a K% of 21.0%. He will hit and post high OBP numbers without a doubt as the hit tool and plate discipline clearly carried over while the power lagged behind. Don’t let that scare you because there is legitimate 18-23 HR power potential + positive outcome potential in Teel’s bat as a professional if all goes well. And what needs to go well is that he’ll have to start hitting lefties more often which I think he’ll adjust to and do.
He’s a good defensive backstop and he’s closer than not to being big-league ready. There are a few other names with higher perceived values than Teel as of this writing but I’m here to say 2024 will go a long way into how Dynasty owners view Teel and with a good showing his perceived value will only go up and he will leapfrog some of the others ranked below him. That’s what puts him at 2nd on this list. And if it weren’t for Basallo’s incredible breakout in 2023, Teel would be atop this list. That’s how high I am on him.