Fantasy Baseball Catchers ADP Report - Draft Targets and Avoids (2025)

January 30, 2025

Dan's 2025 fantasy baseball catcher (C) draft sleepers, targets, avoids based on ADPs. His favorite catcher fantasy baseball sleepers to draft in 2025.

The calendar has flipped to 2025, and you don't have to wait any longer to prepare for the next fantasy baseball season. While drafts on the more mainstream sites like Yahoo and CBS don’t hit their stride until February, the sharps at NFBC have been plugging away for months already.

Jumping into a fantasy baseball league before pitchers and catchers report might be too early for some players, but there is insight to be gained from the early birds. Taking a look at early fantasy baseball ADPs provided by NFBC can give the rest of us an idea of what to expect when it comes time for the rest of us to draft in February and March.

In this column, I’ll focus on the catcher position to find out how high we have to reach for the top producers and where the best deals can be found down the board. We've compiled this ADP data from NFBC Draft Champion drafts. You'll find the catcher ADP table below, along with my analysis of the ADP at the catcher position, player values I like/dislike, etc. Reminder: This report doesn't reflect my personal rankings but instead breaks down how the early draft market values these catchers for 2025 fantasy baseball leagues.

A Note On NFBC ADPs

Before diving into the details, there are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to analyzing ADPs from NFBC. The first is that leagues hosted by the site use a two-catcher format. The second is that many of the leagues consist of 15 teams.

Consequently, the prices of the players will be higher than you might expect to find in a single-catcher league and/or a league of just 10 or 12 teams. I'll discuss their players' ADPs as they are from their source; just remember to make mental adjustments following your own league settings.

Catcher Fantasy Baseball ADP Analysis

A Catcher League Of His Own

Before I get into the rest of the field, I want to dedicate a special section to the one and only William Contreras. Contreras is at the top of the 2025 class, and for good reason. Last year was a career year, with 99 runs, 23 homers, 92 RBI, nine stolen bases, and a .281 batting average. He ended 2024 as the only catcher to rank fourth or better in each of the traditional roto categories.

After leading all catchers in fWAR, OBP and SLG last season, William Contreras earns the #1 spot on the #Top10RightNow list! pic.twitter.com/s2tphprQJF

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) January 10, 2025

Contreras is far and away the earliest catcher off the board so far in drafts for the 2025 season. With an ADP of 26.05, he is going almost 30 places ahead of the next pick at his position, and for good reason. He is the only catcher to finish in the top five in each of the main roto categories, and he is also the only one projected for a top-5 finish in 2025.

But is Contreras worth taking at the top of the third round? With the talent available near his ADP, I don’t see myself taking him and instead scooping up one of the remaining top corner infielders or starting pitchers.

Catcher looks like a top-heavy position this year but if I’m motivated to reach earlier than I usually would to fill the position, I’m happier waiting a few more rounds for one of the players in the next batch.

The Best Of The Rest Catchers

As I said, the talent at catcher is concentrated in the top tiers and drops off considerably after the top seven. Additionally, with the increase of teams putting their backstops on time-shares, the few who see regular playing time (and therefore more consistent availability) are becoming more valuable.

Only seven catchers are projected to have more than 500 plate appearances in 2025. Instead of waiting until the back half of drafts to select my catcher, I plan to take one of the high-volume options in an earlier round this year.

Spending up for a catcher means using a pick somewhere between the fifth and eighth rounds (assuming a 12-team setup). At the top of the list are Yainer Diaz (ADP 56.42), Adley Rutschman (63.67), and Salvador Perez (72.97). All three will be solid contributors in counting categories (stolen bases excepted) and are among the few catchers who can be trusted to elevate a team’s batting average as well.

Following that trio is Cal Raleigh (81.49), who comes into 2025 off of back-to-back 30-HR seasons (and had 27 in 119 games in 2022) and represents one of the last players available with that kind of potential. If you can take the hit to batting average, he is a defensible selection at his price.

Willson Contreras (84.68) and Will Smith (92.68) round out the best options at catcher. All six are spread out across a spectrum of picks that includes a hefty dose of pitchers, meaning fantasy managers can get a leg up at catcher without falling too far behind in pitching.

I'm buying a bounce-back by Rutschman at his price. Getting hit with a foul tip disrupted what was tracking to be a season on par with (William) Contreras. If I miss on him I’ll keep my eyes on Willson Contreras. With Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages waiting in the wings, the Cardinals are expected to move him to first base to keep his bat in the lineup, giving Contreras a path to his first 500-PA season since 2018.

Where Willson Contreras would've ranked among first-basemen last season (min 350 PA)

2nd OBP (.380)
2nd BB% (12.6%)
4th SLG (.468)
3rd wOBA (.370)
3rd xwOBA (.366)
3rd wRC+ (140) pic.twitter.com/BQb5jFZXub

— Jacob (@JacobE_STL) November 6, 2024

Mid-Range Catcher Gambles

Further down the board, there are still some decent options available, though none are as potent as the options above. Logan O'Hoppe (116.75) and Shea Langeliers (120.56) resemble Raleigh at a cheaper cost as they both have good power potential at the cost of batting average (Langeliers especially so).

I’m not a big J.T. Realmuto (131.30) fan, but he should see regular time in that potent Phillies lineup, though he probably will slot in closer to the back end than the front as he did in 2024.

Speaking of potent lineups, Tyler Stephenson (141.18) falls into this group and represents my favorite pick of the group. He has shown he can hit for average and will be a regular fixture in the Reds’ starting nine and benefit from playing in one of the most hitter-friendly parks in MLB.

Francisco Alvarez (149.46) is the last catcher with an ADP in the top 150 (or is close enough, for all intents and purposes). He is a masher, but his inconsistency makes me wary, even at the discount compared to O’Hoppe or Langeliers.

Outside of Stephenson, not many of these catchers hold appeal for me. If I miss on the early catchers and am pressed into picking one that has known holes in his game, I will probably kick the can down the board and select one of the options available in the later rounds of the draft.

Tyler Stephenson was quietly really solid in 2024.

515 PA, .258/.338/.444, 69/19/66
9.1% BRL, 90.2 mph AVG EV, 43.9% HH
86.8% Z-Contact, 77.3% Contact
8th Catcher on Razzball player rater
11th Catcher in early 2025 ADP#FantasyBaseball pic.twitter.com/XIubcFNR0c

— Eric Cross (@EricCrossMLB) November 22, 2024

Last Best Hopes At Catcher

Catchers involved in timeshares that cut into availability (and therefore productivity) become more common toward the end of drafts. A couple of options stand out, though.

Gabriel Moreno (195.07) and Keibert Ruiz (204.07) project for 455 and 481 plate appearances, respectively. Neither promise to add a lot to the counting categories, but they both hit well for average, which can be hard to find as drafts wrap up.

If things go sideways and I’m left with no other options, I see Sean Murphy (223.61) followed by Alejandro Kirk (275.85) as my favorites to snag in the final rounds.

Murphy’s batting average bottomed out at .193 last year, but he had back-to-back .250 seasons in 2022 and 2023, and he has 20 HR potential. Kirk is a reliable asset for team batting average, and with Danny Jansen now out of the picture in Toronto, he should see an uptick in playing time, which should give a slight boost to his underwhelming counting stats.

Post Danny Jansen trade, Alejandro Kirk slashed .288/.349/.393 with three home runs in 189 plate appearances for a 121 wRC+.

He also had 14 DRS, fourth most in the league for the position, while also improving his CS% from 18% in 2023 to 33% in 2024.

— Ryley Delaney🏳️‍⚧️ (@Ryley_L_D) October 9, 2024

In Conclusion

To sum things up, 2025 is a season to be bullish on catchers. This is especially so if you are in a league utilizing two catcher slots or run deeper than 12 teams. If scooping up William Contreras early is too rich for you, snag his brother or lock up one of the other top six or seven catchers before they are gone.

If they slip by, there are a few worth considering in the middle rounds, but it might be worth passing over that group to build depth elsewhere. Instead, throwing a dart at a late-round selection like Moreno or a rebounding Murphy might be the better call.

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