Catcher Risers and Fallers - Waiver Wire Outlooks for Christian Bethancourt, Shea Langeliers, Blake Sabol and more

May 6, 2023

Kevin Mahserejian takes a look at whether the hot starts for Blake Sabol, Shea Langeliers, and Christian Bethancourt will last through the 2023 Fantasy Baseball season.

Catchers Who Rake

Christian Bethancourt - Tampa Bay Rays

Bethancourt broke out in his return to the MLB last season after last playing in 2017. He was a solid fantasy catcher throughout the season with 11 HR,  five SB, and a .252 AVG but was better in real life due to his defense and framing. This season Bethancourt is hitting the ball even better with a .507 SLG that's resulted in five HR thus far but his AVG is a pedestrian .224.

The good news for anyone rostering or eyeing Bethancourt is that both his xAVG and xSLG via StatCast have him underperforming at the moment.  xState may be deceiving in small samples but with Catchers something is better than nothing and there may just be that something here in one of the MLB's best offenses. Bethancourt remains in a timeshare with Francisco Mejia, however, Mejia has not played well enough to prevent Bethancourt from eating even more playing time if his regression comes.

Shea Langeliers - Oakland A's

Langeliers is a former top-10 draft pick who was exchanged for Matt Olson in the "mega"-deal that sent the latter to Atlanta. While Olson is playing like a top 1B, Langeliers has shown promise with six home runs thus far. The general value is fairly mediocre given his poor OBP (.276) and passable defense at the backstop. Langeliers is playing in a range of his expected data which is fairly concerning given his .212 AVG. It does not seem as if things will get much better this season for the 25-year-old catcher due to his approach and team context but brighter days may be ahead with power like his.

Blake Sabol - San Francisco Giants

Blake Sabol was a hot, new name in two-catcher leagues given the disappointment of Joey Bart's development and San Francisco's lack of an everyday catcher. Thus far, Sabol has been good in Year 1 posting a .235 AVG and .758 OPS with five HR and even two SB. He's played catcher and outfielder like Daulton Varsho and could be a poor man's version in the future.

This would say "in the present" if Sabol was not posting a 42.5% strikeout rate and an equally abhorrent 4.1% walk rate. His xStats display his AVG as a total fugazi which should sit below .180 and a SLG around .400. If Sabol is on the wire, keep him there. This is fool's gold.

Catchers You Can Drop

In conclusion, you are better off holding most of the highly-drafted, struggling fantasy catchers rather than taking shots on those with favorable lines through the early portion of the season. Whether it be William Contreras or MJ Melendez frustrating you, do not lose faith too soon because the contact is there and just needs to mix with better luck.

Nevertheless, catchers that *can* be dropped from rosters across all shallower formats include:

• Christian Vasquez
• Danny Jansen
• Gabriel Moreno
• Travis d'Arnaud

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