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It's your resident catcher advocate here, with my weekly defense for baseball's most maligned position. Instead of giving into easy narratives about the lack of talent at the catcher position and how they're the kickers of fantasy baseball, I'm here to create a place where catchers are celebrated for how they can help our teams.
Each week, I will take a look at the upcoming schedule ahead and give you my favorite streaming options at catcher. By looking at lineup trends, amount of games ahead, the location of the games, and potential pitching matchups, I'll try to guide you towards catchers that I think can be most useful for you in the upcoming week. For each catcher listed, I'll also add a chart that will provide you with data about the potential opposing pitchers that I think are meaningful in terms of allowing potential fantasy production, plus I'll also give a short explanation about why this catcher made the list. Every week I'll also look back at my previous recommendations so that we can have some transparency about what's working or not.
Since many fantasy managers will pay no attention to the catcher spot, your ability to constantly look for the best matchup will be a good way to get an advantage over your competition.
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Week Three Catchers Waiver Wire (4/12 - 4/18)
For the purposes of this article, we are considering a "streaming catcher" one who is rostered in under 50% of Yahoo leagues. Whether or not these catchers will be useful for you will depend entirely on your league size and the number of catchers you need to play. In order to help, I will keep a weekly list of "Untouchables," meaning catchers who, in my opinion, should NEVER (if healthy) be dropped for a streaming option.
Note: Since pitchers haven't thrown enough innings yet this season, the stats below are from 2020.
Untouchables: Catchers who shouldn't be dropped for these streamers in any format: J.T. Realmuto, Salvador Perez, Yasmani Grandal, Willson Contreras, Will Smith, Travis d'Arnaud, Christian Vazquez, Gary Sanchez, James McCann, Isiah Kiner-Falefa (if eligible).
Last Week Check-In
Not including Sunday's games (4/12)
- Danny Jansen: (4 starts) 1-14, with a 2B and a Run (LOSS - but the playing time was there)
- Tucker Barnhart: (4 starts) 8-17, 3 2Bs, 3 Runs, 5 RBI (WIN)
- Pedro Severino: (4 starts) 3-15, HR, R RBI (WIN - barely)
- Victor Caratini: (3 starts) 3-10, 1 HR, 1 Run, 4 RBI (WIN)
- Max Stassi: (2 starts) 2-7, 1 Run (LOSS)
- Jacob Stallings: (4 starts) 2-15, 1 Run, 2 RBI (LOSS - but the ABs are likely always going to be there)
- Stephen Vogt: (3 starts) 4-11, 1 HR, 3 Runs, 5 RBI (WIN - especially since he was a deep league call)
STREAMING RECORD: 4-3
All matchup projections are made in conjunction with Roster Resource and @Rotoquotes on Twitter, which is a great fantasy resource.
Pedro Severino, Baltimore Orioles
10% Rostered
Pedro Severino had a solid week this past week and comes into Sunday's action with seven starts and a .304 batting average. With Baltimore playing seven games this upcoming week, it seems likely that Severino will get four or five starts against two mediocre pitching staffs in Texas and Seattle.
Yusei Kikuchi is the only arm on the list above that I would be even remotely worried about, but he's also a left-handed pitcher, and Severino, a right-handed hitter, has had more success off of lefties in his career, hitting .250 with a .757 OPS and .185 ISO as opposed to .220 with a .634 OPS and .116 ISO against right-handed pitchers. That good news because Severino will get three lefties in the Mariners series, likely only sitting against Justin Dunn. His matchups in Texas are also ones we want to attack, so this could be a strong week for the Orioles' catcher, and he's my top streaming option.
Omar Narvaez, Milwaukee Brewers
25% Rostered
Narvaez is off to an incredibly hot start for the Brewers, hitting .455 with a 1.247 OPS, 2 HR, and 5 RBI in his seven starts. Back-up Manny Pina has started only three games this season, so Narvaez owns two-thirds of the catching share and is 11th overall in catcher plate appearances. That's one of the most important stats to look at when streaming a catcher because platoons are far more common among catchers than any other position. That likely means he'll get four starts against a handful of average pitchers and Kyle Hendricks. Adbert Alzolay's numbers from last year make the early part of this schedule look more daunting than it is, but you shouldn't be concerned, so fire up Narvaez and ride his hot bat.
Even though Narvaez is only likely to get four starts this week, when so many other teams play seven games, he's ahead of other six-game catchers like Tucker Barnhart because Barnhart will face Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, and Zach Plesac. I'd much rather go with the guy squaring off against the arms on the above chart.
Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals
48% Rostered
I'm really not sure why Molina isn't rostered in more leagues. He was my 12th-ranked catcher coming into drafts, so I would have expected him to be rostered in every 12-team league or deeper. He has currently started all eight of the Cardinals' games, which is why he's 2nd overall in catcher plate appearances. He's locked into a much larger role than any other catcher on this list (and some who are above 50% rostered) and is making the most of his opportunities, hitting .370 with a .938 OPS, 1 HR, 6 Runs, and 7 RBI.
This week the Cardinals only get six games, but Molina is likely to see at least five starts, so I'm not overly worried about the team having one less game than some others. I am worried about starts against Stephen Strasburg and Aaron Nola, but the rest of the schedule is simply too good to pass up. All four of the other arms Molina should see are in the bottom tier of starting pitchers and are games where the Cardinals' offense could explode. Given the number of plate appearances Molina is likely to see, I think he remains a solid streaming option for this week and perhaps one you'll simply hold on your roster.
Victor Caratini, San Diego Padres
5% Rostered
We had some success with Caratini last week, so let's go back to the well on a week where he has seven games, including four against the Pirates in hitter-friendly PNC Park. With the way the Padres have been splitting starts between Caratini and Luis Campusano, Caratini should see at least four starts this week, if not five. All four starts against the Pirates are ones I want to attack. Even with Mitch Keller's raw potential, these are all above-average offensive matchups. Obviously, things get tougher against the Dodgers, but you hope Caratini already has some strong games in the bag before then.
A silver lining is that the switch-hitting Caratini also hit much better against LHP in 2020 with a .290 average and .892 OPS, as opposed to a .228 average and .750 OPS with right-handed pitching. That has carried over into 2021, albeit in a ridiculously small sample size, but he has three lefties on the docket for this week, which could be a small boost. Just keep in mind that Austin Nola is close to getting at-bats at the alternate site, so this may be the last week for Caratini on this list.
Jose Trevino, Texas Rangers
1% Rostered
It appears as though not many people bought into Trevino's strong season last year. Earlier in the offseason, I covered his barrel rate increase, and, while I didn't necessarily think the barrel rate was sustainable, I think that Trevino is a vastly underrated hitter. So far this year, he's hitting .350 with 2 Runs and has started five of Texas' seven games. This is not the strict timeshare with Jonah Heim that people seemed to be expecting. What's more, the Rangers have seven games next week and three of them will be against left-handed pitching -- which almost makes Trevino, a right-handed hitter, a lock to start those games.
I think you could be looking at five starts for the Rangers' backstop during the week, and I'm not worried about any of these arms. I do like John Means and Ryan Yarbrough (obviously), but they are not the type of dominant arms that move you away from a catcher streamer who might get 20 at-bats in a week. However, Trevino is last on the list because I do rank him below these other catching options if you're looking for a streamer.
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