The catcher position was historically scarce a couple of years ago. In 2018, Between an injured Gary Sanchez, an aging, hurting Buster Posey, and an uncharacteristically poor showing from Willson Contreras, only four catchers managed to produce a weighted on-base average (wOBA) and weighted Runs Created plus (wRC+) above the league average – resulting in a void of uncertainty across many fantasy draft boards the following year.

Whether you want to credit a wave of mechanical adjustments, improved health and conditioning, or the widespread belief that the ball is juiced, backstops across the league stepped up in a big way in 2019, with an over 39-point jump in Slugging Percentage (29 even if you remove Mitch Garver‘s insane breakout campaign), despite the wOBA and wRC+ figures remaining largely stifled and unimpressive. Sanchez and Contreras powered their ways back into the top of various fantasy rankings, while others like Garver, J.T. Realmuto and Yasmani Grandal saw improvements ranging from noticeable to absolutely gaudy.

With the philosophy of power over everything consuming the mindsets of more hitters than ever before, 2020 might be a good time to secure a reliable catcher early before the pickings dry up. But what if I told you you didn’t need to shell out the big bucks for similarly stable production? Here are five relatively cheap options that I believe flew under the radar a bit in 2019, and could very well reward fantasy owners – old and new – who took notice.

*ALL RANKING PLACEMENTS SIDED NEXT TO THE PLAYER NAMES ARE PROVIDED BY FANTASYPROS, WITH THE ADP GIVEN AFTER IT FOR A BIT OF ADDED CONTEXT*

Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers (#223 Overall, ADP #158)

It’s no secret at all who Will Smith is or the kind of value he could potentially provide, given his ADP. You’ll have to reach for him regardless of the league format, but even still – compared to the Mount Rushmore of Fantasy Catchers, you may be better off taking the plunge.

Anyway: Smith is here mainly because he’s awesome, and, again, his potential Return on Investment could far supersede everyone else listed below and a few of the more reliable, expensive options we’re all well acquainted with.

His power alone is enough to recommend the reach. With a double-digit barrel percentage (10.7%) mixed with an average launch angle well above the league average (23.7 degrees), Smith has the tools to sneeze his way into 30 homers with enough playing time. His fly balls averaged 326 feet last season (.933 xSLG), which is decent enough, but the well-hit ones (at least, the well-hit ones I calculated using my Best Forms of Contact formula) averaged a whopping 384 feet – good for 64th in the Majors if he had more ABs, and is nothing to scoff at.

Looking at his batted ball profile, Smith’s calling card is putting the ball in the air, and he does it as often as you possibly could (53.7%); a welcoming trait considering ALL of his homers that were tracked by Baseball Savant were deep enough to leave one of the biggest Major League ballparks in Kauffman Stadium:

Expect even more deep fly balls from Smith in 2020, as he should also benefit from fewer strikeouts next season: his 24.9% Chase and 9.9% Swinging Strike Rate don’t correlate with his 26.5% K Rate, and suggest he should be more aggressive in the strike zone (65.2% Z-Swing Rate leads me to believe he went down looking a great deal). Couple this with a strong average exit velocity on well-hit fly balls (99.5 MPH) and we have a guy who’s breakout party seems to have just gotten started.

Carson Kelly, Arizona Diamondbacks (#260 Overall, ADP #207)

I’ve been dying to talk about Carson Kelly all offseason. A crucial part of a D-Backs offense that found itself through a network of unlikely sources, Kelly flashed solid contact skills (8.9 Barrel percentage, 14.3 degree average launch angle, 79% Contact Rate), noteworthy power (48.7% Hard Hit Rate, .466 xSLG, .232 ISO), and an inspiring level of plate discipline (25% Chase Rate, 8.6% Swinging Strike Rate) in a strong 365 PA sample. His BFC-weighted average exit velocity (a measurement of his well-hit batted balls using my own personal formula) sat at 96.6 MPH last season, complemented by a 95.3 MPH and .922 SLG mark on line drives that actually figures to improve greatly with more battled ball luck.

Unlike Smith who shoots for the moon for success, Kelly sprays the field with enough pop to clear the fences:

Kelly will be fun simply for the fact that his batted ball skills are so flexible. The line drives should inflate his batting average, considering his expected values on those surpass his actual numbers. His fly balls travel with pop (327 Ft. average distance, .511 xWOBA), and like Smith, just needs to attack the strike zone more (64.3% Z-Swing Rate) to yield even more hard-hit results.

And even though he had immense trouble with right-handed pitchers (.203/.303/.405, 79 wRC+), he still managed to pop 12 of his 18 dingers off of them with a .203 ISO – all in spite of a minuscule .214 BABIP against them.

As such, Kelly’s upside for 2020 looks like this: more fun batted balls with added aggression, improved batted ball luck versus same-handed pitchers, elite damage versus lefties, and a potentially huge uptick in power if all of the above come to fruition and his plate discipline sticks. I like him everywhere.

Christian Vazquez, Boston Red Sox (#270 Overall, ADP #192)

Vazquez gives off crazy Yadier Molina vibes. He has impressive gap power (50 XBHs in 2019, 26 doubles), is excellent at hitting sharp ground balls and line drives (.515 SLG), and is one of the better strikeout suppressors at the catcher position (19.4% K Rate). It seems that his ADP is lower than Kelly’s because of his more enticing batting average potential and the fearsome Red Sox lineup he has the pleasure of hitting behind (although one could argue that Kelly will be experiencing a somewhat similar advantage).

Nevertheless, Vazquez has earned his newfound popularity within fantasy circles. According to Baseball Savant, his Hard Hit Rate jumped nearly ten points, resulting in three times as many barrels as before (6.2%, up from 1.9 in 2018) and expected slugging and wOBA values seeing a surge of their own. With a BFC-weighted average fly ball distance of 381 feet, he hit 20 (!) more dingers in 2019, with his ISO shooting all the way up to .201.

His Z-Swing Rate also shot up to 69%, and with a solid contact (81.4%) and Swinging Strike Rate (9.2%), Vazquez seems well aware of how he could maximize his results at the plate. I’d still expect him to hit about the least amount of homers of the catchers in this group, but with a strong batted ball foundation that seems to be trending upward, I’d expect him to be one of the bigger steals in leagues that count triple slash lines and strikeouts.

Tom Murphy, Seattle Mariners (#353, ADP #260)

Tom Murphy is what Mike Zunino wishes he was. Murphy’s strikeout rate, teetering on reprehensible, is manageable, his contact and chase rates are adequate, and his power is a touch more consistent – at least it was last season, where he experienced significant gains in his plate discipline. A 90.6 average exit velocity and 18.9 degree average launch angle is trouble from a hitter in any position, but from a catcher who’s finally starting to discern ball and strikes more frequently? Oh boy!

His BFC-weighted average fly ball distance last season sat at 391 feet, a mark that best the likes of Yordan Alvarez, Josh Bell, Josh Donaldson, and some guy named Mike Trout. In addition, he hit all of his fly balls extremely hard, with a 94.4 average exit velocity that would rank within the top 77th percentile of all qualified hitters in the league.

His average exit velocity on well-hit batted balls spiked up to 99.1 Miles per Hour in 2019, helping him generate a .535 SLG. and .358 wOBA. And even though he benefitted from an exorbitant .340 BABIP (Don’t expect another .270+ batting average in the near future), I have to reiterate just how glaring his improvements were from a plate discipline standpoint:





Murphy is still absolutely prone to chase more than he should, and is still a good bet to rest atop the upper third of the strikeout leaderboards with a full season under his belt, but at the very least there seems to be strong signs that he’s controlling the strike zone far better than ever before. Considering how automatic his power appears to be, that’s the last thing he needs to maintain in order to become a rewarding value pick for 2020, and a consistent fantasy force beyond that.

Roberto Perez, Cleveland Indians (#432 Overall, ADP #289)

Going into the All-Star Break, the catcher position had already re-established itself as a relevant position in fantasy. At that point in the season last year, there were ten different guys with a wOBA over .350. One of them was Roberto Perez.

He was off to an excellent start on account of two things: increased playing time on account of being promoted to Cleveland’s primary backstop, and an almost quantum leap in barrels. Through the All-Star Break, Perez was making consistently hard contact (42.6%) hitting fly balls with authority (97.6 average exit velocity), and squeezing the most out of his relatively low average launch angle through his line drives (1.107 SLG.). This all added up to 16 first half home runs, an .872 OPS, and a 122 wRC+; more than enough reason to ride the thunderstorm he was brewing from many a waiver wire.

Then he suddenly started to break down. After the All-Star break, Perez reportedly some ankle pains and fell into an immediate rut. As he played through this apparent ankle injury, his numbers suffered across the board. To give you an idea of how much they fell off, here’s a couple of spray charts illustrating his 2019: the left side being his first half, and the right representing the second half.

First Half 2019

Second Half 2019

Perez lost some of his ability to drive the ball to left field, and that was costly. Over the second half of the season, his average exit velocity dropped a couple Miles per Hour, his hard hit rate fell nearly five points, his wOBA fell around 80 points, and, despite maintaining strong BFC-weighted fly ball distance measurements, his power was tempered in large part to an average launch angle that was all the way down to a putrid 1.7 degrees.

I’m pointing this out to encourage you all to exercise optimism. Despite a strong finish in September, Perez opted to play out the rest of the season hurt; it’s not like he came back down to Earth simply because his 34.8% HR/FB rate in the first half was too high to withstand. A full offseason sidelined due to a successful ankle surgery should bring him back to 100% by the end of Spring Training, which means there’s a really solid chance he obliterates his ADP over a full season of ABs. He’s expected to be just fine by Opening Day, so if you decide to wait a little while to scoop up a catcher, Perez is far from the worst gamble you could make.

Follow Hello Brooklyn for more fantasy baseball coverage.