-
Buster Olney
Multiple Authors
Spring training camps are underway, which means it is time to look at the state of baseball. As part of our 2026 MLB season preview, ESPN’s Buster Olney surveyed those around the industry to help him rank the top 10 players at every position as part of his annual positional ranking series.
Today, we rank the best of the best at catcher.
The objective of this exercise is to identify the best players for the 2026 season, not who might be best in five years or over their career. We will roll out a position per day over the next two weeks. Here’s the schedule: starting pitchers (Monday), relief pitchers (Tuesday), first basemen (Thursday), second basemen (Friday), third basemen (Feb. 23), shortstops (Feb. 24), corner outfielders (Feb. 25), center fielders (Feb. 26) and designated hitters (Feb. 27).
Cal Raleigh played 159 games last season, when he generated arguably the greatest performance by a catcher, with 60 homers, 110 runs and a league-high 125 RBIs. This winter, then, the Seattle front office has discussed Raleigh’s workload, aiming for the best possible combination of games behind the plate and those at designated hitter.
He served as catcher in 121 games last season, and played another 38 at DH, and the Mariners’ hope is he’ll catch in the same range again. “I think using last year as a marker, for games caught, that’s doable for Cal,” said Jerry Dipoto, who runs the Mariners’ baseball operations. “Cal isn’t interested in rest. He prefers to play.”
But this is not something they will simply dictate to Raleigh. They have learned to trust his feedback and self-assessments, because his habit is to precisely structure his work days. The Mariners’ staff says there is nothing haphazard about the way he goes through his days.
A switch-hitter, Raleigh knows how much time he needs to devote to his left-handed and right-handed swings, when he’ll start his catching preparation for that day’s game, or, if he’s going to be the designated hitter, what time he needs to aid that day’s catcher in going over scouting reports. He’ll allot windows of time for media obligations or meet-and-greets the organization might ask him to do. Each day through the offseason, he would be at T-Mobile Park at 8 a.m., going through his workouts.
“He has a unique ability to filter out what matters,” one member of the team’s front office said.
Late last season, as Raleigh was in the midst of a rare offensive lull in late August, the staff asked him if he had time for a video call with a group of Seattle’s minor leaguers who had been invited to the club’s high-performance camp, which about 40 players are asked to join voluntarily. Some star players on other teams make it clear that they aren’t interested in this sort of thing, but Raleigh agreed.
As the call began, Mariners general manager Justin Hollander introduced the catcher to the group, and Raleigh, the son of a college coach, talked about how being just average doesn’t cut it. The Mariners are a really good team and headed for greatness, Raleigh plainly told the group — he is generally understated and doesn’t hector — and embracing work like the high-performance camp is the very first step, as the players set expectations for themselves.
Raleigh finished and tossed the conversation back to Hollander, who had been watching the players absorb the All-Star’s words. “I got nothing,” Hollander said.
What could he possibly do to top the words of the best catcher in the game?
Top 10 catchers
1. Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners
Raleigh was a platinum glove winner in 2024 for his defense, but his framing numbers declined last season and he was not nominated as a Gold Glove finalist. When Raleigh was asked about this, he said he would take a look at the numbers and figure out why the analytics indicated his defense regressed in ’25. One rival evaluator noted that Raleigh’s glove position at the time the ball is thrown is typically higher than some of his peers, and he is better positioned to catch pitches at the top of the strike zone — but that he was not pulling in as many strikes on breaking balls as some other catchers. Raleigh rated a plus-5 on pitches at the top of the zone, but a minus-4 at the bottom. But factoring in his offense, Raleigh’s preeminence at the position is pronounced. Last year, he dominated catchers in fWAR:
Raleigh 8.6
Alejandro Kirk 4.7
Dillon Dingler 4.1
2. Alejandro Kirk, Toronto Blue Jays
Kirk’s strikeout rate of 10.6% was easily the best among catchers, and throughout the postseason, he presented a difficult matchup for opposing pitchers who worked around Vladimir Guerrero Jr. “I just love the bat-to-ball skills — you love him hitting behind Vladdy because he’s going to make the opposing team pay if they work around him,” former catcher David Ross said. “You can tell he’s a leader behind the plate. He’s just so relaxed, like sitting in a rocking chair behind the plate.” Kirk ranked second among all catchers in Baseball Savant’s framing statistic.
3. Will Smith, Los Angeles Dodgers
Like Carlton Fisk, Smith’s place in history was cemented by a postseason home run: His 11th-inning shot off Toronto’s Shane Bieber decided arguably the best Game 7 in the greatest World Series we’ve ever seen. Rival evaluators generally believe Smith’s defense has improved over the course of his career, but he is viewed as an offense-first catcher — and in that, he continues to excel. His OPS+ of 152 last season was the best of his career over a full season, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts talks about how important Smith’s presence as a right-handed power hitter is in following the left-handers — Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and now Kyle Tucker — at the top of L.A.’s lineup. David Ross referred to Smith as The General. “I love his presence, the fact that he won’t be intimidated,” Ross said. “He’s willing to fight for his group and his pitcher.”
4. Patrick Bailey, San Francisco Giants
About a half-dozen evaluators provided their top 10s at this spot, and the fact that almost all of them included Bailey so high despite his offensive struggles indicates how dominant they believe his defense is. He has won back-to-back Gold Gloves, but that only scratches the surface in detailing his excellence behind the plate. He ranked first in Baseball Savant’s catcher framing metric, at 25 — significantly ahead of second-place Kirk (17) and third-place Austin Wells (12). Bailey was in the top three in framing in each of the four quadrants of the strike zone — down, up, and to the left and right — which is absurd, like a hitter covering every part of the plate.
5. William Contreras, Milwaukee Brewers
He didn’t hit for as much power as he has in the past, with his slugging percentage dipping below .400, but Contreras was an important part of a Milwaukee lineup that piled up runs and wins. He had 147 hits and drew 84 walks for a .355 on-base percentage.
6. Dillon Dingler, Detroit Tigers
Dingler might be the most underrated player among this group, after his first season in the big leagues. Jake Rogers caught every pitch of Tarik Skubal’s Cy Young season of 2024, but when Rogers lost his job to Dingler early in the 2025 season, he was outspoken in his support of Dingler. “He’s earned every bit of that,” Rogers said. Dingler might have the best throwing arm in the majors. “That kid has a hose,” one evaluator said. “His arm is great, but when you couple that with the quickness in his feet, he reminds me of Pudge Rodriguez. He’s a bigger Pudge. I just love watching him.”
7. Shea Langeliers, Athletics
Langeliers clubbed 31 homers last season and had an OPS+ of 134, and while the A’s home park in Sacramento was viewed as a bandbox, 19 of Langeliers’ homers were hit on the road, where he posted a .580 slugging percentage. Langeliers ranked 44th overall in Baseball Savant’s catcher framing stat.
8. Austin Wells, New York Yankees
There were times during last season when Wells cratered offensively, and he finished the year with a .275 on-base percentage. But he hit 21 homers and continued to place near the top of the leaderboard in pitch-framing data. In a season in which he worked with Max Fried, he was first among all catchers on pitches at the bottom of the strike zone, where Fried loves to work. The Yankees say they think last year was an outlier for Wells offensively and that he’ll bounce back this season.
9. Drake Baldwin, Atlanta Braves
The National League’s Rookie of the Year, Baldwin hit so well the Braves used him at designated hitter at times when he wasn’t catching. Baldwin hit with power (19 homers), made consistent contact and was shockingly good in his platoon splits, with an .818 OPS vs. lefties and .808 mark vs. right-handers.
10. Gabriel Moreno, Arizona Diamondbacks
Moreno had 4.3 WAR in 2023, the year in which Arizona reached the World Series, but injuries have limited his playing time and production each of the past two years — he played 97 games in 2024 and 83 last season. But he’s regarded as an excellent all-around catcher.
Honorable mentions
Hunter Goodman, Colorado Rockies: Goodman blasted 31 homers last year, hitting .278, and posted an .803 OPS on the road.
Carlos Narvaez, Boston Red Sox: The Boston pitching staff raved about his work behind the plate last year, when he played hurt for a lot of the season.
J.T. Realmuto, Philadelphia Phillies: All winter, it felt inevitable the Phillies and Realmuto would work out a contract extension (which they did last month) because of his relationship with the pitching staff. But evaluators say his ability to frame pitches at the bottom of the zone has diminished.
Adley Rutschman, Baltimore Orioles: This is a big year for Rutschman, and a pivotal season for the Orioles. He has four years of service time and will be eligible for free agency after 2027, but he’s had back-to-back seasons of diminished production, with his OPS+ dipping to 105 in ’24 and 90 in ’25.
Francisco Alvarez, New York Mets: Like Rutschman, Alvarez is looking for a bounce-back year. He told reporters on his first day of camp that he has lost weight.
Austin Hedges, Cleveland Guardians: Like Bailey, Hedges doesn’t provide a lot of offense, but he excels in his defense.
Yainer Diaz, Houston Astros: He’s a hit-first catcher, but last year, his OPS+ fell below league-average to 92.
Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals: The future Hall of Famer crushed 30 homers last year, pushing his career total to 303. He’ll be 36 in May and while he caught 115 games in 2025, the Royals’ intention is to deploy top prospect Carter Jensen behind the plate much more this year. Perez will be listed among the DHs in these top-10 lists.
Source link
