Tristan H. CockcroftApr 13, 2026, 11:15 AM ETCloseTristan H. Cockcroft is senior writer for fantasy baseball and football at ESPN. Tristan is a member of the FSWA Hall of Fame. He is also a two-time LABR and three-time Tout Wars champion.Follow on XMultiple Authors
Catcher has been a historically difficult position to fill in fantasy baseball, even in ESPN standard leagues that require only one (in a typical 10-team league).
Catchers, on the whole, have posted a collective OPS 33 points lower than the league’s average in the category this century. In the past 25 non-shortened seasons, catchers (at least those who called it their primary positions in those years) accounted for only 10 of the 625 total seasons with 450-plus fantasy points among hitters.
If you find yourself in need of catching help, a pair of youngsters have shown enough pop at the plate to potentially fill the position for you for the long haul.
To be clear, this isn’t an endorsement to drop Raleigh for Alvarez or Jensen. Rather, it’s a suggestion that Raleigh managers could find space elsewhere on their rosters to pick either up as an off-day or bad matchup sub. Additionally, Adley Rutschman or Alejandro Kirk managers might be in need of a short-term replacement, and those with similarly slow-starting catchers Agustin Ramirez or Hunter Goodman (he’s an ideal play-only-at-Coors hitter) might regard either youngster an upgrade.
Alvarez and Jensen aren’t the only players whose early returns give the hope of a seasonlong breakthrough. Here’s another you should add everywhere:
Cam Smith, OF, Houston Astros (36.5% rostered): One of the few things going right for the Astros — they’ve lost seven games in a row to go from first to last place, and have lost two members of their opening rotation to the injured list in the past eight days — Smith is finally starting to show the superstar potential predicted for him when he was selected with the 14th overall pick of the 2024 draft and ranked 73rd in Kiley McDaniel’s 2025 top-100 prospects. Smith’s bat speed is noticeably up, by more than 3 mph compared with his rookie year, and both his barrel and hard-hit rates have spiked significantly (15.8% and 52.6%, up from 6.9% and 40.8%). That the Astros are lacking in outfielder star power also supports Smith’s candidacy as an every-day player — and potentially middle-of-the-order hitter behind the team’s on-base specialists. Smith could have a top-25 positional ceiling.
At first glance, the Rockies’ six-game week facing the Astros (three games) and Los Angeles Dodgers (three) might have looked unappealing for fantasy purposes. But considering the Astros’ pitching injury issues — they might have to find fill-ins for both Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s games — and the fact that the Dodgers series comes at Coors Field, Rockies hitters look a lot more attractive for fantasy purposes than you might think. That’s a week of at least five (and perhaps all six) right-handed starters, and it props up Rockies hitters, especially left-handers, as strong weekly pickups. OF Mickey Moniak (10.2% rostered), 35th among outfielders in fantasy points despite missing the season’s first five games, and 3B/1B TJ Rumfield (18.2%), a .319/.377/.511 hitter against righties thus far, stand out.
Deep (12-team mixed): Noah Schultz, SP, Chicago White Sox (12.4% rostered). Schultz began 2025 as one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, McDaniel’s fifth best at the position, but a shaky season that saw his walk rate more than double (13.8%, after 6.5% in his first two professional years) and come to a premature end in August due to a knee injury set his stock back. Schultz enjoyed positive marks during spring training, however, and his excellence over his first three starts for Triple-A Charlotte (1.29 ERA, .089 BAA, 40.4 K%) earned him a promotion to the big club for a Tuesday debut. Those control questions persist, which is why Schultz is more of a 12-team-and-larger mixed pickup than one clearly worth your pickup in an ESPN standard league, but his upside is great enough that he’s even worth stashing in our game if you have a bench spot available to burn.
Tristan H. CockcroftApr 13, 2026, 11:15 AM ETCloseTristan H. Cockcroft is senior writer for fantasy baseball and football at ESPN. Tristan is a member of the FSWA Hall of Fame. He is also a two-time LABR and three-time Tout Wars champion.Follow on XMultiple Authors
CloseTristan H. Cockcroft is senior writer for fantasy baseball and football at ESPN. Tristan is a member of the FSWA Hall of Fame. He is also a two-time LABR and three-time Tout Wars champion.Follow on X