2026 Sports Ethos Fantasy Baseball Flag Plants – Catcher

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  • By SportsEthos Staff

    Last Updated on March 19, 2026 6:22 pm by Paul Williamson | Published: March 19, 2026

    The team here at Sports Ethos is going position-by-position to plant their flag on what players they fully trust and will draft whenever, and wherever possible.

    These are more than just sleepers.

    These are the dudes our experts fully trust and want on as many rosters as possible.

    We will begin with catcher.

    Larry Vannozzi

    Great news! I have TWO flag plants for catchers this year. Flag #1 is… don’t plant a flag at this position!

    The catcher pool is much deeper than it was a few years ago so you have plenty of options throughout your draft. However, do you really want to bank on Cal Raleigh repeating his historic season?

    I sure don’t.

    Are you fully inhaling all of the Ben Rice offseason helium?

    No thanks.

    So pass up some of those top guys and wait until the middle or late rounds to nab your catcher. You’ll have good choices ranging from sturdy vets like Salvador Perez and Will Smith to promising youngsters like Samuel Basallo and Carter Jensen.

    Ok, fine. “No catcher flag” may seem like a cop-out, so I’ll give Flag #2.

    Warning: This flagpole is short and the flag itself is faded and limp.

    Who?

    Well, I give you William Contreras. Yes, he was a disappointment last year but there’s reason to believe he’ll be an excellent choice this year. Many of his deeper stats improved, such as his walk rate, strikeout rate, contact rate and swinging strike rate. He has been a stud before and will likely be one again this year. There, I hope you’re satisfied!

    Anthony Kates

    Carter Jensen – Royals – He has never had a wRC+, at any level, below 110. In 69 plate appearances for Kansas City in September of last year, he generated a 159 wRC+.

    He hits for good power, can steal double-digit bases, elevates the ball well, does not chase a ton and makes average-to-above-average contact. He’s hit three home runs this spring in 32 plate appearances. And he is currently projected to start the year as the Royals’ designated hitter.

    If he can reach 500 plate appearances (not out of the question), he will be a top-5 fantasy catcher.

    Nathan Baker

    Carter Jensen’s rank as the 17th overall catcher on ADP may just be a result of the Royals poor play and market size when he was called up last season, but the young slugger has elite power and a better than advertised hit tool that could see him quickly turn into a bonafide starting fantasy catcher.

    The defense may not be pretty, but who cares; Salvy isn’t great back there anymore either, and he should further benefit from Kaufman stadium moving their fences in. At pick 188, he’s far better value than JT Realmuto, who has experienced linear decline over three seasons, despite the big time volume.

    Paul Williamson

    In reality, my real flag plant is Carter Jensen. But I variety is the spice of life, so I’m going to roll with Shea Langeliers of the Athletics.

    I have him as my second-ranked catcher in the Williamson 300 and is one of the only catchers (maybe three of them exist) I would consider if they fell passed pick 50 in 12-team standard leagues.

    Playing time is a critical aspect of when to decide to take a catcher early in your draft and that means you have to take someone who is going to get AB’s when they are not catching.

    Brent Rooker is the DH but he played the outfield last year vs. lefties as Lawrence Butler moved to the bench against those southpaws and Langeliers got those DH at-bats.

    And the A’s just can’t NOT have Bangeliers in the lineup as often as they can.

    He got to 500+ plate appearances the last two years and he is bound to get there again.

    We all know about the power, He got to 31 homers last year off the strength of an 11.0% barrel rate, 44.6% hard-hit rate and his ever elite 21.9% pull air%.

    Not only that but he got his K% down under 20% to 19.7%, a mark we have seen him be 27%+ plus since he became a major leaguer as that helped him get to a .277 batting average.

    This was backed up by an improved SwStr% to 11.9% and an overall contact% to 77.1%.

    Add on the home park in Sacramento that is just a heaven for hitters, and we have someone who really could get to 35+ homers.

    He is one of a handful of catchers that could supplant Cal Raleigh, especially considering the hit tool improvement giving him a much better batting average than Raleigh.

    March 19, 2026, 6:22 pm