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Speaker 4Yeah, I think the totals are gonna be better for Goodman. Well, definitely the home runs will be. Like you said, definitely the home runs will be. He got to 41 a year after getting to 30. He got to 31. We have not seen Baldwin get to even 30 yet. So there is that advantage. That is the biggest and probably clearest advantage that Goodman has over Baldwin. I think Baldwin might have a slight playing time advantage. He, I believe he started every game that he was healthy for this year, shifting between catcher and DH. I also think Baldwin is the best pure hitter at catcher. With that comes a high batting average. It was 284 this year, 274 as a rookie. But I do think there's the possibility he takes a step forward even in year three. He left a little bit on the table. Part of that is because when he came back from the time he missed with an oblique injury, basically his month of June, the 12 games he played there fresh off the IL, he went three for 48 with 22 home runs and 50 plate appearances. Like clearly it wasn't himself. - 22 strikeouts. - 22 strikeouts, yeah, I said home run, sorry. Yeah, again, three for 48 with 22 strikeouts and 50 plate appearances. Clearly wasn't himself. Was great all year otherwise. And as hard as he hits the ball, as much contact as he makes, I think the best is still to come for Baldwin. -
Speaker 3Four, five, and six in your catcher rankings for next year, you have William Contreras, Dylan Dingler, and Ivan Herrera. Contreras, I think one of the safest players at the position, as safe as you can be as a catcher. But he's just done it for so long, very high floor player. Dingler versus Herrera, I think is pretty interesting. Dingler, huge breakout season, and then he was unusable for the final two months of the year. He did suffer a thumb injury in July, so perhaps that affected his really poor finish here. And then Ivan Herrera, his skills actually took a step back this year, but he got there through pure volume. He played 161 games, he had over 700 plate appearances. I'm not so sure we can bank on him doing that again. So, I think two interesting players for catcher rankings next year in particular are Dingler and Ivan Herrera. -
Speaker 4Yeah. I actually am more concerned about Herrera than Dingler because I think there is, I think it's more understandable Dingler's drop off. He was catching so much because he adds so much defensive value there. And that also gives him a lot of job security. Herrera is on the other end of the spectrum as far as that goes. He played a ton too, played 161 games. I believe 108 of them were at DH. So, he was mostly a true DH with some occasional catcher time. Should he have worn down that much? I don't know. I mean, who's to say really? But because he doesn't bring much defensive value, because the Cardinals introduced Leo Bernal late in the year, who looks like their franchise catcher, for the time being, he brings a lot of defensive value and look good at the plate. Like Herrera's got to hit, I think, to remain in the Cardinals lineup. He's got to hit much better than he did. He managed a high finish because he played so many games, but his batting average was only 241. He slugged 382. That's not going to cut it to DH. My gut tells me that's not really him. You know, we saw him in more of a part-time role in previous years, Ivan Herrera, and the numbers were great. The data was great. I think that's more true to who he is. And that's why I rank him as high as sixth. But there is a disaster scenario for Herrera that I don't think exists for Dingler. Dingler, for what it's worth, you know, looked like a good hitter in 2025, too, at 96th percentile expected batting average that year. So it wasn't just, oh, he was a stud for four months, but it came out of nowhere. No, Dingler's looked like a good hitter for a while, too.
Speaker 3All right, let's take a quick break. And we'll get back into the catcher rankings right after this.
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Speaker 3Welcome back in. FBT Express. Way too early catcher rankings for next season. And seven, eight, and nine. Scott has Gabriel Moreno, Carter Jensen, and Samuel Basayo. Moreno stayed healthy. The breakout came through. Carter Jensen, very strong rookie season here as a top prospect coming into the year. Up over 20 home runs. Good counting stats. The one name we didn't really get to talk about on our full-length podcast, Scott, was Samuel Basayo, who was one of the top prospects entering this season. Obviously, lots of hype, legit power, good batting averages in the minors as well, and he's still super young at 22 years old. I think the sky is the limit. He does come with some warts. Can he stay healthy? He was in the IL twice this year, and he actually has this, like, bony growth in his wrist, apparently, which caused him to miss some time throughout the course of the season. So, I still kind of worry about that. He also is really, really aggressive. At the plate, he chases a lot of pitches outside the strike zone. So, you have some concerns, but he's also just 22 years old. So, it still feels like the upside is sky high for Samuel Basayo.
Speaker 4Yeah, I think it's worth reminding everyone how his season started and what he dealt with along the way. You mentioned the bony growth in the wrist. There was also a bulky knee. There was also a bad shoulder. Those became an issue in June. That's where it all started. That's where it all started to fall apart for Samuel Basayo health-wise. Through the end of May, he was hitting.283 with an.860 OPS. And so, look, we're giving a lot of other catchers a pass for playing through injury. A lot of players at various positions a pass for that. A little harder for Basayo since he doesn't have a track record, an established track record of who he is. But he was a stud prospect who hit the ball extremely hard, huge potential offensively and was living up to it through the end of May. so i am taking a glass half full approach here i think uh i think if we see a healthier season from next year and we're likely to because again that was a bunch of injuries he was dealing with um we're gonna get a sophomore breakout from samuel pasayo rounding
Speaker 3out your top 12 you have cal raleigh leo bernal and will smith of the dodgers and i feel like we could just do a whole podcast on these three names in particular uh cal raleigh obviously the huge down season but he finished very strong he had shoulder surgery right after the season so we have to make sure that he's fully healthy going into next year but again love the fact that he finished strong leo bernal a top prospect in the cardinals organization he came up in september he played every game after he got called up and it looks like they are prepping him for a massive role in 2027 and then will smith his season was derailed by a neck injury but if you look at his underlying numbers his stack cast numbers in the 52 games before the neck injury they were all really good basically right in line with his strong 2025 season so i think we could get a bounce back season from both will smith and cal raleigh and then leo bernal i just think he's going to be a pretty popular breakout pick here scott
Speaker 4yeah i like bernal a lot the cardinals like him even more he came up in uh at the start of september and started every single game for the cardinals to close out the season not entirely a catcher there was a few at first base few at dh but mostly a catcher he adds a lot of defensive value there his offensive profile uh i'm not gonna say it's drake baldwin's but it's reminiscent of that to me he he's good in a lot of the same ways baldwin is just maybe not to the same extent and so uh obviously ranking him 11th here i'm bullish on bernal for next year i may have cal raleigh a little too low uh i i i kind of thought ranking him 10th would be a statement in his favor after the year he just had but it sounds like you and chris have him even higher i i do consider myself an optimist for next year's final 32 games in 2026 at 256 with 10 homers and a 935 ops he was playing through injury but he had shoulder surgery to correct after 2026 was over but i think that strong finish shows mechanically he he's got a lot of potential and he's got a lot of potential he uh he figured things out worked with uh mariners director of hitting strategy edgar martinez hall of fame hitter of course um raised his hands in a stance based on his work with martinez and had did better with elevated fastballs took off at the end of the season i i think he's not going to be a 60 homer again we're not going to see that version of cal raleigh but the one prior to that consistent 230 30 plus homers i think we could see that again so i may end up moving him ahead of samuel pasayo and carter jensen um but we have all off season to figure that out and
Speaker 3if you want to see the rest of scott's uh catcher rankings he did rank through the top 20 and he has an article on the website he has a bunch of articles previewing rankings for next season at various positions so make sure to check those out as well and for more extensive fantasy baseball coverage listen to our full-length podcast fantasy baseball today on spotify apple podcast or anywhere else podcasts are found thanks for listening to fbt express and we will be back again later this week bye paramount podcasts
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