Free agent pickups: Need help at catcher? Here's where to look

Catcher has been a historically difficult position to fill in fantasy baseball, even in ESPN standard leagues that only require one (for 10 active 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.

We might still have Cal Raleigh's historic 60-homer 2025 fresh in our minds when thinking about standout backstops, but the truth about catchers is that someone in a standard league is going to exit the draft weak at the position. Even the manager who drafted Raleigh has some complaints, after the Seattle Mariners star posted only 15 fantasy points (25th at the position) though the first season's two weeks.

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.

Francisco Alvarez, C, New York Mets (36.0% rostered in ESPN leagues): A fifth-year major leaguer but still only 24 years old, Alvarez entered 2026 having not yet realized his full potential at the plate. Injuries and holes in his swing left his early résumé with only a handful of standout months, but effectively nothing of value in fantasy terms otherwise. So far this year -- and, certainly, the small-sample caveat applies -- Alvarez is making much more contact on pitches within the strike zone (84.9% rate, compared to 77.0% for his career) and continuing to reflect the success he displayed in limited time in 2025 (.599 xwOBA, after a much-improved .448 in 2025). He's one of the more powerful hitters among current backstops, capable of matching or exceeding the 25 home runs he hit as a rookie in 2023. If Alvarez's offensive improvements help him raise his batting average into the .260 range, he could challenge for a top-five positional valuation in standard points leagues.

Carter Jensen, C, Kansas City Royals (20.3% rostered): A top preseason pick for American League Rookie of the Year, Jensen's primary early-season headline, unfortunately, came when he overslept on the morning of one of the opening week's games. Since being held out of the starting lineup for each of the next two games as punishment, however, he has started seven of the Royals' past nine contests and homered three times, continuing to reflect the massive offensive potential he possesses at the plate. Jensen's whiff rate (39.5%) is of concern, especially considering he had a 28.3% strikeout rate while with Triple-A Omaha last season, but if he can keep that in check, he'd have one of the more complete offensive games of any current backstop. That he serves in an effective everyday rotation between catcher and designated hitter with Salvador Perez grants Jensen a volume advantage, which is especially significant for a catcher-eligible player.

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, or 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 season-long 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 overall in Kiley McDaniel's 2025 top 100 prospects. Smith's bat speed is noticeably up, by more than 3 mph compared to 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 everyday player -- and potentially middle-of-the-order hitter behind the team's on-base specialists. Smith could have a top-25 positional ceiling.

Two-start pickup: Jeffrey Springs, SP, Athletics

Few pitchers have begun the season as hot as Springs, whose 54 fantasy points have been exceeded by only 10 other starting pitchers. He tossed a quality start against the Astros on April 3 (22 fantasy points) at the Athletics' hitting-friendly home, Sutter Health Park, and most recently tossed seven shutout innings of one-hit baseball at homer-friendly Yankee Stadium (26 points) on Thursday, stepping up where the matchups might otherwise have screamed, "Sit him!" Springs returns home to that pitching-unfriendly environment for a pair of starts, first facing the Texas Rangers, then the softest matchup around, the Chicago White Sox on Sunday. Thanks to his solid command and elite swing-and-miss potential of his changeup to date, he's well worth adding and starting in all weekly formats.

Hitting matchup advantage: Colorado Rockies

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, especially stand out.

Deeper league pickups

Deep (12-team mixed): Noah Schultz, SP, Chicago White Sox (12.4% rostered). Schultz began 2025 one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball, McDaniel's fifth best at the position, but a shaky season that both 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.

Deeper (15-team mixed): Javier Assad, SP, Chicago Cubs (5.2% rostered). As the Cubs continue to leave Ben Brown, recommended in the "deepest" portion of this section last week, in long relief, Assad has emerged as a prospective long-term option in the team's rotation. Assad's sinker/cutter-heavy repertoire continues to fuel ground ball-heavy, hard-contact minimizing results, which paints the picture of a solid matchups type. He's a pitcher to clearly avoid against elite offenses or in hitting-friendly ballparks, but in leagues of this depth, and with the promise of more work out of the Cubs' injury-plagued rotation, he's well worth the pickup.

Deepest (AL- and NL-only leagues): Edouard Julien, 1B/2B, Rockies (1.4% rostered). As with Moniak and Rumfield, Julien warrants a pickup as a left-handed hitter facing an upcoming week's worth of solid matchups. What stands out about Julien from a longer-term perspective, however, is that he has second base eligibility and the combination of patience and extra-base ability that points or sabermetric league managers want. His career 11.8% Barrel and 42.4% hard-hit rates are above-average marks, and he's sporting 13.0% and 52.2% rates in those respective categories so far this season.