Consider this tier like a weekend in Vegas. You need to take pleasure in it but it surely may go incorrect and disappoint.
An indirect harm within the first week season price Sean Murphy the primary two months of the season. After returning, he struggled with making in-zone contact, posting an 80.5% z-contact which was 3.4% worse than his earlier profession worst mark in 2023. He was unfortunate, however that wasn’t the foundation of the difficulty. There was a transparent degradation in ability. Now, how a lot of that may be chalked as much as a nasty harm plagued season, we don’t know. There may be clear threat that he simply isn’t the participant we noticed earlier in his profession and being in Atlanta, the Braves haven’t been in a position to give him the kind of plate appearances he had beforehand in Oakland. There’s a ton of threat right here that he may simply not be usable in fantasy.
defensive catcher that makes a great quantity of contact, Gabriel Moreno tricked a whole lot of fantasy gamers together with his 4 homer efficiency within the 2023 playoffs after which delivered simply 5 whole house runs in 2024. He doesn’t DH or actually play different positions so there isn’t a good way for him to quantity and whereas he can hit the ball arduous it’s totally on the bottom. He does throw in some low cost velocity, but it surely isn’t sufficient to outweigh the shortage of energy. He’s a excessive flooring however low ceiling man.
As an actual life catcher, I really like Patrick Bailey, however as a fantasy choice, he’s fairly uninspiring. He does have safe taking part in time, however he isn’t racking up plate appearances and whereas I feel there’s some batting common upside due to his excessive contact strategy, he simply doesn’t put the ball within the air sufficient to faucet into the facility that’s mendacity beneath the floor. I’m very to see what the Giants add offensively as a result of the lineup round him is barren, however proper now he’s one other low upside, excessive flooring man.
There have been moments early within the season when it regarded like Connor Wong was having a breakout after which he fizzled out within the second half and the top of the season line wasn’t as attractive. With Teel on his solution to the Majors in some unspecified time in the future in 2025, there’s threat Wong turns into the again up in Boston as effectively.
We bought the “breakout” from Ryan Jeffers that many have been in search of in 2024, however at what price? The BABIP we noticed in 2023 was clear fortunate however he hit the alternative finish of the spectrum in 2024 of that luck. He did DH rather a lot in 2024, however how a lot of that was as a result of Twins horrible harm luck? We in all probability see a season nearer to 2023 than 2024 when it comes to taking part in time and manufacturing (minus the insane BABIP.)
With Jansen gone, Kirk will get to be the principle man, however he has by no means been in a position to preserve the brilliant moments we noticed temporary stretches over the course of a complete season. That being stated, he has a reasonably protected flooring and the excessive contact strategy with energy within the bat means there’s extra upside in there than he will get credit score for if he can elevate that launch angle and play greater than he has when Jansen was in tow.
Bo Naylor is the epitome of why I don’t fiddle with catching prospects. At occasions he has proven flashes of energy, flashes of velocity, and flashes of the flexibility to make contact, but it surely has not but all come collectively and it truthfully could not ever. With Hedges again on the roster in Cleveland, he’ll lose time due to Hedges’ behind the plate prowess, however there’s upside right here and he’s a enjoyable gamble as a C2.
