It’s only logical, as some players move up our rankings, others must move down. To help make sense of all this, our writers are taking a deeper look at some of the players climbing the ladder and some who have slipped a few rungs.

Risers

Kyle Teel, Chicago White Sox, Current Rank 12, Previous Rank 19

Kyle Teel was one of the prospects sent to Chicago from Boston in exchange for Garrett Crochet. It was a bit of a surprise to see him included in the package, given that Chicago already had highly ranked prospect Edgar Quero in the pipeline. Teel has made a splash and looks to have established himself as the White Sox number one catcher, relegating Quero to DH duties. Teel split 2025 between Triple-A Charlotte and the majors. In Triple-A, he posted a .295/.394/.492 slash line with eight home runs, and after his promotion, in 78 games he posted a .273/.375/.411 slash line with eight more home runs. He also stole ten bases between the two levels. These are positive numbers, however there are some reasons to be concerned when looking at his underlying numbers. Although he does not chase pitches out of the zone at a high rate, his in-zone contact rate (79.5%) is lower than average, as is his hard hit rate (37.6%). Projection models predict that he’ll settle in at a .250 batting average with twelve to fifteen home runs. In a fifteen team dynasty league, this would be acceptable, but I would be surprised if Teel cracks our top ten.

Dillon Dingler, Detroit Tigers, Current Rank 22, Previously Unranked.

Dillon Dingler was likely going to take over the Tigers’ catching job even if Jake Rogers had stayed healthy. Keeping with his pattern through the minors of taking time to adjust at each level, he batted only .167 in his brief 2024 debut but bounced back with a .278 batting average and 13 home runs in 2025. If you were to compare Dingler to Kyle Teel, you’d see that Dingler has better contact skills and a higher hard hit rate, but lower average exit velocity, fewer walks, and more ground balls. At a ranking of 22, Dingler is a bargain and should rise up the ranks, but is also unlikely to crack a fantasy top ten list. In fact, I project Keel and Dingler to have very similar careers from an offensive production point of view, good enough to be rostered in a fifteen team league, but that manager would also be keeping an eye out for an upgrade.

Two other notewrothy risers on our lists are Ben Rice (5, previously 40) and Agustín Ramirez (10, previously 21) and I wrote about both in our top ten review that will come out on Wednesday.

Fallers

Yainer Diaz, Houston Astros, Current Rank 13, Previous Rank 3

It is apparent that Yainer Diaz was ranked too high at number three last year, and yet he may be too low at thirteen this year. After all, he is good for 20 home run seasons, which is higher than some of the players ranked above him. Unfortunately, Diaz does not have the plate discipline and hit tool to carry him up our rankings. I am used to seeing catchers have strong command of the strike zone and good pitch recognition as hitters, but Diaz had a 43.8% chase rate last year, remarkably the second lowest in his four years in the majors. And the over 60% contact rate on those pitches might be impressive if the majority of them were not ground balls. He has a good in-zone contact rate, but a relatively low in-zone swing rate. Unless he is able to improve his plate discipline and launch angle, he’ll be a second-tier catcher for dynasty fantasy purposes.

Francisco Alvarez, Current Rank 15, Previous Rank 7

You know what would be great? A full year in the majors for a healthy Francisco Alvarez would be great. Then we could see if he really is the catcher we thought he would be when he was a prospect. Last year in 277 plate appearances, he posted a 124 wRC+, with eleven home runs. His K-rate was under 25%, and his walk rate was just under 10%. The Statcast numbers show he hit the ball very hard. There are some issues with contact rates, ground ball rates, and the fact that he hits the ball to center more than he pulls the ball. If those numbers don’t change, he may settle into this tier, but if he can pull the ball in the air more often, we may see the top ten catcher we expected.

(Drew Klein)