Spring training camps are underway, which means it is time to look at the state of baseball. As part of our 2025 MLB season preview, ESPN's Buster Olney is bringing back his positional ranking series, in which he surveyed those around the industry to help him rank the top 10 players at every position.
The objective of this exercise is to identify the best players for the 2025 season, not who might be best in five years or over their career. We will roll out a position per day over the next two weeks. With catchers up first, here's the rest of the schedule: first basemen (2/18), second basemen (2/19), third basemen (2/20), shortstops (2/21), corner outfielders (2/24), center fielders (2/25), designated hitters (2/26), starting pitchers (2/27), relievers (2/28).
Who are the best players today? Check out who makes the list at every position on ESPN+.
Adley Rutschman was the heir apparent to J.T. Realmuto's throne as the best catcher in the big leagues, someone who, like Realmuto, would seemingly dominate the position for the better part of a decade. Rutschman was the No. 1 overall pick by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2019 draft, excelled at each stop in the minors, and when he was promoted to the big leagues in May of 2022, his team started winning immediately.
But the second half of last season was an interruption in his reign, with Rutschman really struggling in all phases of the game. In 71 games after June 28, he hit .189, with a .279 OBP and a .280 slugging percentage.
"He started chasing pitches up in the zone, and he didn't really adjust," one rival evaluator said.
The perception of some staffers with other teams is that Rutschman got a little heavy in the second half and didn't move as well behind the plate, with his catching skills diminished. As his production deteriorated, sources within the Orioles' organization acknowledged: He wasn't hurt. This was just a matter of a really talented player performing badly.
He wasn't the first rising star to go through something like this. Johnny Bench, generally regarded as the greatest catcher, won the National League MVP Award in 1970, and then batted .238 the following season, with a decline in OPS of 210 points. In a phone interview, Bench recalled 1971 and how he had started well -- nine homers in the Cincinnati Reds' first 20 games. But the team wasn't playing well and he began to struggle; he started second-guessing himself at the plate and becoming reactionary rather than instinctive. After ending that season with the second-lowest full-season batting average of his career, Bench hit 40 homers and drove in 125 runs the next year en route to his second MVP.
Bench's bounce-back the following season shows that Rutschman could still regain his title as baseball's top current catcher. But does he hold that spot in 2025? Let's take stock of the position and rank the 10 best catchers in the majors.