Fantasy Baseball Rankings Movers: Alejandro Kirk forces way into crowded catcher conversation

Most every week, Scott White will highlight some of the more notable changes to his rest-of-season rankings. You'll find said rankings here and are urged to bookmark them if you haven't already. There's no better resource for gauging player value throughout the long season.

Chances are you don't need a catcher. Most leagues require you to use only one, and because catchers sit more often than full-time players at other positions, it's unlikely you'd want a second one for your utility spot.

Normally, that's not an issue because there aren't 12 catchers worth using at all, but if you haven't noticed yet, 2025 is shaping up to be the year of the catcher. Between breakouts like Ivan Herrera and Hunter Goodman and impactful arrivals like Agustin Ramirez, Drake Baldwin, and Kyle Teel, there are too many to go around in a one-catcher league. Shoot, even people in two-catcher leagues have had some tough decisions to make.

That's not to say everything has gone right at the position, but it's actually the mainstays that have disappointed us to this point, be it William Contreras, Adley Rutschman, Salvador Perez, Yainer Diaz or J.T. Realmuto. Still, their track records are too firm and their underlying data too strong for you to kick them to the curb. The new hat just piles on top of the old to make for an embarrassment of riches.

Where does that leave a guy like Alejandro Kirk? The 26-year-old, who's finally been tasked with a full-time role this season after serving as Danny Jansen's understudy for years, has long impressed us with his elite contact skills and above-average contact quality, but the results were never anything to write home about. That's changed all of a sudden. He's 7 for 10 with two home runs over his past two games, giving him a .323 batting average for the season and a .387 batting average over his past 35 games, dating back to April 25.

I'll tell you where he fits into the catcher mess, but first, let's look at some of my other rankings decisions from the past week.

The 10 biggest rankings moves for this week

If you happened to read my piece about Roman Anthony and the pressure on him to perform now that he's in the majors, you already know he's 39th in my outfield rankings, behind names that you'd never consider dropping in a five-outfielder league such as Bryan Reynolds, Heliot Ramos and Ian Happ. Anthony of course has more upside than those three, but there's a chance, however small, that he hasn't secured his place on the roster by the time Wilyer Abreu is due back from a strained oblique. And Anthony isn't the only notable prospect promotion announced in the past week. With the news of flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski joining the Brewers rotation Thursday, I've moved him up to 64th in my starting pitcher rankings, which confirms that he should be rostered in all leagues. His longstanding control issues haven't been quite as pronounced this year, and his fastball has peaked at 103 mph at Triple-A, where he had a 2.13 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and 11.4 K/9.
By OPS, Pete Alonso is enjoying the finest year of his career, and with six home runs already in June, he's opened up a big lead among first basemen in year-to-date production. That's enough for me to move him ahead of Vladimir Guerrero and Bryce Harper in my first base rankings, but I draw the line at Freddie Freeman, who himself has ascended to new heights with a .349 batting average and whose elite standing has been more durable over the years. "Durable" may seem like an odd word choice given that he's managing a bum ankle, which is perhaps the best justification for dropping him behind Alonso, but I think by now we can all see that the concern is overblown. Not only has Freeman's performance not suffered in the slightest, but he's also playing as regularly as ever, having started 50 of the Dodgers' past 51 games.
Chris Sale is back up to fifth in my starting pitcher rankings, which is where I was drafting him in the first place. Granted, one of the four names ahead of him then, Corbin Burnes, is out of commission, being replaced by Garrett Crochet, but the other three names ahead of him are the same, which is fairly remarkable this deep into the season. As for Sale, it's getting harder to hold his past injuries against him as he continues to take every fifth turn for a second straight year. Of course, the reason I initially downgraded him was because something genuinely seemed wrong with him, but since stumbling to a 6.17 ERA through five starts, he has a 1.41 ERA, 1.05 WHIP and 11.8 K/9 in nine starts, having delivered four with double-digit strikeouts.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand returned from the IL over the weekend by homering in three consecutive games, making good on what he called an adjustment to improve his timing. Most of his major-league career has been a fail to this point, but there have been extenuating circumstances like injuries. We know the power is in there, and the overall profile is not unlike Jake Burger. Since Burger has been the one floundering of late, I've moved Encarnacion-Stand one spot ahead, up to 22nd at first base.
Some of this year's biggest risers at starting pitcher -- namely, Carlos Rodon, Robbie Ray, Kris Bubic and MacKenzie Gore -- have finally climbed into the borderline ace range of my rankings, which is to say the top 20. (OK, so Bubic is technically 21st, but no need to be pedantic.) The point is that they've surpassed those who are plenty viable in Fantasy but I think pretty clearly fall short of being aces, a group that includes Freddy Peralta, Cristopher Sanchez and Nick Pivetta.
George Kirby is up to 22nd at starting pitcher after his 14-strikeout effort in his last outing Sunday. It followed a trio of underwhelming starts fresh off a shoulder injury, but the velocity has been good all along. The same can't be said for Spencer Strider fresh off his elbow issue, so as you might expect, he's one of the pitchers that Kirby has overtaken in my rankings.
Ultimately, I've settled on 16th for Alejandro Kirk in my catcher rankings, which you might think takes him out of one-catcher league consideration, but the line between him and my No. 12, Logan O'Hoppe, is actually pretty thin. They do different things well, so it's perfectly reasonable to side with the one who better suits your needs. In between are players Drake Baldwin, who's still splitting at-bats with Sean Murphy, and Shea Langeliers, who's out with an oblique injury. Meanwhile, if you toggle to the Head-to-Head points side of the rankings, you'll see that Kirk actually comes in 12th there because his microscopic strikeout rate further distinguishes him in that format.
Raisel Iglesias' removal from the closer role -- and for good cause -- has throttled him in my rankings, unsurprisingly. He's all the way down to 27th even though I'm pretty sure I still had him in my top 12 as recently as two weeks ago. He's still ahead of questionables like Jordan Romano, who's had his own struggles lately, and David Bednar, who's also had his struggles until very lately, because I think the likeliest scenario is that Iglesias winds up back in the role for the Braves. They tried their next-in-line, Pierce Johnson, and he blew back-to-back games. There isn't a great alternative otherwise. Meanwhile, Iglesias recently ditched his troublesome slider and has three other quality offerings.
Among this year's breakout first basemen, Michael Busch has lagged behind in my rankings in part because he seemed like the least likely to gain at-bats against left-handers. But he's been so hot of late that it's caused the Cubs to reassess, starting him against two of the past three left-handers they've faced. It's not just that he's batting .291 (25 for 86) with five homers and a .942 OPS over his past 27 games. It's also that his average exit velocity is 93 mph during that time, which is firmly elite. It's compelled me to move him ahead of Rhys Hoskins and Christian Walker in my first base rankings, up to 17th.
One of the biggest tumbles in my rankings this week goes to Lars Nootbaar, who I thought I had nailed as a breakout pick early on. His advanced plate discipline and plus exit velocity readings long hinted at big offensive potential if he could just lift the ball more, and he indeed has this year. But whatever juice it gave him early on has clearly dissipated, leading to a .211 batting average and .611 OPS over his past 35 games. He's dropped from 42nd to 51st in my Rotisserie rankings and from 26th to 42nd in his better format, Head-to-Head points.

A few others worth highlighting

Jordan Westburg homered in his first game back from a lengthy IL stint for a hamstring injury, which was enough of a reminder of his upside for me to move him back inside my top five at second base. It's not so much of a statement given the lack of high-level talent at the position. He's only surpassing Nico Hoerner and Brice Turang, who are decidedly mid-tier.
James Wood has leaped ahead of Julio Rodriguez, one of the first-round mainstays, in my outfield rankings. I'm struggling to see what advantage Rodriguez has over him at this point, other than longevity.
Wyatt Langford probably has better days ahead, but I'm not sure he needs to rank ahead of Seiya Suzuki and Teoscar Hernandez still, who benefit from playing in much better lineups. So I've amended that.
Trea Turner is back ahead of C.J. Abrams in my shortstop rankings. That's one instance where I may have gotten a little too cute.
I still think better days are ahead for Bo Bichette, not that he's been bad so far, but it's looking more and more like he'll need to deliver on his best-case outcome to have any hope of surpassing Jacob Wilson and Zachary Neto. I've dropped him behind both, with Wilson trailing Neto in Rotisserie and Neto trailing Wilson in Head-to-Head points.
Shelby Miller comes in right behind Raisel Iglesias at 28th in my relief pitcher rankings. He struggled the last time he filled in for Justin Martinez, who's down for the count with a UCL sprain, but has good numbers overall, including a 1.69 ERA. The Diamondbacks don't have any other choice, really, until A.J. Puk returns from his own injury in about a month or so.