The downturn in volume of offensively minded catchers has been a well-circulated discussion point in recent MLB seasons, but what has been happening so far in 2022 borders on a need for fantasy baseball managers to press a position-wide panic button.
Through 18.5% of the season -- the 900-total-game mark (or 30 per team on average) -- only four catcher-eligible players have scored a fantasy point total that ranks among the top 100 overall hitters. None has managed a top-50 hitter total, and of the 12 most commonly drafted catchers in ESPN leagues, eight have scored fewer fantasy points through this stage of the season than last, and that group has averaged 36.8 points per player, a total exceeded by a whopping 157 non-catchers.
Worse yet, the top 10 scoring catchers -- a group which, by the way, includes available-in-more-than-50%-of-leagues starters such as Jonah Heim and Alejandro Kirk -- have averaged 49.0 points per player, a 16% decline in production compared to the top 10 point scorers at this stage of 2021. Also, compare that 49-point average to the averages of the start-worthy players at the other hitting positions (for these purposes, corner and middle infielders are lumped in with their primary infield positions):
