Drake Baldwin has 161 total fantasy points through 13 games. Read that again. A catcher — the position fantasy managers historically treat like an afterthought — is sitting on the highest point total of any position player not named Shohei Ohtani.
And honestly, even Ohtani's lead isn't comfortable. His 174 points in 12 games puts him just 13 points ahead of Baldwin, who's played one more game. The gap at DH behind Ohtani is staggering: Giancarlo Stanton sits at #2 with just 85 points, less than half of Ohtani's total. That's not a positional advantage — that's a different sport.
But Baldwin's dominance is the story that deserves more attention. Let's break it all down.
The Catcher Revolution Nobody Saw Coming
The catcher position has been a fantasy wasteland for years. And yet, here's what the top of the leaderboard looks like right now:
- Drake Baldwin (ATL): 161 total points, 12.4 PPG
- Shea Langeliers (ATH): 123 total points, 11.2 PPG
- Liam Hicks (MIA): 106 total points, 9.6 PPG
Baldwin's 12.4 PPG would rank him competitively at every single position. That number would slot him second among second basemen, ahead of the #2 first baseman in per-game average, and right in the mix at shortstop. The catcher position producing a player averaging north of 12 fantasy points per game through 13 games is genuinely unusual.
José Soriano and the Small-Sample Pitching Heaters
The starting pitcher leaderboard is absolutely wild right now, and the reason is obvious: tiny game counts producing enormous per-game numbers.
- José Soriano (LAA): 42 PPG, 126 total (3 games)
- Sandy Alcantara (MIA): 41.7 PPG, 125 total (3 games)
- Cam Schlittler (NYY): 39.7 PPG, 119 total (3 games)
All three leaders have pitched exactly 3 games. Soriano is averaging 42 fantasy points per start, which is an absurd pace. For context, that per-game average is more than triple what the top position players are putting up. Notably, Sandy Alcantara sitting at #2 is a fascinating data point for anyone who's been tracking his journey back to the mound after missing significant time.
Over in the bullpen, Joey Cantillo's 28 PPG across 3 games as a reliever is eye-catching. That per-game rate dwarfs the next two names on the list — Aaron Ashby (10 PPG) and Jeff Hoffman (9.1 PPG) — though Ashby and Hoffman have both appeared in 7 games, making their numbers feel more stable.
The White Sox Third Base Experiment
Here's one that jumped off the page: the Chicago White Sox have two of the top three fantasy third basemen in baseball right now.
- Miguel Vargas: 107 points, 8.9 PPG (#2 at 3B)
- Munetaka Murakami: 106 points, 8.8 PPG (#3 at 3B)
The two are separated by a single fantasy point over 12 games each. Meanwhile, Cincinnati's Sal Stewart sits atop the position with 144 points and 12 PPG — a comfortable 37-point cushion over Vargas. Murakami's presence on this leaderboard is particularly interesting as one of the highest-profile international signings in recent memory, and the early returns suggest the production is translating.
The Per-Game vs. Total Points Divide
One of the most interesting wrinkles in the data is how per-game averages and total points tell different stories:
- Ben Rice (1B, NYY) averages 13.8 PPG — the highest among first basemen — but ranks #2 in total points (138) behind Christian Walker's 150, because Rice has played only 10 games to Walker's 13.
- Brice Turang averages 12.5 PPG at second base, topping Nico Hoerner's 11.6. But Hoerner's two extra games give him a 14-point lead in total scoring (139 to 125).
- CJ Abrams leads shortstops with 13.1 PPG and 144 total points despite playing fewer games (11) than Zach Neto (13 games, 130 points).
The numbers remind us that availability and efficiency are two very different currencies in fantasy baseball — and both matter.
The Ohtani Tax
Finally, let's just appreciate the absurdity of the DH position one more time. Ohtani's 14.5 PPG is the highest per-game average at any position among players with 10+ games played. The drop-off to Stanton at 8.5 PPG is 6 full points per game. Over a full season, that kind of gap compounds into something genuinely historic.
The early season numbers are always a little chaotic, a little noisy, and a lot of fun. But some of these trends — Baldwin behind the plate, Soriano on the mound, the Ohtani chasm at DH — feel like they're worth watching closely as the sample sizes grow.