Adley Rutschman became one of the best catchers in baseball in 2024. He was one of the Baltimore Orioles’ most consistent players last season. Rutschman has become one of the most impactful catchers in the game and has the huge potential to be one of the best fantasy catchers in 2025. He continues to be one of the most important focal points of the O’s offense like he has been his entire career up to this point. Let’s look back at his 2024 season.
Adley Rutschman 2024 Production
Rutschman had a slight dip in production in 2024 from his 2023 season, as he had 19 homers, 79 RBIs, a .709 OPS, and 21 doubles. All of his numbers suffered a dip in 2024 for whatever reason, especially the walks went down from 92 to 58 in 2024. It was a huge disappointment to see his discipline at the plate dip by that much, and his slugging was also a disappointment after a great 2023. Rutschman still had 143 hits in the season last season, but even that was a dip from 163 in his Silver Slugger season in 2023.
Rutschman did have several crucial production dips in 2024 because of some injuries and a slump in August, as most of the team was that month. But he will bounce back in 2025 in a huge way, especially when it comes to helping his running mate Gunnar Henderson out a lot, especially when it comes to the big numbers. Speaking of projections, here are his projections.
Adley Rutschman 2025 Projections
ESPN has Rutschman as the 47th-ranked batter heading into the 2025 season (2nd-best catcher) with the following stat-line projection: 21 HRs, 78 RBIs, 72 BBs, a .259 AVG, and a .759 OPS. The Worldwide leader is projecting him to have a slight uptick in homers, average, on-base, slugging, OPS, etc., which is similar to my projections of Rutschman. I see him cracking that 25 home run mark especially if he can find his opposite swing with the new outfield dimensions in left field.
I think Rutschman can be a sneaky Top-35 fantasy play this upcoming season if he can stay on the path of his 2023 numbers and the first half of the 2024 season. But there is a possibility of a crash, as we saw last August-September. We shall see how much of a major impact he will have, especially if he continues to be either the lead-off or the second hitter in the lineup card daily. I think Rutschman is going to have to step up a lot with the departure of Anthony Santander to the rival Blue Jays and I could see him taking that challenge personally and making a huge impact in 2025.
Conclusion
Adley Rutschman is going to have a bounce-back season that will make his owners satisfied throughout the 2025 season, especially if there’s a chance that he could match the 2023 Silver Slugger season. I love getting him in the fourth-seventh rounds of redrafts and should have solid value in DFS throughout 2025 if he continues to perform throughout the 162-game grind of a season that the MLB season is. Total Apex Fantasy is the place to be for MLB fantasy news and advice, as well as the NBA, and helping you with your NCAA DFS plays during the Madness.
