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MLB Winter Meetings: Fantasy Take on News from Orlando — Day 2

By Michael Dixon

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Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

There’s still a lot of posturing taking place in Orlando at the MLB Winter Meetings, but Day 2 gave us a little bit of action to talk about. In case you were away or are wondering how this will impact your fantasy baseball leagues, let’s take a quick.

Trades

From a real baseball point of view, I’m not exactly sure how well Mark Trumbo is going to work with the Arizona Diamondbacks, but that’s mostly because he’ll have to be a full-time outfielder without a DH and Paul Goldschmidt manning first base.

But the fantasy values of Mark Trumbo in Arizona, Adam Eaton with the Chicago White Sox, and Tyler Skaggs/Hector Santiago with the Los Angeles Angels should all go up.

Click here or a more detailed look at the trade.

I immediately wondered how much fantasy value Brett Anderson would have with the Colorado Rockies, given how different his home park in Oakland is to Coors Field. But you shouldn’t have Anderson on your fantasy team until he shows that he can stay healthy for more than a month or two. Once he does that, you’ll get a better idea of how he’s handling the altitude.

Chris Jensen and Drew Pomeranz are very young, but even when you consider how great the Oakland Athletics are at developing pitchers, neither are fantasy relevant yet. Pomeranz has a career 5.20 ERA/1.544 WHIP, and Jensen’s never pitched beyond A+ ball.

Now for some big rumors

Fantasy Take: Nothing much yet, as there isn’t a real team that seems to be linked to either of these two aces. But given the fact that Citizen’s Bank Park is very hitter-friendly and the Philadelphia Phillies aren’t shaping up to be a good team in 2014, it’s safe to say that a trade wouldn’t be anything worse than a lateral move for either Cliff Lee or Cole Hamels.

Now, we learned yesterday that Matt Kemp to the Red Sox seems off the table, while Jon Morosi theorized that the signing of Rajai Davis likely takes the Detroit Tigers out of the mix, unless they’re willing to part with Austin Jackson. Not impossible to imagine Jackson being moved for someone like Kemp, but that makes the Seattle Mariners the most likely suitor, at least of these three.

Fantasy Take: If Kemp goes to Seattle, I’d feel a lot better about how Robinson Cano will do in Seattle. While the Mariners still wouldn’t have the talent that Kemp had around him with the Los Angeles Dodgers, I’d like this move for his perspective, too. With Kemp’s injuries, I’d like him a lot better in the American League and while Safeco Field isn’t great for power, neither is Dodger Stadium.

That said, I’m doubting that the Dodgers will trade Kemp now. It’d make more sense to wait until the season starts to give him a chance to bolster his value. At that point, a contending team with an injured or under-performing outfielder would be a little more likely to make a big move for him.

What about the big free agents?

Shin-Soo Choo seems likely to end up with the Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, Arizona Diamondbacks, or New York Yankees,  hinting that the Rangers or Mariners would be the most likely options.

Fantasy Take: Texas is a better place for homers but for the kind of hitter Choo is, I wouldn’t see much of a different in terms of parks. Now, I would like to see them sign another power bat to compliment Choo and Cano, but Choo would be great hitting line drives into the spacious gaps at Safeco Field.

Fantasy Take: There’s not much of a need to speculate on how Jose Veras would do with the Houston Astros. We saw that last year and he did fine.

As for Mike Morse. The thought of him taking aim at the Crawford boxes is a fun one. When news of the Trumbo trade broke, we posed this question on our Facebook Page.

"Between Mark Trumbo and Paul Goldschmidt, will there be a better team to watch in batting practice than the Diamondbacks?"

If the Astros sign Morse, it would be plenty fun to see him and Chris Carter in BP.

Now, we thank Heyman for that information, but he also supplied us with the most important information of the evening, and we have to finish here.

What a wonderful, random event the Winter Meetings are.

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