Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners: Fantasy Fallout from Trade
By Bill Pivetz
The baseball world witnessed another trade take place on Monday. This time, the trade was between the Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers. The Mariners sent reliever Tom Wilhelmsen, James Jones and a player to be named later in exchange for Leonys Martin and reliever Anthony Bass. While it doesn’t look eye-popping on paper, there is a lot of fallout from this trade.
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The biggest benefactor of this trade was someone not even involved in it. It’s Rangers center fielder Delino DeShields. Throughout the 2015 season, DeShields split time with Martin in center field, 85 to 71 games. DeShields played in 121 games with 111 hits, 37 RBI, 25 stolen bases and a .261/.344/.374 line. He finished 38th among outfielders on the Player Rater.
There is little competition for DeShields in center field. The Rangers also have one of the better offenses in the league, especially with Prince Fielder and Adrian Beltre still crushing the ball. As the leadoff hitter, he will have a lot of opportunities to get on base and score runs.
Staying with Texas, Wilhelmsen’s value drops as a result of this trade. I wrote about his sleeper value as the closer with Seattle. That is no longer the case. He joins a crowded bullpen with Shawn Tolleson in the closer role. Unless you play in a league that keeps track of holds, Wilhelmsen is not draftable in most leagues next season.
Moving over to Seattle, Martin is a high-risk, high-reward player. He played well for Texas in 2013 and 2014, combining for 265 hits, 15 home runs, 89 RBI, 67 stolen bases and a .268 average. This past season was a bit of a decline for the 27-year-old. In 95 games, he had just 63 hits, 25 RBI, 14 stolen bases and a .219 average. He did miss most of August and September with a broken bone in his right hand. He was left off the Rangers’ playoff roster and refused to go to the Instructional League.
Martin will take over the center field spot with Brad Miller now with Tampa Bay. Franklin Gutierrez will play on Martin’s off days, but this is Martin’s job. In that offense, similar to Texas, he could be a nice option as long as he can hit. Fantasy owners who plan on drafting him are hoping for 2014 Martin and not the one we saw this season.
Next: Sonny Gray: Top 5 Starting Pitcher for 2016
This trade was a little higher on the impact charts compared to the others we’ve seen. Like I said earlier, the biggest benefactor of this trade is DeShields. He is one of the breakout players I’ve keeping my eye on heading into the 2016 season, Martin’s value will be determined on his play at the plate and Wilhelmsen’s value drops now that he is no longer a closer. Regardless, these trades continue to shake up the fantasy baseball world.