Skip to main content

Fantasy Baseball Depth Chart Review: Week 10

Fantasy Baseball Depth Chart Review: Week 10

Welcome to the Depth Chart Review! Every week I’ll be going over injuries, lineup changes, and transactions around the big leagues and how they affect fantasy baseball. This week we’ve got some hopefully minor injuries to some major players, a trade between the Mariners and the Rays, and the Pirates keeping top prospect Austin Meadows in the majors.

Import your team to My Playbook for instant Lineup & Trade advice partner-arrow

Thor Hits the Disabled List

Noah Syndergaard unexpectedly hit the disabled list on Tuesday with a strained finger ligament. While this news is frustrating, the good news is that Syndergaard is expected to return to the rotation after the minimum 10 days. The move is also retroactive to May 26th, so he’ll be eligible to return next week Monday. If he’s been dealing with this finger injury all season it hasn’t affected his performance, since Syndergaard has a 3.06 ERA, 2.56 FIP, and 5.85 K/BB ratio in 11 starts. Owners have good reason to be worried about Syndergaard’s health after last season, but when he is off the disabled list Syndergaard should return to being one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Syndergaard was supposed to pitch on Wednesday against the Braves, but that start will go to veteran lefty Jason Vargas. Seth Lugo will pitch on Thursday, his first start of the season after making 20 relief appearances thus far. These two starts could be a rotation audition for both pitchers. Vargas was signed in the offseason to bring stability to a young and often injured pitching rotation, but he missed nearly a month with a hand injury and has gotten smashed since returning. He has a 10.62 ERA, 2.1 K/BB ratio, and 2.66 HR/9 in five starts. Even if Vargas pitches well he has a long way to go before we can trust him in fantasy. Lugo is the more interesting player should he get a rotation spot. Despite blowing the Mets’ victory on Monday, Lugo has been dominant as a reliever. He has a 2.48 ERA and 3.78 K/BB ratio in 32.2 relief innings. Lugo has had flashes of success in the past, including posting a 2.67 ERA between the rotation and bullpen in 2016 and posting a 3.95 FIP primarily as a starter last season. He won’t be standard mixed league viable, but Lugo could be a sneaky stash in NL-Only or deep mixed leagues before he makes this start.

Austin Meadows Stays in Pittsburgh

Pirates outfield prospect Austin Meadows was called up to fill in for Starling Marte, but after hitting .417 with three homers and three steals in 10 games the Pirates elected to keep Meadows in the big leagues for now even though Marte has returned. This creates a logjam in Pittsburgh’s outfield. It would be hard to envision Marte losing playing time, and Meadows, Gregory Polanco, and Corey Dickerson all bat left-handed ruling out a natural platoon. Meadows’ production certainly justifies more playing time, so this may result in an outfield rotation between Meadows, Dickerson, and Polanco.

At first glance it would seem that Polanco would lose playing time. He is hitting .205 with a .732 OPS and 99 wRC+ through 209 plate appearances. This is more than bad luck too, since Polanco has a career-high 24% strikeout rate and 52.3% flyball rate. He isn’t putting himself in a position to succeed at the plate right now and has issues to iron out. His defense isn’t making up for his deficiencies at the plate either, as Polanco already has -5 DRS and -16 UZR/150, by far the worst marks of his career. The Pirates have a lot committed to him though, as he is in the second year of a five-year, $35 million dollar deal. They don’t have as much committed to Dickerson, whom they added after he was designated for assignment by the Tampa Bay Rays. But Dickerson is in the midst of his best offensive season since 2014. He is hitting .316 with an .838 OPS and 125 wRC+ through 204 plate appearances. He has more than halved his strikeout rate from a career 22% to 10% this season and has been a positive defensive asset with 16.8 UZR/150 thus far. Between the two Polanco should be the one in trouble, but it seems unlikely that Meadows usurps either one unless trades or injuries occur. Meadows will probably play more than the average fourth outfielder, but he won’t approach regular playing time.

Span and Colome head to the Emerald City

Always willing to make a deal, the Mariners acquired outfielder Denard Span and reliever Alex Colome from the Rays on Friday. This, unfortunately, kills Colome’s value in standard 5×5 leagues as he will not be getting saves in Seattle as long as Edwin Diaz is pitching. Colome should be dropped in most leagues unless holds are used as a category. He should be a fine source of holds as the Mariners’ setup man.

This also puts Span’s value in question, as he didn’t play for the Mariners until Monday despite being acquired on Friday. Ben Gamel had been getting the lion’s share of the playing time in left field for Seattle, and the two figure to share the left field job for the foreseeable future. Span has been better by most statistical measures this season. His .730 OPS, 109 wRC+, and 1.17 BB/K ratio are all better than Gamel’s numbers. The Mariners wouldn’t have gone out and traded for Span if they were satisfied with Gamel’s production either. This will probably turn out to be a slightly worse situation for Span, who has put up solid if unspectacular fantasy production consistently over the past few seasons. He has been hitting second for the Mariners thus far, but once Dee Gordon returns from the disabled list Span will probably hit in the bottom half of the order. A lot of his value comes from volume by getting a lot of at-bats and scoring plenty of runs atop a batting lineup. It’s only a small dip in value for Span and doesn’t make him droppable if you’ve been using him.

The biggest fantasy fallout from this trade is on the Tampa Bay end, as it leaves them without a closer. Since Colome had been so reliable for them there isn’t an obvious candidate to take over the ninth inning. Lefty Johnny Venters got a one-out save on Monday, but this was in the 13th inning and the Rays had already exhausted most of their bullpen. Venters has a long injury history, having gone six years between major league appearances, and the Rays may not consider him capable of handling the rigors of regular closing duties. Jose Alvarado and Chaz Roe are two other options for the Rays. Roe has a famously nasty slider that batters are hitting just .174 against with a 17% swinging strike rate, but nothing else has worked for him. He has a 4.42 ERA, 4.75 FIP, and 1.47 HR/9 this season. That’s hardly big league material, let alone closer material.

Alvarado has performed much better with a 2.78 ERA, 2.45 FIP, and 27% strikeout rate this season. With a 3.97 BB/9, he walks more hitters than one would feel comfortable with for a closer, but that’s the only knock on him. He has only allowed one home run in 52.1 big league innings and has a career 57.4% groundball rate. Alvarado is the preferred option to target on waivers. Then again, the Rays have proven many times in the past they aren’t afraid to go against traditional thinking, so there may not be a designated closer in this bullpen all season.

Ronald Acuna Avoids Disaster

Ronald Acuna suffered a scary-looking knee injury on Sunday running to first base in a game against the Red Sox. After crossing the bag his left knee buckled and he fell to the ground. It looked like a potentially devastating injury, but an MRI revealed a mild ACL sprain for Acuna. Acuna was running the next day and wanted to play but the Braves placed him on the 10-day disabled to rest and heal instead of rushing the 20-year-old phenom back too early. If Acuna is able to run this would presumably be a minimum 10-day stint for him, but we’ll have to wait for reports on his progress before getting a definitive timeline for his return.

The Braves promoted outfielder Dustin Peterson to take Acuna’s roster spot, but Preston Tucker will get most of the playing time in left field while Acuna is out. Tucker is hitting .266 with a .743 OPS in 101 plate appearances as a fourth outfielder for the Braves. After a hot start in April Tucker’s power has evaporated in May as he has just an .053 ISO and one extra-base hit this month. He could be a decent short-term play in deep leagues or NL-Only leagues based on playing time, but Tucker is just keeping the seat warm until Acuna gets back.

Import your team to My Playbook for instant Waiver Wire advice partner-arrow

Elliott Baas is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Elliott, check out his archive and follow him @elliottbaasbb.

More Articles

Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Grades & Start/Sit Advice: Week 1 (2024)

Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Grades & Start/Sit Advice: Week 1 (2024)

fp-headshot by FantasyPros Staff | 5 min read
Fantasy Baseball Trade Value Chart: Michael Harris II, Zach Eflin, Jazz Chisholm Jr. (2024)

Fantasy Baseball Trade Value Chart: Michael Harris II, Zach Eflin, Jazz Chisholm Jr. (2024)

fp-headshot by FantasyPros Staff | 10 min read
MLB DFS, PrizePicks & Underdog Player Props Picks: Thursday (3/28)

MLB DFS, PrizePicks & Underdog Player Props Picks: Thursday (3/28)

fp-headshot by Josh Shepardson | 1 min read
Fantasy Baseball Closer Report: Jordan Romano, Michael Kopech, Paul Sewald (2024)

Fantasy Baseball Closer Report: Jordan Romano, Michael Kopech, Paul Sewald (2024)

fp-headshot by Austin Lowell | 4 min read

About Author

Hide

Current Article

4 min read

Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Grades & Start/Sit Advice: Week 1 (2024)

Next Up - Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Grades & Start/Sit Advice: Week 1 (2024)

Next Article