Welcome to the Depth Chart Review! Every week I’ll be going over transactions, injuries, and lineup changes around the big leagues and how they affect fantasy baseball. This week we’ve got a few injuries to address as well as an extended suspension.
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Gary Sanchez Placed on Disabled List, Set to Miss 3-4 Weeks
Gary Sanchez was placed on the 10-day disabled list on Monday with a groin strain. He is expected to miss about 3-4 weeks, and Austin Romine will take over as the Yankees’ primary catcher during that span. Romine has hit well as a backup. In 96 plate appearances, he has a .296 AVG, .854 OPS, and .209 ISO. He’s improved his average exit velocity to 90 MPH and he has a .298 xBA, so it would seem that Romine made legitimate improvements at the plate. Even so, Romine is a career .230 hitter with a .614 OPS and it’s hard to believe he’ll maintain this production on a regular basis. Since catcher is such a thin position on waivers Romine is a decent fill-in for Sanchez or short-term option in deeper two-catcher leagues.
If Romine doesn’t excite you, I’m going to suggest a few interesting catchers that are widely available in Yahoo leagues that would also make good fill-in options for Sanchez.
Tom Murphy (COL): 8% Owned
Any Rockies’ catcher has at least some fantasy value based on his home ballpark alone. Murphy has flashed tremendous power at Triple-A. This season he has 16 home runs and a .353 ISO in 209 plate appearances, and in 2016 he had 19 home runs and a .320 ISO in 322 plate appearances at Triple-A. He may have put up these numbers in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, but he’s playing in Colorado anyway.
Robinson Chirinos (TEX): 10% Owned
Chirinos has great power for a catcher. He has nine home runs and a .199 ISO this season, and he posted an ISO above .250 in the two seasons prior to this one. Chirinos is undoubtedly going to be a batting average liability. He’s striking out nearly 40% of the time this season and his contact rate is down to 64%. Still, we can’t be too picky with waiver wire catchers and Chirinos does play in a hitter’s paradise in Arlington.
Devin Mesoraco (NYM): 8% Owned
Since coming to the Mets, Mesoraco has a .781 OPS with six home runs in 111 plate appearances. Yes, hit only hit .229 during that stretch, but he’s at least showcasing some of the power he had way back in his 2014 breakout season.
These names and stats aren’t exactly pretty, but that is the reality of waiver wire catchers in fantasy baseball. In order of priority, I’d rank these four as Murphy, Romine, Chirinos, Mesoraco. Murphy is the only catcher that might have staying power all season.
Roberto Osuna Officially Suspended 75 Games, Eligible to Return in August
After weeks and weeks of having his administrative leave extended, a decision was finally made regarding Roberto Osuna’s suspension. Osuna was arrested for suspected assault in early May and hasn’t pitched since May 6th. After shuffling between options, the Blue Jays settled on right-hander Ryan Tepera as their closer. After a rocky May Tepera has thrived in June with a 0.75 ERA, 1.27 FIP, and 7.0 K/BB ratio to go along with four saves. He did blow a save, but that was the only run he’s allowed all month and it was a multi-inning save. Tepera has a pretty strong hold on the closer’s job until Osuna returns.
When Osuna returns it’s hard to say whether he’ll still be the closer. Even though a suspension has been handed down, his legal issues haven’t been resolved yet. He intends to plead not guilty and go to trial, and a lengthy trial and potential conviction lead us down a rabbit hole that is far beyond the scope of fantasy baseball. What we do know is that there are rumblings of a potential trade out of Toronto for Osuna. If he is traded he might serve in a setup role, much like has already happened to Kelvin Herrera and Alex Colome. Other times we’ve seen established closers return from lengthy absences only to be used in setup roles, like Mark Melancon in San Francisco. Whether it’s worth holding Osuna depends on two things. How desperate you are for saves and whether he can be stashed in an N/A spot. If he can be stashed he’s an easy hold. If not then it depends on bench space. The best case scenario from a fantasy perspective is that Osuna assumes the closer’s role the minute he returns and hangs onto it for the remainder of the season. Even then we’re looking at a closer on a sub-.500 team that will likely sell pieces off at the July 31st trade deadline. Hold if you can, but don’t feel obligated to hold Osuna for the duration of his suspension.
Diamondbacks get Robbie Ray and Shelby Miller Back, Lose Clay Buchholz
The Diamondbacks’ rotation is taking two steps forward and one step back this week. Shelby Miller made his first start of the season on Monday after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2017 and Robbie Ray is expected to start Wednesday for Arizona. They also lost the surprising Clay Buchholz to a strained oblique. Buchholz was placed on the disabled list Monday and there is no timetable for his return, however, his teammate Robbie Ray suffered a strained oblique on April 29th and is now just returning. Oblique injuries can often require several weeks before a player can return, and mid-August seems like a likely return date for him. Buchholz is droppable in all leagues. There are better players worthy of DL stashes.
Miller got rocked in his first start back from the disabled list by the Marlins of all teams. He gave up five earned runs in 3.1 innings. He also only threw two pitches, his fastball, and curveball. The good news was that Miller averaged 94.7 MPH with his fastball and got five swinging strikes with it. Still, Miller was bad in this start and hasn’t been a good fantasy option since 2015. We need to see him throw his cutter again and see better results before he can be trusted.
Ray is a bit of a question mark too. Before going on the disabled list he was pitching as an even more extreme version of himself. He struck out 36% of batters he faced, but he also walked 13.7% and gave up five home runs in six starts. Excluding the start he left early with the injury, Ray walked at least three batters in every start this season. Walks have long been an issue for Ray, and one that will probably never be corrected, but a 13.7% walk rate is high even for him. If he were facing tougher competition Ray would be easy to sit, but since the Marlins have a meager .286 wOBA and .112 ISO against left-handed pitchers he’s a worthy gamble in this start.
Cubs Place Bryant on the Disabled List with Shoulder Inflammation
Kris Bryant hadn’t played since Friday due to shoulder soreness, and on Tuesday the Cubs placed him on the 10-day disabled list with shoulder inflammation. No timetable was offered for a return, but since the move was retroactive to 6/23 he would be eligible to return as early as next week, on Tuesday. Hopefully, this won’t require more than the minimum stay on the disabled list, but it’s a step back from Monday when Joe Maddon said that it was unlikely Bryant would need a DL stint. Perhaps this injury helps explain some of Bryant’s June struggles. He is hitting .267 in June, which doesn’t seem too bad, but he has just a .107 ISO after posting an ISO above .215 in the previous two months. His hard-hit rate is also down to just 24.5% this month after being around 45% in May. It seems likely that Bryant’s performance was suffering from an injury because we don’t normally expect a 26-year-old superstar to suddenly lose his power midseason.
The Cubs promoted utility infielder David Bote to take Bryant’s roster spot, but Bote doesn’t have any fantasy value. As far as the club’s lineup goes, this injury does not dramatically boost anyone’s value. They have been rotating Ian Happ, Ben Zobrist, and Albert Almora Jr. between the outfield and second base all season, and with Bryant out it means that one more of them can fit into the lineup on any given day. Happ has played all four games since Bryant’s injury, but with a .238 AVG and 38% strikeout rate Happ won’t have too much extra value. The Cubs will probably just continue to do what they normally do, which is rotate their position players around the diamond and in the lineup on a day-by-day basis.
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Elliott Baas is a correspondent at FantasyPros. For more from Elliott, check out his archive and follow him @elliottbaasbb.
