More Fantasy Baseball: Waiver Wire | Bullpen Report
The concept for this piece is pretty simple. Players get hurt, right? And when they get hurt, someone replaces them. But then when those players are ready to return, that someone usually goes back to parts unknown, and we're all made better by not having to look at him anymore.
Starters are starters. Reserves are reserves. They are that way for a reason.
- Subscribe to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast for free on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play or anywhere else you listen.
But these five fill-ins did such a remarkable job filling in that they've climbed the pecking order, achieving full-time status.That's not to say they've overtaken the players they were replacing, but they've found new paths to playing time.
Or at least that's my perception of things. Seeing as none are owned in even 85 percent of CBS Sports leagues, not everyone is fully on board.
But you know what? I buy it. I buy that these five are built to last, and for some, I buy that even better days are ahead.
I've dismissed the possibility of Jurickson Profar being a legitimate Fantasy asset for months now, wondering how anyone could even broach the idea when looking at his numbers. But uninspiring though they may be, he has certainly contributed in Fantasy — particularly points leagues, where he's a top 10 second baseman and top 12 shortstop despite playing a reserve role the first couple weeks of the season.
Problem is I wasn't digging deep enough. True, no one part of his stat line stands out, but he's on pace for 41 doubles, 17 homers, nine triples and nine stolen bases, all while striking out at the 13th-lowest rate among full-time hitters. He's not great at anything, but he's pretty good at everything, which makes him a whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-the-parts player in the mold of Odubel Herrera or Chris Taylor.
But what about that one area where he's lacking, the batting average? Well, that's the best part. A player who strikes out as infrequently as he does shouldn't hit .240, so as you might expect, his BABIP sits at only .249. But his line-drive rate is normal. His pull rate is normal. He's not giving himself away on contact, which means a correction is coming. He could hit .300 the rest of the way, and then what?
He might be a top-five second baseman in that case — and not far off at shortstop, outfield and third base, where he'll soon be eligible since that's the position he figures to play most often with everyone healthy again, bumping the aging Adrian Beltre to DH.
Though known to be a lefty masher coming into the year, Jesus Aguilar wasn't even a clear platoon partner for the left-handed-hitting Eric Thames, not with Ryan Braun ready to try his hand at first base. But then Thames went down and Domingo Santana went wrong, freeing up first base for Aguilar entirely, and all he has done since then is hit. And hit and hit. Lefties (.981 OPS), righties (.931), — it hasn't mattered.
Since Thames returned to the lineup June 12, Aguilar has started only four of seven games at first base, but just one of those was against a left-hander, which means the Brewers' thinking has already begun to shift. Certainly doesn't hurt that Aguilar is 7 for 16 with three homers during that four-start (five games overall) stretch.
The 27-year-old has been the best hitter for a team with playoff aspirations, and since Thames is capable of playing the outfield, it's just a matter of the Brewers phasing out the steadily declining Braun. They've already put Santana in their rear-view mirror, and Braun, at least as more than a timeshare partner for Thames, may be next. Either that or someone gets hurt.
Bottom line is that if Aguilar continues to hit (why wouldn't he?), his opportunities will only expand. I wouldn't make Thames' return an excuse to drop a guy on a 31-homer, 100-RBI pace.
Brandon Nimmo has gotten his share of attention in other places, but he might be Exhibit A for this exercise, bursting onto the scene the way so many who are prospects in spite of their numbers seem to do. The 25-year-old has always known how to take a pitch, which is part of what attracted the Mets' Moneyball-rooted front office to him in the first place. But what a project he turned out to be, only this year tapping into his power (fly-ball revolution — yay!) in a way that has made him an OPS monster.
Case in point: He was among an impressive crew with an OPS over 1.000 this year including Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Jose Ramirez and J.D. Martinez before "sinking" to .992 Wednesday night.
And Nimmo has done it without a completely absurd batting average or home run-to-fly ball rate. Both are a little higher than this new hit-the-ball-in-the-air version profiles to have, maybe, but whatever correction comes won't be enough to bump him from the Mets lineup, not even after Yoenis Cespedes returns. He's the team's best hitter, for crying out loud.
And he's the sixth-best in Head-to-Head points leagues since entering the lineup May 9, trailing only Andrew Benintendi, Trout, Jose Ramirez, Freeman and Martinez.
I don't know why the Dodgers would ever sit Max Muncy. Can't imagine sufficient justification for it.
Lineup clutter? There's an argument to be made, I guess. The time Justin Turner missed with a fractured wrist at the start of the year is what allowed Muncy to get his foot in the door, after all. But Turner has been back for more than a month now, and still the Dodgers have found opportunities for Muncy. With Cody Bellinger's ability to shift between first base and the outfield as needed, any of him, Turner, Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp and Joc Pederson could conceivably sit for Muncy on any given day.
And in fact, a new avenue is opening up for the 27-year-old. On each of the past two Tuesdays, Muncy started at second base, a position he played for most of his stay with Oakland in 2016. With only Logan Forsythe standing in his way there, it's a spot he could theoretically play every day if the Dodgers can stomach his defense there. For now, though, the rover role is working well enough. Despite splitting his time between first, second and third base, Muncy has sat out only two of the Dodgers' past 15 games. The last time he sat out two in a row was May 3-4.
Like Aguilar for the Brewers and Nimmo for the Mets, Muncy has unexpectedly been the Dodgers' best offensive player, walking at a rate that, as with Carlos Santana, makes his batting average largely irrelevant while homering at a pace that's supported by his hard-hit, fly-ball and pull percentages.
Teoscar Hernandez made a big impression during his first week-and-a-half on the job in mid-April but quickly came back to earth, settling into a less-than-appetizing batting average and on-base percentage.
But the power never abated, his .281 ISO ranking eighth among qualifiers (ahead of even Aaron Judge), which has led to better Fantasy production than you might realize by just glancing at his numbers. For instance, you may not know he's the No. 19 outfielder in points leagues since entering the starting lineup April 19, trailing Charlie Blackmon by just two measly points. He's the No. 18 outfield in Rotisserie leagues during that same span, also residing just behind Blackmon.
Again, that's for his entire time in the big leagues this year. Who cares if he's reaching base at just a .318 clip? Nothing he has done to achieve that ranking, from the BABIP to the home run-to-fly ball rate, appears unsustainable.
Randal Grichuk recently returned from a DL stint and is demonstrating plus power again, but his at-bats have come more at the expense of Kendrys Morales and Curtis Granderson. Hernandez's job appears safe, and seeing as he's only 76 percent owned in CBS Sports leagues, it's time we all embraced that reality.
