Fantasy Baseball Implications of Huge Marlins-Blue Jays Trade

Jose Reyes. Image courtesy of flickr user Lakeland.

The hot stove season just got even hotter. Buster Olney of ESPN, as well as Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi of Fox Sports all broke various parts of the trade. You can follow them for the original updates, but this update from ESPN makes it all nice and tidy.

"The Miami Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays are on the verge of a blockbuster trade that would send shortstop Jose Reyes and pitcher Josh Johnson to Toronto, according to sources.Also going to Toronto would be pitcher Mark Buehrle, catcher John Buck and infielder-outfielder Emilio Bonifacio.The Blue Jays are sending shortstop Yunel Escobar, two top prospects — outfielder Jake Marisnick and shortstop Adeiny Hechevarria — and possibly more to the Marlins."

It’s amazing that one year ago at this time, the Marlins had signed Reyes, Buehrle, and Heath Bell to big contracts and didn’t seem that far from making Albert Pujols a Marlin. Now, they wouldn’t appear to have much of a lineup at all in 2013. In an email with me, Nash called the Marlins “The worst team in baseball.” Giancarlo Stanton expressed similar feelings on his Twitter account.

So, from a fantasy point of view, what does this all mean? Let’s take a look.

Let’s stick with Stanton for a second. If he’s on your fantasy team, this is not welcome news unless the Marlins are planning on taking all of this money and breaking the bank in free agency, Stanton has more pure power than any hitter in the game, but teams have no reason to pitch to him in a tight spot. He’ll still get you a lot of homers, but if he scores or drives in 100 runs in this lineup, I’d be pretty surprised. The prospects the Marlins are getting will likely be fine players, but their impact won’t come in 2013. This is not a happy day for fantasy owners of Stanton.

Now, the guys going to the Blue Jays and the players already there just got a lot more valuable. Mike Petriello tweeted this lineup.

1. Jose Reyes
2. Emilio Bonifacio
3. Jose Bautista
4. Edwin Encarnacion
5. Colby Rasmus
6. Brett Lawrie
7. Adam Lind
8. J.P. Arencibia
9. Maicer Izturis

Not bad. The fantasy values of Reyes, Bautista, and Encarnacion are all much better now than they were yesterday.

Let’s take a look at Reyes. For the first time in his career, he’ll be in a good hitter’s park. Also, for the first time since his early career in New York, he’ll have some real thump hitting behind him. Reyes’ problem has always been avoiding the DL and if he can do that this year, he could well lead the league in runs scored.

The one person going to Toronto that worries me a little bit is Johnson. The American League East is a much better hitting division than the National League East is, so his ERA may go up a little bit, but not much. When healthy, Johnson is one of the best pitchers in the game. Buehrle doesn’t worry me as much. He was fine on the White Sox, and the American League Central is a good hitting division. Buehrle’s also more of a ground ball guy, so the live yards wouldn’t hurt him as much.

In the end, this trade will help the Blue Jays new and old with their fantasy values. The Marlins will be rocked. If you’re in a keeper league with Stanton, you should be hoping that this trade falls through.