What does the Kendrys Morales trade do for his fantasy value?
By Mike Marteny
Pryor provides the Twins with another quality arm out of the bullpen. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
The Seattle Mariners have traded relief pitcher Stephen Pryor to the Minnesota Twins for designated hitter Kendrys Morales.
That’s right, Morales is headed back to Seattle. To a team that he refused several offers from in the offseason, and even waited to sign with a team so he didn’t have to deal with the Mariners.
I guess he should have asked for a no-trade clause.
Morales hit just .229 with one homer and 19 RBI over 39 games with the Twins.
Believe it or not, the Twins were actually in contention when they signed him.
Now that they have gone belly-up yet again, it was smart to get what they could for him.
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What does this do for Morales’ fantasy value?
It should only help. Morales hit .277 with 23 homers and 80 RBI with the Mariners last season in a lineup that was a little less potent that the one Seattle has now.
Prorated over the rest of the season, Morales could end up with 8-10 homers and 30 RBI or so.
While that is nothing great, it is far better than anything he did in his short time in Minneapolis.
Morales is still owned in less than 20 percent of ESPN leagues. It might not be a bad idea to add him in any moderate to deep leagues that he is still available in, especially if you need power help.
On the flip side of this, incumbent Seattle DH’s Corey Hart and Logan Morrison will now have to fight for at bats at first base. This will likely be a straight left-right platoon, meaning that you deep leaguers should probably hang on to Hart. Morrison is probably droppable at this point in anything but A.L. only formats.
For the Twins, they will use the DH slot to give Joe Mauer days off at first base, or to keep the bats of Danny Santana or Oswaldo Arcia in the lineups while getting a day off in the field.