Mark Trumbo Traded To Mariners; What Is The Fantasy Impact?
By Mike Marteny
The Seattle Mariners fired one of the first salvos of the 2015 trade season with the acquisition of outfielder Mark Trumbo from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday. The full deal looks like this:
The Mariners, who consider themselves contenders in the AL West, made the deal to get some protection for Nelson Cruz in the lineup. Despite having the MLB home run leader, the Mariners are in the bottom half of the league in runs scored.
Trumbo is the cornerstone of this deal. He slugged 95 home runs in three seasons with the Angels. The Mariners are hoping that a return to the AL West will help out his power numbers.
The powerful righty is hitting .259 with nine homers and 23 RBI so far this year. He has only three career home runs in 81 at bats at Safeco Field, which will be his new home ballpark. Nelson Cruz has not had problems getting the ball out of the yard in Seattle. The Mariners hope some of that rubs off on Trumbo.
Trumbo’s fantasy value will be largely the same as it was in Arizona. He has a little more protection with Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seager, and the struggling Robinson Cano surrounding him in the lineup. The fantasy impact of this deal falls into the players that remain in Arizona, and those displaced in Seattle.
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Birds Watcher
This is good news for owners of David Peralta and Ender Inciarte. They will both be full-time starters now instead of splitting at bats. If you are in need of power and/or average in standard leagues, picking up Peralta would be a very good move. Inciarte is worth taking a flier on in moderate sized leagues. He doesn’t have a lot of power or speed, but he has enough to contribute.
This is bad news for owners of Seth Smith, Dustin Ackley, and maybe even Logan Morrison. Trumbo can play both corner outfield positions and first base. He will be in the lineup every day, meaning that one of those three will sit in every coming day. They all bat left-handed, so we will have to see how this plays out before dropping any of them in moderate or deeper leagues.
Those of you in need of pitching help might want to check out Vidal Nuno. He has a 1.88 ERA in mostly a long relief role with the Diamondbacks, but with both James Paxton and Hishashi Iwakuma out at least another month, Nuno will immediately join the starting rotation for Seattle. He had a 4.56 ERA in 28 starts with the Yankees and Diamondbacks last year.
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Motor City Bengals
Wellington Castillo was acquired by the Mariners about two weeks ago, and now he needs to fill out another change of address form. With Tuffy Gosewisch out for the season, the Diamondbacks have been scrambling for help since. This will push journeyman Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Jordan Pacheco back to bench roles with Castillo taking over as the starter.
Castillo has struggled this year with a .162 average and only two home runs, but he is a career .250 hitter with 29 homers in 1031 at bats. A second change of scenery could help him out. At least he should be getting regular at bats in Arizona.
The prize of this deal for Arizona is Gabby Guerrero. He is the nephew of former superstar Vladimir Guerrero, and most scouts say that he is nearly as good as his uncle. Guerrero likely won’t see the majors until the middle of 2016 at the earliest, but this is a deal that could pay of big in the long run for Arizona. It also buys them time to see which of their current outfielders that they want to lock up long term.
This trade increases the fantasy value of David Peralta and Ender Inciarte the most. Vidal Nuno and Wellington Castillo will now be thrust into roles in which they can become fantasy relevant. They are worth picking up now in deeper leagues, and are worth monitoring in all others to see if they can help your team down the road.
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