Fantasy Fallout: Jonathan Papelbon Suspended

That noise you hear is Philadelphia Phillies fans laughing all across the nation, as the circus act that is Jonathan Papelbon has officially made his entertaining exit for the season. Papelbon has become a clubhouse cancer to nearly every team he has comes on board too, so this should come as no surprise to anyone.

Especially after you openly try to choke slam the best player on your team after ridiculing them for not running a pop up out. The Nationals’ 2015 campaign has been an absolute bust, but they have no one to blame but themselves.

I won’€™t go into detail on what the Nats should do in the off-season to save their ball club, but I will offer that Jonathan Papelbon’€™s idiocy has opened the door for someone to come in and snag some saves over this championship week.

More from Fantasy Baseball

• 5 fantasy baseball waiver wire pivots to replace Triston McKenzie
• Fantasy baseball mock draft 2023, 12-team: Aaron Judge over Trea Turner?
• 3 fantasy baseball sleepers being drafted too late
• NBA DFS picks December 25: Merry Bucking Christmas
• Fantasy Baseball: Hot pitchers worthy of starting this weekend

Drew Storen has taken himself out of the picture after deciding to fight his locker, so that leaves us with some pretty underwhelming options on the waiver wire. The most notable, and with the most prior closing experience, would be Casey Janssen.

After missing a chunk of the beginning of the year, Janssen has tried to regain the stuff that he had in most successful years with the Blue Jays. On the season he has struggled, posting a 5.08 ERA, and he is on the heels of giving up two more earned runs over the weekend, so owners should avoid making him an add.

The two more intriguing options would be Blake Treinen and Matt Thornton. Thornton is the clear veteran and has carved himself out a nice career as being a lefty specialist. In 2015, he has actually been really tough on both lefties and righties, as he has held them to both a .190 and .232 AVG respectively. He would serve as the safe option for the Nats to finish the year.

I could definitely see Matt Williams keeping Thornton as his main lefty weapon out of the pen though, so that would open the door for Treinen to become the possible closer. He has been solid on the year, 3.78 ERA/8 HLDS/62 K, and after Storen went down he has normally been the de facto set-up man.

With the Nationals eliminated it might serve them well to see if Treinen could thrive in closing chances as he could cement a paramount role in their tumultuous bullpen for 2016. Even though the situation is certainly murky, if I had to recommend owners to gamble on one guy it would Treinen at this point but it is certainly a situation to monitor as they could offer plenty of cheap saves.