Washington Nationals/Toronto Blue Jays: Trade Fallout

One of the more intriguing trades of the of the offseason took place Friday night as the Washington Nationals traded Drew Storen to the Toronto Blue Jays for Ben Revere.

On the surface this trade looks like a fair trade for both sides as the Nats fill the void that Denard Span left in free agency and the Blue Jays fortify the backend of their bullpen. But, this trade may actually impact multiple players and change the fantasy outlooks for both teams.

From the Blue Jays side of things, Storen steps right in and becomes a hopeful back-end bullpen piece either setting up or ultimately closing games in 2016. Storen has showed at times that he can either be a widely effective reliever or just downright terrible. But, the Nationals certainly did not help him out any during his time in Washington.

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Storen was having a decent season in 2015 as he sat with 29 SV at the trade deadline. But, the Nats decided that Storen was not enough, and to chagrin of most, they brought in Jonathan Papelbon to be the full-time closer.

Storen clearly did not take to this too well and would go on in August to have an abysmal month, giving up 11 ER and posting an 8.49 ERA. It did not get better in Sept. either as he had a 5.40 ERA before capping his season off by breaking his hand via punching a locker, ending his season.

The Blue Jays were pleasantly surprised by the breakout from 20-year-old Roberto Osuna, who took the closer job in 2015 and ran with it. The interesting dilemma here for the Jays is do they move Osuna to the setup role, as Aaron Sanchez wants to rejoin the starting staff, and put Storen in the closing role where he has had most of his success in his career.

For me, Osuna has done enough to warrant keeping the job even if the Jays think he would be more effective giving them more innings in a set up capacity, so Storen should just welcome his change of scenery. From a fantasy perspective, there are multiple layers to this that will need to be monitored. Storen’s value lies on whether or not his is the closer because he does not strikeout enough people to be a standalone RP pick. For Osuna, he is one of the better closing options if he can keep the job, but if he were moved to a setup role, he would still warrant a pick late in drafts because I fully expect him to have another great season.

Moving to the Nationals perspective, by bringing in Papelbon they made their bed and now have to lay in it. While they may love to trade him, they now need him to be their closer so he I would be surprised if he were moved now.

Washington has been in the market for a OF all offseason and they seem to have solved that by acquiring Ben Revere. He is basically a Denard Span clone, solid AVG, a lot of contact and speed. With Revere you know what you going to get, an above .300 AVG/30+ SB. That should not change with the Nats, barring that he can remain in the lineup consistently.

While it makes sense for Revere to be the full-time leadoff man, Washington may also view him as a fourth outfielder type that could spell Jayson Werth at times, and which would also give Michael Taylor more reps in CF.

Revere is actually has a .271 AVG against lefties, so he is not overwhelmed by facing them and does not need to be platooned, but the Nats need to see what they have in Taylor and fantasy owners will need to keep monitoring that as Revere needs the counting stats boost that comes with him being an everyday player. He should still play in about 120-130 games, so maybe instead of thinking that he is a 40+ SB threat, he may only be a 30 SB option next season but he still should be a solid three category (AVG, SB, R) contributor.

In Toronto’s outfield, this opens some things up as well. With Kevin Pillar looking like the CF mainstay, dishing Revere allows Michael Saunders and Dalton Pompey the ability to become the everyday RF. Both of these guys were interesting sleepers last season, so once again it will be another situation to watch this spring. All in all, this trade has a lot of moving parts and affects multiple roles. These situations should become clearer through spring and maybe even before it, but they will interesting battles to watch nonetheless.

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Revere should still be an OF 4 or OF 5 at drafts this spring, Storen on the other hand will have to be drafted based off if he is named the closer or not. If he is the closer, he will probably be amongst the top 12 fantasy options, even though he is not exactly the most trustworthy candidate. Draft accordingly.

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