Giants Acquire Eduardo Nunez: What Is The Fantasy Impact?

Twins trade All Star Eduardo Nunez to the Giants for minor league pitcher.

The Giants add insurance for their injury plagued roster by trading for Twins All Star Eduardo Nunez. Nunez is hitting .296 with 12 homers, 47 RBI, and was leading the American League with 27 stolen bases. Nunez has played every infield position but first base, and both corner outfield positions in his time in the major leagues.

Here are the details of the trade:

You can bet that this trade wouldn’t have occurred if Terry Ryan were still in the front office for the Twins. Ryan was notoriously cautious about trading, especially with prospects involved.

As a Twins fan, I do understand this deal. The starting pitching has been a disaster all year, and Mejia looks like he could be a good middle of the rotation guy. On top of that, the Twins are loaded at shortstop at all levels of the minor leagues. They lose an All-Star, but they dealt from a strength to help a weakness. It isn’t all bad.

This is a win for the Giants. Nunez is a career .275 hitter in the majors, but has already reached a career high in homers, RBI, and steals this year. In fact, he had just 12 home runs in the past four years combined. Nunez also has no problems serving in a utility role. He filled that for the Yankees in his first four years in the league, and did so for the Twins the last two years.

Obviously, this puts a huge dent in his fantasy value. The Giants just activated Joe Panik from the disabled list, but Matt Duffy is still out. Nunez will man third base until Duffy returns. Duffy is expected to begin a rehab assignment next week, so Nunez still has at least a week’s worth of value left.

That said, I would expect Nunez to see plenty of playing time still because he can play so many positions. The outfield is still pretty crowded with Denard Span, Mac Williamson, Gregor Blanco, and Angel Pagan all fighting for at bats, and could become even more of a mess when Hunter Pence returns. Pence could be back as soon as this weekend.

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Keep Nunez around at least until Duffy returns. Then see how he is used before making a decision about him in standard leagues. He will likely still be worth a roster spot in leagues of 12 or more teams because of his position eligibility and the fact that he should still play at least half of the games in a week. If your league has weekly lineup locks instead of daily, you may want to look elsewhere.

The short-term loser for the Giants is Conor Gillaspie. Gillaspie wasn’t owned in hardly any leagues, so that doesn’t leave us any holes to fill.

The Twins will likely use Eduardo Escobar or the newly recalled Jorge Polanco at shortstop now. Danny Santana could also get some looks. Polanco has the most potential, Santana has the best speed, and Escobar is the better hitter right now, but none of them will replace the production of Nunez in standard leagues. You may want to add Escobar or Polanco in deeper leagues in case one of them gets hot.

In return, the Twins get 23 year old lefty Adalberto Mejia. Mejia was 4-1 with a 4.20 ERA at AAA Sacramento, but a 4.20 ERA in the Pacific Coast League is like a 3 ERA in the majors. It is likely that Mejia will be in the Twins’ rotation soon because of the struggles of Tyler Duffey and Ricky Nolasco. The Twins aren’t getting out of last any time soon. Expect to see him and Jose Berrios pick up several starts down the stretch.

Mejia has a career 3.27 ERA in the minor leagues, and has struck out 462 in 539.2 professional innings. There is some potential here, but only take a chance on him in deeper leagues or when he has a favorable matchup.

Next: Will Melvin Upton's Value Increase In Toronto?

Stay tuned to Fantasy CPR for all of the fantasy impacts of the deadline deals!