Royals Acquire Melky Cabrera (again): Fantasy Impact

The Royals are making one last run at a World Series as they traded for outfielder Melky Cabrera. What is the fantasy baseball impact of the move?

As we approached the trade deadline, many thought the Kansas City Royals would be sellers. The team has a lot of expiring contracts for valuable players that would have been easy to capitalize. However, the team has been buyers as they added a starting pitcher and a reliever and now an outfielder.

I already talked about the trade that sent Trevor Cahill and Brandon Maurer to Kansas City. The Royals added another piece to the puzzle by acquiring outfielder Melky Cabrera. Cabrera is having a great season and had previous success with the Royals back in 2011.

After four decent seasons with the New York Yankees and a poor one with the Atlanta Braves, Cabrera posted career highs with the Royals. He hit .305/.339/.470 with 18 home runs, 87 RBI and 102 runs scored.

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Cabrera posted some pretty good seasons after that, too. In 98 games with the Chicago White Sox, he has a .295 average with 13 homers, 56 RBI and 54 runs scored.

Staying within the division is important to Cabrera’s value for the rest of the season. The downside is that his new home, Kauffman Field ranks 28th in home runs according to ESPN Park Factors. His old home, Guaranteed Rate Field was ranked 13th.

Cabrera has been healthy for most of his career, playing in at least 151 games in each of the previous two seasons. He’s on pace to play the same amount this season, too.

Cabrera now joins a Royals lineup with plenty of experience. He will likely hit second in the Royals lineup, behind Whit Merrifield and ahead of Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez. He will replace Jorge Bonifacio in right field as Bonifacio moves over to the DH slot.

Cabrera is owned in 64.8 percent of ESPN leagues. He has gone one week without a home run but is getting on base in almost every game, raising his average and on-base percentage.

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The White Sox continue to build up the farm as they prepare for the future. They acquired pitchers A.J. Puckett and Andre Davis. Cabrera is putting up numbers in four of the five major offensive categories and is worth the add for the final two months in deeper leagues.