White Sox deal for Joakim Soria: Fantasy fallout of the deal?

The White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Kansas City Royals swung a three-player deal, notably including Joakim Soria. What is the fantasy fallout of the deal?

Usually, three team MLB deals make more waves than the one did on Thursday, but there are fantasy implications none the less. The White Sox netted Joakim Soria and Luis Avilan, Kansas City got youngsters Trevor Oaks and Erik Mejia, and the Dodgers landed Scott Alexander and Jake Peter.

The biggest fantasy impact will come in Chicago as it seems that Soria will now be in line for save chances once again. The last time he was tasked with being a closer was in 2015 for the Tigers where he posted 23 SV. His peripheral stats were ugly, and it seemed that his success was a mirage.

When he rejoined the Royals in 2016, he came back to Earth posting a 4.05 ERA, and a career-worst 1.45 WHIP. He was well off the fantasy radar that season, and in 2017.

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Last season, Soria’s 3.70 ERA/1.23 WHIP were mediocre at best. Yet, his 2.33 FIP was impressive, as was the fact he only let up one homer all season.

With all that said, Soria walks into a White Sox bullpen void of any solidified relievers, let alone closers. He will clearly get the first cracks at save chances, but it is hard to imagine fantasy owners would be willing to take the plunge on him. He is just too shaky, allows way too much traffic on the base paths, and goes to a worse home ballpark. Avoid him.

Luis Avilan will be tasked with one job. Get lefties out. He posted a 2.93 ERA over 60 innings last season, he may be worth a look off the wire for Holds.

Kansas City’s motivation was to cut salary. Trevor Oaks is a 24-year-old sinkerballer, who could find his way into a rotation spot this spring. He had a tremendous 2016, posting a 2.74 ERA between mostly AAA and AA. He followed that with a 3.64 ERA in 2017, all coming in AAA at the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

Fantasy wise, owners can look elsewhere but keep an eye on him.

Erik Mejia is only 22 but has progressed nicely to this point in the minors. He is going to be more of slash type of hitter, yet did notch 25 SB last season. Mejia finished with a .278/8 HR/41 RBI/25 SB line at AA. He is off the fantasy radar at this point.

Lod Angeles’ did well in the deal as well. They acquired an Avilan and Tony Watson replacement in the form of Scott Alexander. Alexander was impressive as a lefty specialist for the Royals, posting a 2.48 ERA/59 K line over 58 appearances.

Like Avilan, Alexander is not a flamethrower but is a nice HLD target for owners. The Dodgers will be good once again, and they should have a solid backend of the bullpen in 2018.

Next: Fantasy Baseball 2018: Early Look at the Top-100 ADP

The Dodgers were able to get Jake Peter as well. Peter played all over the diamond for the White Sox in the minors last season.

Yet, has shown solid bat skill throughout the ranks, and notched a solid .279/13 HR/49 RBI/11 RBI line over 120 games. Unfortunately, he is blocked at the MLB level in Los Angeles.

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