LOGIN

In many fantasy leagues, there’s a 20 games played requirement to retain eligibility at a position for the following year. With only 11 games played behind the dish in 2014, Carlos Santana will enter the 2015 season without catcher eligibility for the first time in his career. It’s a bummer for keeper league owners who were slotting him as a catcher, but he remains a solid keeper selection as a corner infielder too. Santana will be 29 to start the season. He already has strong power numbers under his belt – his 27 homers in 2014 matched a career high. He’s also a really nice piece in leagues that reward players for getting on base, leading the majors in walk percentage last year and consistently putting up good on-base percentages. Those walks help Santana’s overall offense, and it shows in Steamer’s 2015 wRC+ projection of 132 (24th overall). But there’s more than just walks to the story, and I think Santana is going to perform even better now that catching and the short-lived third base experiment are both in the rear view mirror.

Looking just at 2015, he has now gained eligibility at third base thanks to said experiment. The Indians tried him there last winter/spring and it just didn’t quite work out. It helps his fantasy value in the very short term though, since there just isn’t a ton of power at the third base position. Only six players at the hot corner hit 20 or more homers in 2014 and only three of them hit 25+. You can throw in Chris Davis to make it four…but you get the idea. Santana doesn’t have to stand on his head to hit 25 bombs, so playing him as your primary third baseman in 2015 won’t kill you.

The third base idea died last June, and moving forward Santana should split time between first base and DH for the Tribe. This could be a good thing for Santana’s bat. In fact, his best career numbers have come as a first baseman (.270/.389/.499 in 207 games). I’m not trying to say one thing was directly tied to the other, but it’s interesting that in the first two months of 2014 (when Santana was splitting time between third, first, and catcher) he hit .160 with 6 homers and a below average 91 wRC+. Santana stopped playing third and catcher in June, and Santana’s bat woke up. The switch-hitter posted a .310 average with 14 homers and a 192 wRC+ in June and July. Granted he fell back asleep in August and of course there is more to the story than just a position change (like hitting too many infield flies) but it’s still pretty remarkable how poorly he hit in the first two months before taking over at first base.

Steamer may not be as optimistic as I am, projecting him for 21 homers and 73 RBI (I think he beats both) but those are numbers I would take from my corner infield slot for the next couple of years in a keeper league. Steamer is also giving him under 600 plate appearances in 2015 and I’d take the over on 620 given his totals each of the last two years. Santana’s biggest blemish is his batting average, which tends to sit in the .240-.250 range. It’s hard to expect anything more than that, but in fantasy I pay for power, not batting averages. Maybe it’s my proximity to Cleveland, but I think Santana is going to have a nice run over the next year or two now that he can settle in at first base and let his bat get comfortable. Losing catcher eligibility hurts, but at least we get a year of third base eligibility for our trouble.