Just a week and a half to go before the best day of the year, friends! With Opening Day almost here, it’s time to take a glance at some players who’ve recently boosted their deep-league fantasy stock. All of these guys have been on the fringe of draftable in even the deepest re-draft leagues this year, but all have gotten at least mild bumps of late – let’s take a look and see if any of them might provide help in NL-only, AL-only, and other deep leagues in 2021.
(Note: I’m reading Grey’s Monday post before turning this in, and seeing that he’s mentioned both Jonathan India and Akil Baddoo. What does that mean to all of us? Mostly, that crazy stuff can happen at this time of year in terms of player values… this is not the week to take your eye off the ball!)
Akil Baddoo. (ADP #741, i.e. basically off the grid). I don’t know a great deal about Baddoo, except that he’s a Rule 5 outfielder claimed by Detroit who was a big enough prospect as of a couple years ago that I’ve actually heard of him. As I’m sure you know, that Rule 5 status means the Tigers have to keep him on their roster all year if they want to protect him, and I’m getting the vibe that most in the know feel the Baddoo pick up was a wise one. So, assuming Baddoo stays on the MLB roster all year, he might be worthless and be a fantasy-useless pinch hitter/defensive replacement for the next 6 months. Or, (less likely but technically possible) he could get semi-regular to regular playing time and do well… with an ADP of 745, why not take a crazy no-risk flier on the latter?
Franchy Cordero. He was more or less off the draft radar this spring (ADP #434) after being sidelined with the COVID, but it sounds like he’ll be back up to full heath sooner than expected, if he’s not already. This season with the Red Sox might be his last chance to prove the power/speed combo that he flashed in minor league stretches will play as an outfielder at the major league level, so why not go along for the ride in 2021 in case it does?
Taylor Trammell (ADP #688) Trammell has unexpectedly gotten at least the temporary inside track on making the Mariners out of camp with Jared Kelenic getting a late start to the spring in recovery mode for a knee sprain. (Yes, turns out even in recovery mode Kelenic looks like a beast and is obviously the long-term – and perhaps short-term – guy to own here, but his ADP is about 500 spots earlier, and this is a post about deep-league dart throws). Even if he’s just a stop gap to the service time clock-starting of Kelenic, Trammell may be worth keeping an eye on. He’s had some hyped-up prospect shine of his own in the recent past, so I’ve grabbed him at the end of a couple deep league drafts in case he makes the club and is able to carry his great spring into the regular season.
Jonathan India (ADP #709). While many of us ultra deep-leaguers have spent the last month or so trying to figure out how the Reds would fill their glaring SS opening (last-minute trade? giving Jose Garcia an every day job even though it’s obvious he’s not ready? Kyle Farmer?), India was busy having an extremely productive spring. He qualifies only at 3B in most leagues, but if you’ve not been paying attention to Reds rumors, there’s some legit noise that India may get a crack at playing second base for them sooner rather than later, with Eugenio Suarez sliding over to shortstop and Mike Moustakas ending up at third. India is a .254 hitter in two minor league seasons so it’s not exactly like he was ripping the cover off the ball demanding a promotion, and as I write this it’s not clear if he’ll even make the opening day roster, let alone get and make the most of any playing time. Still, I’m monitoring this situation closely.
Jazz Chisholm (ADP #534). Funnily enough, I had to decide between India and Chisholm a couple years ago when they were two of the top few minor leaguers available in one of my (very) deep keeper league farm drafts. Actually, I guess there’s really nothing even remotely funny about that, but let’s carry on. I went with India because even back then, when Chisholm was a rising prospect star with the Diamondbacks, it seemed every profile I read on Chisholm focused on the amount of swing and miss in his game. It does, however, sounds like Chisholm is winning the battle to get a crack at being the Marlins’ every day second baseman after homering twice on Sunday (and it doesn’t hurt that his main competition for the job, Isan Diaz, has only two hits in 24 at bats this spring). I’m not enthusiastically jumping on the bandwagon because it’s hard to believe those contact issues have disappeared, but to paraphrase myself from the previous blurb, this may be another deep-league situation worth monitoring.
David Peterson (ADP #451). Peterson may have had a spot in the (somewhat) new-look Mets’ 2021 rotation carved out for himself going into spring training anyway, but Carlos Carrasco’s injury certainly sealed the deal. No one’s going to be waxing poetic endlessly talking about Peterson’s upside, but he was a serviceable starter at the end of last season (after making the jump from Double A) and could fill that same role for a deep-league fantasy team again this year.
