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The MLB offseason and Spring training are officially over. The regular season is here, and with it comes the daily influx of baseball news that fantasy managers missed in the winter months. Lineup news, actual games happening, constant waiver wire moves, pitching assignments, and bullpen usage.
Baseball is back, and so too is fantasy baseball, with the draft season having just wrapped up, or otherwise being very close to being wrapped up. This column aims to cover any and all fantasy baseball news, big or small, and how it pertains to your fantasy team. Spring training or the regular season, it's covered here.
Has a player who's usually been hitting in the middle of a lineup suddenly batting eighth or ninth for an extended period? The fantasy implications will be covered here. The same goes for injuries and injured placements and whether or not you should consider picking up a player who was recently called up. Basically, any kernel of fantasy news and its relevance to fantasy managers could be covered here. Today, the news of the day is the fantasy impact of Boston Red Sox infielder Christian Arroyo being placed on the injured list and the reported news, via a tweet from ESPN's Jeff Passan on Tuesday, that "Jake Diekman and the Tampa Bay Rays are finalizing a major league deal.”
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Fantasy Baseball Impact Of Christian Arroyo Being Placed On The Injured List
The Boston Red Sox placed infielder Christian Arroyo on the 10-day injured list on Sunday due to a right hamstring strain per a tweet from the team’s official Twitter account.
The infielder has seen the majority of the innings at second base for Boston this season, though he’s also appeared at shortstop and third base. Overall, the 28-year-old is batting .257 with a .295 on-base percentage, a home run, and a stolen base in 79 plate appearances for the American League East franchise this season.
Per the Red Sox' tweet, fellow infielder Bobby Dalbec was brought up from Triple-A, though Dalbec – who has mostly played the infield corners in the Majors – won’t likely step into starting at second base. That might be Emmanuel Valdez, who has started at second in each of the games since Arroyo was placed on the injured list.
Overall, Dalbec is batting .238 with a .374 on-base percentage, four home runs, and three stolen bases in 99 plate appearances at the Triple-A level this season. He’s added two singles, a pair of walks, and a stolen base in 12 plate appearances with Boston at the Major League level in 2023.
And while he’s certainly had some success as a power-hitting option in the Majors before – most notably in 2021 when he connected on 25 home runs to go with a .240 average and a .298 on-base percentage in 453 plate appearances – he’s probably only an option in deeper fantasy leagues at this point given the nature of the Red Sox depth chart.
Rafael Devers is locked in at third base, with Justin Turner on hand as a designated hitter (27 appearances) and occasional first baseman (nine appearances) so far. Boston is also giving Triston Casas (30 appearances at first base) his first extended look in the Majors. The 23-year-old has struggled at times so far, batting .163 with a .295 on-base percentage and four home runs in 112 plate appearances, but he also has just 207 total plate appearances to his name in the Majors.
Unless there’s another injury, it seems unlikely that Dalbec will be more than a bench option for now, although that’s obviously all speculative.
Fantasy Baseball Impact Of Jake Diekman and the Rays Reportedly "finalizing a major league deal"
Per a tweet from ESPN’s Jeff Passan on Tuesday, “Left-hander Jake Diekman and the Tampa Bay Rays are finalizing a major league deal.”
Diekman previously appeared in 13 games for the Chicago White Sox this season, allowing 14 runs, 13 walks, 11 hits, 10 earned runs, and a home run in 11.1 innings while adding 11 strikeouts. The veteran reliever also chipped in with a pair of holds for the American League Central club.
And while he’s struggled so far in 2023, the 36-year-old is no stranger to missing bats. His strikeout per nine-inning rate has eclipsed the double-digit mark in all but one of his previous Major League seasons to this point and he’s struck out at least 12 batters per nine frames in each of the last four campaigns. Elsewhere, he’s posted a career swinging strike rate of 13.0% with respective swinging strike percentages of 15.6%, 17.3%, 13.2%, and 12.0% in the last four seasons prior to 2023.
The now-former White Sox reliever is someone to keep an eye on moving forward if he can work his way into a high-leverage role for the Rays. Of course, it remains to be seen if he will, but only six teams have more saves than Tampa Bay this season, and the club is eighth in the league in holds. What’s more, four different Rays relievers have at least three holds this year, so there’s certainly some saves+holds league potential here for Diekman.
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