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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 Los Angeles Angels catcher Logan O'Hoppe's reported shoulder injury and the Oakland A's optioning James Kaprielian to Triple-A and recalling Luis Medina.
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Fantasy Baseball Impact Of Logan O'Hoppe's Reported Shoulder Injury
Los Angeles Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe will reportedly “miss 4-6 months” with a “torn labrum,” per a tweet from The Athletic’s Sam Blum on Sunday.
In an additional tweet on Sunday, Blum provided some additional quotes on O’Hoppe from Angels manager Phil Nevin:
It’s certainly an unideal injury for the catcher, who was enjoying a quality start to the 2023 campaign at the dish, hitting .283 with a .339 on-base percentage and four home runs in 59 plate appearances.
Elsewhere, some of his quality of contact metrics were encouraging, particularly a 12.8% barrel rate, a .353 xwOBA, and a 43.6% hard-hit rate.
Now, however, both the Angels and fantasy managers will have to look elsewhere for catching options.
With Max Stassi already on the injured list, Los Angeles is currently rolling with Matt Thaiss and Chad Wallach as the team’s primary catchers. Thaiss entered play hitting .125 with a .333 on-base percentage and a home run in 21 plate appearances this season. Wallach, meanwhile, has made an instant impact with a pair of home runs in his first 10 plate appearances with the club.
Despite the two early home runs from Wallach -- who had his contract selected from Triple-A after O’Hoppe was placed on the injured list -- fantasy managers are probably better off looking elsewhere.
Including the two home runs this season, the veteran has just six to his name in 281 lifetime plate appearances at the major league level. In said 281 plate appearances, he’s also hit .202 with a .266 on-base percentage.
Fantasy Baseball Impact Of James Kaprielian Being Optioned To Triple-A And Luis Medina Being Recalled
The Oakland A’s optioned right-handed starter James Kaprielian to Triple-A Las Vegas on Tuesday, per a tweet from the team’s official Twitter account:
A staple in the A’s rotation since the 2021 campaign, the 29-year-old pitched to a 4.23 ERA and a 4.63 FIP in 26 starts spanning 134 innings for the club last season.
It’s been a much different story in 2023 as the right-hander has struggled mightily in his first 16 innings of action, allowing 24 hits, 23 runs (all earned), 14 walks, and five home runs for the American League West club. Half of his six appearances came via the bullpen after beginning the year in the rotation.
In his place, the Athletics are calling up pitching prospect, Luis Medina.
The 24-year-old has a history of missing bats at a high rate. Dating back to the 2018 season, he’s struck out more than 10 batters per nine innings at each of his minor league stops.
That bat-missing ability has been on full display so far for Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate. Medina has logged 11 strikeouts in 9.1 innings this season, giving up five hits and four earned runs in the process. However, he also surrendered eight walks. The walks have been just as much of a theme as the strikeouts have been for Medina.
In 2022, he walked 62 batters in 92.2 innings split between the Double-A affiliates of the A’s and Yankees -- he was part of the Frankie Montas deal.
Prior to that, he walked 60 batters in 106.1 innings for New York’s Advanced-A and Double-A affiliates during the 2021 campaign.
There’s plenty of fantasy potential with his strikeout ability. Unfortunately, the walks and his place on a basement-dwelling A’s team significantly cap his fantasy upside this season considering the potential additional base runners as well as there not being an overabundance of pitcher-win opportunities.
As of the start of play on Tuesday, Oakland had managed just the fifth-fewest runs scored in the league while sporting the MLB’s highest team ERA (7.98) and FIP (6.53). The A’s are also the only team in the league without a pitcher win from their rotation so far. The next closest teams rankings-wise are the San Francisco Giants and Kansas City Royals with three rotation pitcher wins apiece.
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