Carlos Santana Fantasy Baseball Updates - Ben Rosener’s MLB Beat

Major League Baseball’s regular season continues, and with it comes the daily influx of baseball news that fantasy managers missed in the winter months—lineup news, regular waiver wire moves, pitching assignments, and bullpen usage.

This column aims to cover any fantasy baseball news, big or small, and how it pertains to your fantasy team. 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 list 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 baseball impact of the Milwaukee Brewers acquiring first baseman Carlos Santana.

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Fantasy Baseball Impact Of Carlos Santana Being Acquired By The Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers acquired veteran first baseman Carlos Santana in a deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday, per a tweet from Milwaukee’s official Twitter account. According to the tweet, the Brewers sent infield prospect Jhonny Severino to Milwaukee for Santana.

Santana hit .235 with a .321 on-base percentage, 12 home runs, and six stolen bases in 393 plate appearances for Pittsburgh. The slugger’s six stolen bases are the second-most he’s collected in a season, behind only the 11 stolen bases he logged in 2015 while with Cleveland. Milwaukee's first basemen rank second-to-last in the league in fWAR (-0.8), second-to-last in collective wRC+ (74), and own the fourth-lowest ISO (.123) as of the start of play on Thursday, so Santana will add some much-needed reinforcements to the Brewers lineup.

From a fantasy standpoint, with an 11.5% walk rate and just a .235 average, Santana is obviously going to have more fantasy value and upside in leagues where on-base percentage is part of the scoring. Still, he could see an uptick in RBI and run-scoring opportunities in Milwaukee. Among Brewers players with at least 150 plate appearances, just two have a wRC+ north of 87, so it’s possible the veteran could step into a regular role near the top of the lineup.

If that’s the case, hitting near Christian Yelich (.293 average, .379 on-base percentage, 15 home runs, 22 stolen bases) and William Contreras (.269 average, .347 on-base percentage, 10 home runs, one stolen base) should only help him collect more RBI.

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