Rest of Season Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Approaching the Trade Deadline

The 2024 Major League Baseball All-Star break has passed, and the unofficial second half of the season has begun. With each team having only played two or three games since last week’s ROS rankings, there are not a ton of changes. Having said that, I still went through my normal weekly process when coming up with this week’s rankings. But that’s because I am a crazy person. Over the next couple of weeks, however, there should be significant changes in the ROS landscape. The MLB trade deadline is fast approaching, and with it will come many deals. Many high-profile names are rumored to be dealt. When it comes to fantasy, though, it is often the less splashy deals that make the most impact.

For example, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is a player who may be on the trading block. Toronto has the sixth-worst record in baseball and is 9.5 games out of a Wild Card spot in the American League. If the team does trade Guerrero, his fantasy value probably will not change all that much. He will still likely hit in the middle of the order for his theoretical new team, giving him roughly the same chance to compile counting stats as he does now. The same can be said for other high-impact players such as Jazz Chisholm and Luis Robert Jr. They might get a slight bump if traded because they play for the two worst offenses in the sport. But a player such as Tommy Pham or Jesse Winker could lose value if dealt to a contender that eyes them in a platoon role.

Starting pitchers who move at the deadline get a lot of hype from a real-life standpoint. But again, in fantasy, their value usually does not change all that much. Sure, if the Chicago White Sox trade Garrett Crochet to the Los Angeles Dodgers, his win potential skyrockets. However, wins are becoming an increasingly random stat in this day and age with starters pitching fewer innings than ever. Reynaldo Lopez has a 1.88 ERA (0.50 lower than any other qualified starter) and he has seven wins in 17 starts. Meanwhile, Brayan Bello has 10 wins and a 5.32 ERA in 17 starts (Saturday night’s start pending). And the Atlanta Braves have a better record than the Boston Red Sox. Besides, as I have mentioned in this space before, I do not expect Crochet to get more than eight or nine starts going forward.

The biggest impact at the deadline from a fantasy perspective usually centers around closers. Every year we see contending teams looking to bolster their bullpens. This often results in them plucking closers from bad teams. The problem is that these contenders usually have established closers. That means the new acquisitions almost always end up in fantasy purgatory, AKA middle relief. Several players are likely to fit this bill this year. They include Mason Miller, Tanner Scott, Pete Fairbanks, Kyle Finnegan, Michael Kopech, and Carlos Estevez. Miller and Scott are the ones that I could see closing for a contender, depending on the destination. But I suspect the others would help form the bridge in front of a potential new team’s closer. I may remove these players completely from my ROS rankings in the next couple of weeks.

If you have any of these relievers on your roster, now might be the time to unload them for a position of need elsewhere. The same goes for a player like Pham or Winker. Kevin Pillar and Paul DeJong are also likely to lose playing time if and when they are dealt. I do not have either of those two players in my rest-of-season rankings for this exact reason. For what it’s worth, I held onto Mason Miller in my high-stakes league (our trade deadline was this past week). As messy as the Athletics are as an organization, I think they will hold Miller for another season. They have him under team control for another five years, so I do not expect them to make what feels like an unnecessary move.

Rest of Season Fantasy Baseball Rankings