Peter Moylan, Atlanta Braves - Right hander Peter Moylan signed with the Braves Monday for what will be his 3rd stint as a Brave. Moylan led the AL in appearances last year with 79 and turned in a 3.49 ERA in 59 innings. Moylan could be a useful arm for the Braves provided that the coaching staff can properly use him, and by properly use him I mean never let him throw to a left handed hitter. Last season Moylan allowed a .218 wOBA against righties (193 batters faced) and a .411 against lefties (50 total batters faced). Moylan doesn't have an elite strikeout rate 18.9%, but he did generate an impressive 11.9% swinging strike rate last season. He's potentially interesting in NL only leagues with the Braves back end of the pen not set in stone.
Atlanta Braves 3B - The third base position for the Braves has lacked any sort of consistency since Chipper Jones retired and 2018 looks like it's going to be more of the same in that aspect. Johan Camargo played well for the Braves last year showing a bit of suprising pop with a .154 ISO and four homers in 82 games, but a .364 BABIP on a mediocre hard hit rate doesn't bode well for repeating his 2017 season. The lost player in the Braves rebuild has been Rio Ruiz who has been greatly overshadow by the Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, Ronald Acuna triumvirate. Ruiz also homered four times for the Braves last year in 53 games and posted a solid BB% with a manageable K%. He was crushed by a .231 BABIP on a very solid 33% hard hit rate but over 50% of his hits were on the ground. If he wants to improve he needs to get some more lift on the ball and he said that he worked with the same hitting coach that Justin Turner used/uses and Turner's FB% has been growing ever since 2015 and he hasn't posted a FB% under 40% in the last two seasons.
Julio Teheran, Atlanta Braves - Let's just start bluntly, 2017 was the Julio Teheran we were all scared of. Teheran doesn't miss a ton of bats without a K% higher than 22% in his career and he's always been a fly ball pitcher but the spaciousness of Turner Field helped him out. Well Suntrust Field shrunk ( and plays towards lefties) and Teheran's struggles with both fly balls and lefties came back to bite him as he posted a 4.49 ERA (4.95 FIP) ad lefties had a .338 wOBA off him. Teheran also walked almost 13% of the lefthanded batters he faced. His ERA at home was 5.86 and 3.14 on the road, so he's still within roster consideration but it's more as a streamer where you let him ride the bench in home starts.
Mallex Smith, Tampa Bay Rays - After the flurry of moves by the Rays over the weekend, Mallex Smith could be in line for some more playing time with the departure of Corey Dickerson. MLB Depth Charts . com has Smith listed as the starting left fielder for the Rays and in a league deprived of stolen bases, Smith makes for an interesting late round flier. In 81 games last year Smith swiped 16 bags, and in 72 games with the Braves in 2016 he swiped 16 bags as well. The batting line for the Rays is more along the lines of what I'd expect this year with a .270 average, .330 OBP and over a full season 30 steals feels like the floor.
Brent Honeywell, Tampa Bay Rays - The other big Rays move was trading Jake Odorizzi to the Twins and that likely clears a path for one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, but it won't be to start the season. Kevin Cash said that the team will go with a four man rotation until the schedule dictates a need for a fifth starter, which likely means Brent Honeywell will get sent to AAA to start the season. Honeywell dominated in AAA last year with a 2.84 FIP and was just shy of a 30% K% with a 5.9% BB%. That 30% is even a step down from the 43.5% K% he posted in AA before getting promoted to AAA. If you're looking for a pitching prospect to stash, Honeywell should be at the top of your list.
Tampa Bay Rays 1B - The Rays are looking to fill a hole at 1B after Logan Morrison cranked out 40 homers for the team last season, but is still sitting on the free agent market. The Rays may have filled the void left by Morrison after dealing for CJ Cron for a player to be named later. Cron hasn't lived up to the first round billing he got after being selected by the Angels but he has been able to put up solid power numbers in limited time in the majors. He's played an average of 109 games each of the last three years and has hit 16 homers in each of those seasons. He's had an increase to his FB% in each of the last three years and combined his 44.7% FB rate with a 35.8% hard contact rate. With a full season of at bats he can easily top 20 homers, and possibly push 25+ so keep him in mind for AL only leagues are deep mixed league late round fliers.
Joe Musgrove, Pittsburgh Pirates - Joe Musgrove's start to being a Pirate has gotten off to a slow start as he missed a bullpen session on Sunday due to a sore shoulder. Musgrove was dealt to the Pirates earlier this offseason for Gerritt Cole and it helps Musgrove's value as he should definitely have a slot in the rotation for the Pirates whereas in Houston he was a bubble arm. Musgrove struck out a solid 21% of the batters he faced last year and walked just 6.1%, both solid numbers that we may see tick up in the move to the NL. Musgrove's swinging strike rate jumped almost 2% from 2016-to-17 and he combined that with dropping his hard contact rate against him by a couple percentage points, but his BABIP still jumped up almost 30 points. The shoulder issue is worth watching as we progress, but his current ADP definitely makes him an intriguing target for this year.
Chris Tillman, Baltimore Orioles - If this is how the Orioles are going to try and stay competitive in the East then boy oh boy do I have bad news for them.... Chris Tillman was horrific last year. Just dreadful. IN every single aspect that involves pitching. He struck out just 14% of batters, walked 12% of them, had a 6.95 FIP, and generated just a 7.1% swinging strike rate. Batters weren't just making soft contact either as they were lacing him to the tune of a 37.7% hard hit rate. All this aside, there's a good chance he can make the Orioles rotation because there's an extreme lack of depth to it.
Rajai Davis, Cleveland Indians - Rajai Davis inked a minor league deal with the Indians Monday and he's going to report to camp in hopes of making it as a 4th outfielder. At this point in his career Davis doesn't provide much in fantasy besides runs and stolen bases. The Indians are weak in both left and right field so it'll be interesting to see how that unfolds around Bradley Zimmer who's locked in to the centerfield spot.
JD Martinez, Boston Red Sox - It's about time. I think everybody knew that this signing was going to happen eventually with the Red Sox and JD Martinez being darn near perfect matches. The Red Sox have extreme depth on offense now but Martinez will certainly get all the at bats he can possibly get. In Boston he's going to be a likely four category stud and we'll likely see a slight jump in his ADP now that he's actually signed.
Jarrod Dyson, Arizona Diamondbacks - Arizona may have fallen short in the JD Martinez sweepstakes but the team still landed a solid player in Jarrod Dyson Monday. Dyson is in the Rajai Davis mold where his main value comes from his stolen bases but based on the early look at the lineup it seems like they can find at bats for him, depending on what the team thinks of Yasmany Tomas and his lack of defense. Like Mallex Smith in Tampa, with stolen bases at a premium this year Dyson can be a premium pick late in drafts.
Joaquin Benoit, Washington Nationals - The Nationals have signed Joaquin Benoit to a deal just days after it was revealed that Koda Glover is battling shoulder soreness. Benoit threw 50.1 innings with two teams and struck out 21.6% of the batters he faced, but did have some command issues walking 10% of the batters he faced. Benoit continued his excellence of making batters miss with a 13.3% swinging strike rate and he limited that hard contact against him to just 29%, a great combination for relievers. Benoit is 40 years old but he hasn't lost anything off his fastball and with his metrics looking solid he should make for a solid option for the Nats. The Nats have a lot of experienced closers though on the team so getting into the save mix would take a catastrophic disaster to the Nats pen.
Hunter Renfroe, San Diego Padres - With Wil Myers heading back to the outfield for the Padres due to Eric Hosmer arriving, the Padres are now actively shopping Hunter Renfroe. Renfroe is a lefty killer posting a 177 wRC+ last year off southpaws while contributing a 66 wRC+ against righties. The power he has is legitimate pop, but he also struck out in almost 30% of his at bats last season. The Braves reportedly have shown interest in him as the Nick Markakis days in Atlanta are numbered (as a Braves fan THANK GOD). He's a tough player to throw out there every day but in the right place he could be a 4th or 5th OF thanks to his numbers off lefties.
Chris Young, Los Angeles Angels - Chris Young signed on with the Angels Monday on a one year deal to likely be the team's foutth outfield behind Justin Upton, Mike Trout, and Kole Calhoun. Young is far from the 20/20 player he was in Arizona but he's still provided a solid amount of pop in limited playing time with ISOs over .200 in two of the last three seasons. It'll take an injury to one of the Angels outfielder depending on what the team decides to do with Shohei Ohtani.
Tim Lincecum - Tim Lincecum reportedly has a major league deal in hand from a team, and apparently it isn't from the Giants. Lincecum had a workout last week that had a lot of teams show up to and there were reports of him hitting 93 in the throwing session. That would be really impressive considering his average fastball velocity in 2016 (last time he threw in the majors) his fastball was averaging 87 MPH. Obviously bullpen sessions aren't necessarily the same as a game atmosphere, but nonetheless him hitting that level of velocity is something we should at least keep an eye on.
Mike Moustakas - Now that the Royals officially have missed out on bringing back Eric Hosmer they are accepting their fate of a rebuild and are also moving on from Mike Moustakas as well. Moose has had trouble finding a home coming off of a career year with 38 homers and the second highest wRC+ of his career. There are a handful of teams that could use an upgrade at third, and I think Moose would rather sign a multi-year deal now rather than trying to compete with Manny Machado and Josh Donaldson next offseason.
