The 23rd annual DTBL Draft began a week ago Thursday. The beginning of the draft always brings plenty of intrigue. But this year, the early rounds were mostly overshadowed by a string of trades that were completed over the first few days of the draft. In total, seven trades were made in four days involving six different teams. And for the most part, these weren’t minor deals involving role players and draft pick swaps. Several of the league’s biggest stars are now on new teams. Some of these trades indicate new philosophical directions for entire franchises. But before I get to the details of all of those trades, I don’t want the first round picks to feel left out. So I’m going to do my usual first round recap first. There were plenty of interesting picks made there too.
Some years there is a fairly obvious player available for the team with the first pick in the draft. Other years, there are several strong candidates for that slot. This year was the former. In what should have been a surprise to nobody, the Cougars used the first pick in the draft to select White Sox slugging first baseman Jose Abreu. The Cuban star made his MLB presence felt immediately in the MLB. He slugged 36 homers with 107 RBI and a .317 average on his way to winning the AL Rookie of the Year award. Not bad for a guy adapting to a new league, not to mention a new country. Abreu is the second straight Cuban player to be picked first in the DTBL Draft, following Yasiel Puig a year ago. The Cougars badly needed an offensive boost after finishing last in all five categories a year ago, further making Abreu the obvious choice. Really the only slight negative about him is that he is 28 years old. That makes him the oldest first overall pick since the expansion Naturals took Jeff Bagwell back in 2002. Curtis Granderson was just a couple months younger when the Choppers picked him in 2009. Nonetheless, Abreu profiles as a guy who should help the Cougars for many years to come.
After Abreu came a string of four straight young outfielders with big upside. With the second pick, the Gators selected the most established of the four when they picked up Corey Dickerson. The Rockies slugger hit .312 with 24 home runs in his breakout season of 2014. Playing half his games in Coors Field makes it easy to believe those numbers could get even better with a full season of playing every day. Next, the Darkhorses selected George Springer of the Astros who displayed his immense power by hitting 20 home runs in his rookie year in fewer than 300 at bats. He has five tool potential if he can cut down on his strikeouts a bit. With the fourth pick, the Moonshiners took one of the bevy of up-and-coming Cubs superstars, Jorge Soler. Somewhat overshadowed by a couple of those other Cubs prospects, Soler is the one who has already proven his worth at the big league level putting up solid numbers after his late season promotion last year. Finally, the Kings used the fifth pick on another outfielder with big potential, Mookie Betts. Betts can do it all. His only current obstacle is a crowded Red Sox outfield, but you would think they will find a way to get him in the lineup one way or another.
The Jackalope ended the string of outfielders by going with the draft’s first pitcher with pick number six. They selected Cubs hurler Jake Arrieta, who broke out in a big way last season. This was not a surprising selection on the heels of the trade the Jackalope made immediately prior to the pick, which I will get to in a bit. Arrieta figures to be a major part of their rebuilt rotation. The Choppers also took a pitcher in the seventh spot, selecting Tyson Ross. The Padres pitcher had an outstanding season a year ago, but didn’t garner a ton of attention. That should change this year thanks to the revamped Padres lineup.
As is their custom, the Mavericks were able to pick up an extra first round selection in a deal with the Demigods. So they had two consecutive picks late in the first round. They used those picks to draft Yankees relief pitcher Dellin Betances and Cubs shortstop Javier Baez. These were both high risk/reward picks. Betances put up ridiculously strong numbers out of the bullpen last year, but his value in fantasy depends largely on whether or not he will be a closer this year. That seems likely, but he hasn’t been officially handed the job. He can help the Mavericks in ERA, WHIP and K’s though, even if they go a different route (especially since they picked the other leading Yankees closer candidate later, Andrew Miller). Baez is about as big of a risk/reward pick as you can get. On one hand, he has immense power that could blow away all other middle infielders on the board. But on the other, he has shown no plate discipline at all at the big league level and could easily wind up in AAA. Of course, the Mavs have plenty of other players ready to fill that spot if Baez doesn’t pan out. Finally, the defending champion Naturals finished the first round by selecting another good, young pitcher in Carlos Carrasco. Slightly overshadowed by Indians teammate Corey Kluber last year, Carrasco could become a Cy Young candidate himself this year if he pitches like he did in ’14.
So that first round was all well and good, but it was most certainly NOT the biggest story of the past ten days. There were four huge trades made on the first day of the draft before Abreu was selected with the first pick. Then three more major deals were completed before two rounds were in the books. These trades range from championship contenders looking to solidify their rosters, to second tier teams trying to plug major holes, to major franchise overhauls. It is difficult to pinpoint which teams will be the big winners and losers from these deals, but one thing is for sure: the players/picks involved in these trades will play a major role in determining how teams finish this year.
The first domino to fall was the Naturals trading Zack Greinke and their fifth round pick to the Moonshiners for Wilson Ramos and a second round pick. Star pitchers being dealt was a big theme of the week and Greinke was the first. The Moonshiners badly needed an ace to anchor a rotation that hasn’t really had a standout performer in recent years. Greinke held that ace title for the Moonshiners for about a day. The Naturals needed a catcher to fill the crucial spot held by Victor Martinez last year. They used that early second round pick to select Garrett Richards, who they will count on to replace Greinke. This is the second time Greinke has been involved in a major March trade. The Naturals acquired him from the Jackalope in 2011 in a deal that saw Ryan Howard go the other way. Greinke had four tremendous seasons for the Naturals and should be a major piece of the future for the Moonshiners as well.
The next trade was something you don’t usually see in March: a one-for-one trade of star pitchers with no other picks or pieces involved. The Mavericks traded their first round pick from a year ago, young starting pitcher Gerrit Cole, to the Jackalope for one of the best closers in the league, Aroldis Chapman. This was the first of many changes for the Jackalope, who felt the need to get younger, particularly in the rotation with ailing veteran Cliff Lee’s season being in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Chapman (along with first round pick Betances) give the Mavericks an almost unfair bullpen full of fireballers. Their rotation isn’t too shaby either. If I had to pick one team as a lock to win one category this year, it would be the Mavericks and strikeouts. Barring injury, they look pretty solid in the other four pitching categories too.
As it turns out, the Cole/Chapman deal was just a precursor to a couple more one-for-one deals involving superstars. The Jackalope immediately turned around and dealt their first overall pick from a year ago, Yasiel Puig, to the Naturals for third baseman Anthony Rendon. This would have looked like an insane trade a year ago considering the Naturals nabbed Rendon in the sixth round. But he was quietly one of the most valuable players in the league last year and plays a much more difficult position to fill. Of course, his switch from second to third created a bit of a problem for the Naturals who were already loaded at the corners. Unfortunately for the Jackalope, Rendon wound up injuring his knee right around the time this deal was made, which was part of a pretty tough week of injury news for their squad. However, Rendon’s injury isn’t considered to be too serious, but will be worth watching as the season approaches. Meanwhile, the Naturals are happy to have Puig and hope he can bounce back from a slightly disappointing season a year ago. He clearly has major talent and big upside at his young age.
The final pre-draft trade skewed a little older. The Mavericks dealt slugging first baseman Edwin Encarnacion to the Darkhorses for shortstop Hanley Ramirez. The Darkhorses acquired one of the most consistent power sources in recent years while the Mavericks picked up a power source of their own at a premium position. This figures to be Ramirez’s last year at shortstop though since the Red Sox plan to play him in the outfield. Only Marc knows for sure, but I’m not positive this deal would have happened had they known they would be able to pick Baez in the draft. As it currently stands, the Mavericks have five middle infielders and dealing Encarnacion temporarily left them without a first baseman. But that is a much easier position to fill than 2B/SS. The Darkhorses are hoping two ex-Mavs players will help boost their power output. They also drafted former Maverick Carlos Santana.
The start of the draft did not end the flurry of trades. Halfway through the first round, a deal was made that somehow managed to exceed the four I just detailed in terms of star power. The Jackalope traded arguably the second best pitcher in baseball, Felix Hernandez, along with Ian Kennedy to the Moonshiners for third baseman Josh Donaldson and a fourth round pick. Suddenly, the Moonshiners pitching problems were a thing of the past. The additions of Hernandez, Greinke and Kennedy is about as big of a rotation upgrade as a team can realistically make. Despite only being 28 years old, King Felix is already 10th on the DTBL’s all-time strikeout list. He was a workhorse for the Jackalope in his nine seasons with them, pitching at least 180 innings every season and has struck out over 200 batters in six consecutive seasons. He will be reunited with two other former Jackalope rotation-mates with the Moonshiners: Greinke and Jered Weaver. This signals a huge overhaul for the Jackalope who have been slightly burned in recent years by deteriorating health of their once invincible pitching staff. Roy Halladay and now Cliff Lee seem to have been lost without getting anything in return. They elected to make sure the same thing didn’t happen with Hernandez. The Jackalope rotations of about five years ago were some of the best collection of pitchers this league has ever seen. But now all are gone, except for Lee, who may never pitch again. Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention that the Jackalope acquired Donaldson who was the Moonshiners first round pick a year ago. Donaldson had a huge DTBL rookie campaign and could be in for even more now that he has moved to hitter friendly Toronto.
The next trade was of the more traditional draft day variety. The Mavericks did what they do best, acquired an extra first round pick from the Demigods in exchange for second and third round picks. As already mentioned, the Mavericks used that extra pick to acquire Javier Baez following their own selection of Dellin Betances. As for the Demigods who probably had as few holes to fill as any team entering this draft, they moved down and took outfielder J.D. Martinez with that pick acquired from the Mavericks. The third round pick turned into relief pitcher Santiago Casilla. Interestingly, that second round slot was actually a pick they had previously traded to the Mavericks in a deal last May.
Finally, the Jackalope had one more superstar to trade away. They dealt franchise icon Albert Pujols to the Mavericks along with a third round pick for Adam Jones. A couple years ago, trading away Pujols AND a pick for Jones would have been preposterous. But Pujols is clearly on the downside of his career and is not the perennial MVP candidate that he was for most of his career. He is the Jackalope franchise leader in home runs, RBI and runs, all by very comfortable margins. He spent 13 remarkable seasons with the franchise. So trading him away couldn’t have been easy. The Jackalope will have a much different look in 2015 without Prince Albert and King Felix. Adam Jones is no slouch though. He has hit 25+ homers each of the past four years and has become one of the most consistent outfield contributors in the league. As for the Mavericks, this deal was mostly about plugging that hole left by the departure of Encarnacion. Although Pujols isn’t the hitter he once was, by normal standards of judging players, he’s still one of the better first basemen in the league. If he stays healthy, he should have several more big seasons in him.
So that sums up the first round of the draft and the seven deals that have been made so far this month. It has been a well paced draft as we currently sit at the end of the eighth round with still two full weeks before the start of the season. Thanks to everyone for keeping it moving and good luck with the remainder of the draft.