Trevor Cahill, Jaime Garcia trades increase American League pitching depth
Until this week, owners in NL-only fantasy formats have benefited from every one of the major interleague trades.
Those who saved their FAAB dollars have been able to spend them on J.D. Martinez, Jose Quintana, Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson. Meanwhile, AL-only owners were left holding the bag.
But the tide finally reversed direction on Monday as the Kansas City Royals and Minnesota Twins bolstered their pitching staffs with an influx of former NL'ers.
Royals add Trevor Cahill, Brandon Maurer and Ryan Buchter
Cahill, 29, has enjoyed a resurgence as a starter in San Diego after spending the previous two seasons primarily as a reliever.
In 11 starts with the Padres, he's 4-3 with a 3.69 ERA. That's not great on the surface, but he's increased his strikeout rate significantly to 10.6 K/9, while maintaining his elite 57% ground-ball rate.
While Cahill doesn't rate as highly as say, Quintana, in fantasy circles, he may be the best starter to enter the AL-only player pool before the trade deadline. Cahill's ratios may suffer slightly moving to the AL, but he can provide quality innings and pick up a decent number of wins.
The Royals also added two of the three best arms in the Padres bullpen in former closer Maurer and lefty setup man Buchter.
Maurer was only valuable in fantasy for his 20 saves -- certainly not for his 5.72 ERA. Now a setup man to closer Kelvin Herrera in Kansas City, he can be dropped in all formats. Buchter has an 11.0 K/9 rate, but will likely be used as a situational reliever.
The big question in San Diego is who will close with Maurer no longer around. The easy answer is Brad Hand (2.12 ERA, 11.7 K/9), but he's on the trade block as well. A dark horse candidate is Carter Capps, who missed all of last season recovering from elbow surgery and has pitched well in the minors this year. He could be called up soon.
The on-again, off-again negotiations between the Twins and Atlanta Braves finally resulted in a deal -- but only after Garcia tossed another quality start on Friday in his final appearance with the Braves.
The veteran lefty not only moves to the tougher league for pitchers, he goes to a worse home park. Target Field ranks third on ESPN Park Factors for offense this season (+17.5% for scoring, +14.5% for home runs), while the Braves' SunTrust Park was borderline neutral (+2% for scoring, -1% for homers).