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Ben Rosener looks at the fantasy baseball impact of Miami Marlins starting pitcher Johnny Cueto and infielder Joey Wendle being placed on the injured list.
The MLB offseason and Spring training are officially over. The regular season is here, and with it comes the daily influx of baseball news that fantasy managers missed in the winter months. Lineup news, actual games happening, constant waiver wire moves, pitching assignments, and bullpen usage.
Baseball is back, and so too is fantasy baseball, with the draft season having just wrapped up, or otherwise being very close to being wrapped up. This column aims to cover any and all fantasy baseball news, big or small, and how it pertains to your fantasy team. Spring training or the regular season, it's covered here.
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 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 impact of the Miami Marlins placing veteran starting pitcher Johnny Cueto and infielder Joey Wendle on the injured list earlier this week.
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Fantasy Baseball Impact Of Johnny Cueto Being Placed On The Injured List
The Miami Marlins placed starter Johnny Cueto on the injured list on April 4. MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola reported the move in a tweet on April 4, with the move also showing up on the team’s official transaction log on MLB.com.
Cueto is reportedly heading to the 15-day injured list due to “right biceps tightness” while Wendle was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a “right intercostal strain,” per De Nicola's tweet.
An offseason signing by the Marlins, Cueto only threw one inning in his first start for the National League East club, allowing four earned runs, three hits, two home runs, and a walk. He reportedly left the game with a team trainer, per a tweet from the St. Paul Pioneer Press’ Betsy Helfand on April 3:
Cueto previously pitched to a 3.35 ERA and a 3.79 FIP in 158.1 innings for the Chicago White Sox last season while logging 102 strikeouts compared to just 33 walks.
With Braxton Garrett joining the club, it’s worth watching to see if the left-hander can get a few starts with Cueto on the injured list. Garrett, thanks in part to considerably better strikeout metrics than Cueto, might be a better streaming option if Miami utilizes him as a starter.
The 25-year-old pitched to a 3.58 ERA and a 3.56 FIP in 17 starts spanning 88.0 innings for the National League East club in 2022, striking out 90 batters and allowing 24 walks. Perhaps most crucially, he only surrendered nine home runs. That checks out at just 0.92 homers allowed per nine innings.
Garrett’s slider was at the forefront of his bat-missing success in 2022. The left-hander threw it more than any other pitch and saw the best results from a bat-missing standpoint with the offering. The former first-round pick’s slider finished with a 32.2% usage rate and a 40.1% whiff rate.
Depending on the matchup, he could be a useful streaming option in National League-only leagues or deeper leagues provided he gets a look in the Marlins’ rotation.
Fantasy Baseball Impact Of Joey Wendle Being Placed On The Injured List
Switching over to the position player side of things in Miami, we move to Wendle, who has so far gone hitless with a walk in nine plate appearances this year. He’s coming off a debut season in Miami in which he hit .259 with a .297 on-base percentage, three home runs, and 12 stolen bases.
Capable of playing all three infield positions not called first base, Wendle made at least 33 appearances at second base, shortstop, and third base last year.
Most notably, Wendle’s placement on the injured list would seem to directly boost Garrett Hampson’s fantasy upside in deeper leagues.
Besides the obvious that Hampson was called up to replace Wendle, he has plenty of stolen base upside. The former Rockies player, who featured in this column a few weeks back, entered the season with a .235 average, a .296 on-base percentage, a .665 OPS, 26 home runs, and 52 stolen bases in 1,279 career plate appearances. Of those 52 stolen bases, 29 have come in the past two seasons for the Colorado Rockies.
Elsewhere, with Wendle on the injured list, Hampson takes over as the primary backup infielder at all infield positions but first base. Miami’s current bench options include backup catcher Nick Fortes, first baseman Yuli Gurriel, and outfielder Jorge Sanchez. Hampson, who has already appeared in a game, should see plenty of playing time as the primary backup to Jean Segura, Jon Berti, and Luis Arraez around the infield for the time being.
That could make him a useful fantasy option in deeper leagues or deeper National League-only formats.
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