Fantasy baseball’s biggest Major League Baseball trade deadline winner isn’t eligible for waiver-wire recognition.
Days after dealing Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs, the New York Yankees continued to gut their dominant bullpen in favor of elite prospects. Baseball fans woke up Sunday morning to news of them sending Andrew Miller—who was next in line for saves behind Chapman—to the Cleveland Indians for a package led by minor league outfielder Clint Frazier and pitcher Justus Sheffield.
Anyone constructing rest-of-season reliever rankings should now catapult Dellin Betances to No. 1.
The lone remaining stud in New York’s three-headed monster will take his 2.50 ERA, 0.99 WHIP, 1.27 fielding independent pitching (FIP) and 45.0 strikeout percentage into the closer’s role. He was far too valuable as a seventh-inning dynamo to rot away on the waiver wire, but anyone should have grabbed him immediately after the Miller trade (or probably the Chapman transaction) where available.
He’s already owned in 82 percent of Yahoo Sports leagues, and that number should keep rising until he’s on a team in every league with at least one active owner. Nevertheless, this week’s top free agents are still littered with relievers available in at least half of Yahoo leagues.
Monday’s non-waiver deadline and a couple of non-related promotions and injuries have created an array of talent to cover as the calendar turns to August.