Yasmani Grandal Signs With Brewers
Yasmani Grandal was already one of the top catchers off the boards in Fantasy Baseball drafts. After signing a one-year, $18.25 million with the Milwaukee Brewers, he became a little more appealing at an extremely thin position.
Grandal, who has an Average Draft Position (ADP) of 145.3 on fantrax.com, reportedly turned down a four-year, $60 million deal from the Mets. Grandal is the sixth catcher off the board in early drafts.
Over the last five seasons, Grandal has the third-best OPS (.792) among catchers with Buster Posey and Willson Contreras the only ones better. Grandal reached 20 home runs last year for the third consecutive season. Grandal should help the pitching staff also since he has been one of the best pitch-framing catchers over the last three seasons.
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Grandal has been one of the better Fantasy catchers in recent seasons and sees a boost in on-base percentage leagues. He has a career .341 OBP and been no lower than .339 in three of the last four seasons. While Grandal is a career .240 hitter, that’s not bad for the position in this era. Grandal batted .241 with 65 runs, 24 home runs, 68 RBIs and an .815 OPS in a career-high 440 at-bats over 140 games in 2018.
Grandal has stayed healthy for a position where it’s difficult to stay on the field. He has appeared in at least 126 games in four of the last five seasons. Grandal has good patience and power. He has increased his fly ball rate every year since 2012 and had a career best 40.8 percent hard hit rate last season.
The change in parks should give Grandal a slight boost. Dodgers Stadium was 26th in runs and 11th in home runs, while Miller Park in Milwaukee was 14th in runs and 10th in home runs. Grandal is in another good lineup and should bat sixth. Grandal is a Top 5 Fantasy catcher.
Brian Dozier Signs With Nationals
Brian Dozier signed a one-year, $9 million contract with the Nationals on Thursday. Dozier is coming off one of his worst seasons in a while. Dozier has never been on the disabled list, but said he played through a right knee bone bruise last season and compensated for it mechanically.
It certainly seemed something was wrong. Dozier had a slash line of .215/.305/.391 with 81 runs, 21 home runs, 72 RBIs and 12 stolen bases between the Twins and Dodgers. In 2017, Dozier had a slash line of .271/.359/.498 with 106 runs, 34 home runs, 93 RBIs and 16 stolen bases. The year prior in 2016, Dozier had a slash line of .268/.340/.546 with 104 runs, 42 home runs, 99 RBIs and 18 stolen bases.
Dozier turns 32 in May, but his drop off appears to be injury related. If he’s healthy, Dozier will be a good bargain in drafts. Dozier will be in a good lineup and have plenty of opportunities to drive in runs. Dozier has a current ADP of 145.77 on fantrax.com as the 11th second basemen. That’s a good value for a player that will bounce back.
