Fantasy Roundtable: Roundtable: Willson Contreras
This is the weekly Fantasy Roundtable, where the writers of Rotoworld Baseball let the readers of Rotoworld Baseball in on a quick staff discussion. It’s water cooler talk … that we’ve decided to publish. Look for it every Tuesday.
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Drew Silva: Let’s do a quick one on Cubs catching prospect Willson Contreras, who was promoted to the majors last Friday and homered in his first MLB at-bat Sunday. He also drew his first MLB start at catcher on Monday, going 1-for-4 with an RBI single and throwing out Matt Carpenter at second base in the top of the ninth inning. Can he carve out more playing time? Can he have a big fantasy impact in 2016? What are we dealing with here?
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D.J. Short: I think Contreras can carve out value this season, but I don’t expect it to be immediate or consistent. Easy for me to say after he homered on the very first pitch he saw in the majors on Sunday, but the Cubs don’t have any sense of urgency to push him into regular duty. They have the benefit of a huge lead in the NL Central, so they can ease him into the mix and get him better acquainted with a pitching staff that has been rolling.
Assuming Contreras holds his own at the plate and behind it, I could see him grabbing the majority of the starts at catcher by the All-Star break. Until then, things are pretty murky here, with Miguel Montero and David Ross still in the mix. If you have a deep bench, you can maybe afford to stash Contreras and watch Joe Maddon’s lineup card carefully. Given the poor state of the catcher position, the upside could be considerable in the second half. But I’d be careful about going too crazy in standard one-catcher mixed leagues. There are just too many questions in the short-term.
David Shovein: I think if Contreras can work his way into 2-3 starts a week, he’ll have considerable value in deeper mixed leagues that start two catchers. The catcher position as a whole, especially toward the bottom end of the pool, is a wasteland this season. Contreras has legitimate thump in his bat, and it comes without the average drain that most backstops provide.
Nathan Grimm: Even in one-catcher leagues, he feels like a guy who shouldn’t be unowned. It’s probably a good idea to have a 1a option and to keep Contreras on the bench until, as D.J. said, the playing time picture gets clearer, but this is a legitimate offensive catcher who could in the foreseeable future be getting the lion’s share of playing time in one of the best lineups we’ve seen in years. The upside is huge.
