How fantasy baseball owners should adjust to post MLB deadline world

3 days ago

The MLB trade deadline is one of the most exciting times of the season, but also one of the most stressful and anxiety-ridden periods for those playing fantasy baseball.
It isn't like the early days of fantasy when many were playing in AL- or NL-only leagues and you were worried about your players being dealt to the opposite league. It is about your players being traded out of a starting job, most notably your closers.
All too often we have seen a closer dealt to a contending team and instead of serving as the ninth-inning fireman, he becomes a setup man. This season was no different.
As the Yankees restructure their bullpen, they added both Camilo Doval and David Bednar to their roster.
Doval was closing for the Giants, Bednar for the Pirates, and now both sit behind incumbent Devin Williams. If you play in a league that counts 'saves plus holds,' you're still in business, but unless something drastic happens to Williams, neither has the value they had before the deadline.
The same thing happened to both Kyle Finnegan of the Nationals and Ryan Helsley of the Cardinals.
They gave their fantasy managers 21 and 20 saves respectively, and now neither is likely to see another save opportunity the rest of the way.
Helsley may still have a bit of value as a reliever who can augment strikeouts and stabilize ERA, but Finnegan should probably be dropped. But the real blow comes when your closer's team trades for a better closer.
Robert Suárez of the Padres currently leads the league in saves with 30, but the addition of Mason Miller and his triple-digits fastball pushes Suárez to setup.
Ryan Helsley still has value for fantasy baseball owners even though he's not the Mets closer.
Jason Szenes / New York Post
This happened in Philadelphia as well, as Jordan Romano gets shoved aside in favor of former Twins closer Jhoan Duran.
The Romano demotion doesn't hurt as much, but losing Suárez is going to hurt several contending fantasy teams.
But most situations do have a silver lining in the form of those who were left behind.
With Bednar gone, the Pirates will turn to Dennis Santana, who likely is available on your waiver wire.
Dennis Santana is the the Pirates' new closer, now that David Bednar is a Yankee.
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
The Twins are expected to turn to Cole Sands, the Athletics are going to Jack Perkins and Michael Kelly, the Giants will use Randy Rodríguez and Ryan Walker, and the Nationals will lean on the lefty/righty platoon of Jose Ferrer and Cole Henry.
The Cardinals also will employ a committee until someone stands out, so give a look at the trio of JoJo Romero, Riley O'Brien and Gordon Graceffo.
None of the situations are ideal, but if you lost your fantasy closer and need saves, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Winning a fantasy championship requires intelligence, skill and knowledge, but it also is about being able to think on the fly and roll with the punches.
With any trade that slams the door shut on your saves, there is a window of opportunity that opens somewhere else.
Howard Bender is the head of content at FantasyAlarm.com. Follow him on X @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the award-winning 'Fantasy Alarm Radio Show' on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 6-8 p.m. Go to FantasyAlarm.com for all your fantasy baseball news and advice.

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Different 'vibe' with New York Giants in 2025: 'There's a 100 percent buy-in'

USA Today

20 minutes ago

USA Today

Different 'vibe' with New York Giants in 2025: 'There's a 100 percent buy-in'

There is a different vibe around the New York Giants this season, and more than just fans and analysts are noticing it. After an ugly 3-14 campaign a season ago, the current crop of Giants has returned more motivated, more united, and more determined to turn things around. The attitude is serious, and that has shown itself during two-plus weeks of very intense and physical training camp practices. One new veteran even praised the Giants' locker room as the best he's been a part of. Jevon Holland impressed "Coming in, I just wanted to get comfortable, you know. I wanted to find that rhythm with the team, get to know the guys (and) wanted to be a part of the group," Holland said on Giants Life. "It's been a pleasant surprise, man. I've been a part of some really close locker rooms. "This is the most 'home boy, my dawg' -- like, dapping each other up, playing pool, laughing. From top to bottom, that is a recipe for success. You have to trust the individual next to you in order to be successful." Evident on special teams Special teams coordinator Michael Ghobrial has picked up on the changes, too. He noticed it the second players returned from their break following organized team activities (OTAs). "Just collectively, I think there was really good recall from OTAs in the offseason, which as a coordinator, the biggest question mark that you always have is how much recall they have after having a little break between that time of the year to training camp," he told reporters on Wednesday. "And when they came in, guys were ready to go. You could tell that guys put in a little bit more effort into studying the things that are required for them to have success, which allowed us to kind of speed up our install progression going forward. So really excited about where our guys are at, excited to see them perform." Ghobrial sees a 100 percent buy-in this summer, and not just from rookies who are trying to make an impression or crack the 53-man roster. "The one thing I'll say about this team and where this team is at right now, there is 100 percent buy-in, not only from the rookies, not only from the veteran special teamers that have played in this league, but also the guys that have been primary offense and defensive starters," he said. "Whatever unit we've asked our guys to do, they have completely bought in and they've competed, which has elevated everybody's level. And that's really exciting to see. That's a credit to (head coach Brian Daboll) Dabes and (general manager) Joe (Schoen) in terms of the roster that they built and the veteran leadership that's there and just guys that love football." Competitive camp In addition to Ghobrial, assistant head coach and offensive coordinator Mike Kafka has seen a notable increase in competitiveness. "I think it's been a really competitive camp. I like the mindset our guys have approached each day (with). No different than today, we got to have a great day today and capitalize on the opportunity. You get such limited opportunities throughout OTAs and training camp, so you just have to make the most of them," he said. "Each play is a learning experience and understanding that, 'Okay, if I made a good play, great.' You can take that to the bank and build off of it. Or, 'If I made a mistake, how can I learn from that to not make it happen again?' So I think that's just whether it's a veteran guy, whether it's a young player, getting them to understand that these opportunities are valuable, but if you do have a mistake or you have a correction, you can learn from it and grow from it." The leader sees it In his first summer as a Giant, veteran quarterback Russell Wilson's work ethic has rubbed off on his teammates. He demands more from them both on and off the field, and he feels they've delivered. "It's going great. I think guys are working their butts off, man. We're battling every day," he said. Wilson embraces his leadership role and is nothing short of thrilled that 89 other players are following in his footsteps. "I just want to be able to bring that championship mentality every day, a championship approach, the competitive edge every day, how we want to go about practice, how we want to push each other, how we want to challenge it. I think ultimately, to be able to have a tough mentality, I think that it's never easy," he said. "It is one of those things that for where we want to go and what we want to accomplish, we got to be able to stay in the moments and stay looking forward to the next play. "I think we do a really good job of that right now. We're battling every day, and it's just been cool. I love this locker room, the guys, just the fellowship that we have together all the way from the lunch room to the film room after practice. We go watch film every day together and spend a lot of time just as players and that's fun, to be able to spend that quality time to be able to go through the film, run the film and just talk about what guys see, what I see and share that and share that knowledge. It's been great, man." For Wilson, that makes him "grateful" to be a Giant.