So the season starts in under a week and more roster moves have been made. It’s becoming pretty clear that teams prefer to start the season with experience over youth. Need evidence? Ronald Acuna of the Braves had a .432 batting average with four home runs and four steals and was still optioned to the minors. Now this is mostly to benefit from gaining another year of control over his contract so he’ll likely be called up in a few weeks. But for other position battles there were some stunning moves made this past week that raised some eyebrows. Just a heads up there are quite a few position battles that we touch upon so rather than going through the most notable battles individually, they were all grouped together by team just to make it a bit more simple.

New York Yankees Infield

Shocking. Just shocking. There’s no other way to describe it. Nobody was particularly flabbergasted last week when Gleyber Torres was assigned to the minors to start the year. He wasn’t having a great spring and he’s coming off Tommy John surgery. He clearly needed more work at second base and the Yankees had plenty of other names on the roster to compensate. However, when news broke earlier this week that Andujar would be sent down to start the season it became all too clear how the Yankees want to proceed with the infield. To be fair Andujar had cooled off significantly from his hot start. There is still a strong possibility that he could return early on in the season and if you drafted him you can probably afford to drop him for any of the infielders that are still with the Yankees. The Yankees chose to start the season with Brandon Drury, Neil Walker, or Tyler Wade to fill the second or third base positions with one of them. As disappointing as it is, the Yankees are simply opting for vets over rookies to kick off 2018.

Chicago Cubs Outfield

We touched on this one a few weeks back, but it’s just become too obvious. The Cubs need to go with Ian Happ and Kyle Schwarber as their outfielders alongside Jason Heyward. Don’t be too surprised if Albert Almora and Ben Zobrist get some starts over the other three from time to time. Joe Madden will likely do what he can to get playing time for latter two, but at the same time how long can the Cubs put up with Heyward’s underwhelming numbers? It’s insane! He’s been pretty bad in his two years with the Cubs and his contract is what handcuffs the Cubs into not putting him on the bench.

Let’s digress because the focus should be on Happ and Schwarber. Since the start of spring Happ has been hot. It’s HAPPening! You’ve probably seen that joke somewhere on Twitter so I won’t claim credit for that. But Happ is hitting .342 with an .868 slugging percentage with five home runs, a triple, and three doubles. He is scorching hot. He also has two steals. As for Schwarber, he’s hitting .385 with a .744 slugging percentage with three home runs, a triple, and three steals. This leaner, meaner version of Schwarber has also swiped four bags so far this spring. With the Cubs still in contention in the National League they shouldn’t go away from two of their hottest players heading into the season. Strike while the iron is hot and hope the iron stays hot all year.

Colorado Rockies First Base and Outfield

The recent re-signing of Carlos Gonzalez has really handcuffed fantasy players. It adds another outfielder to an already crowded group featuring names like Charlie Blackmon, Ian Desmond, Gerardo Parra, David Dahl, Raimel Tapia, and Mike Tauchman. It’s crowded, but this is even bad news for Ryan McMahon. With so many outfield options there is now more onus to play Desmond at first base to fit Parra, Dahl, or Tapia in the lineup every now and then. This is bad news for anyone investing in Ryan McMahon. To date, he’s had a very good spring with a .350 batting average, two home runs, and eight doubles. His .583 slugging percentage suggests he could translate well to hitting in Coors Field. And so far Gonzalez hasn’t looked great in just a handful of plate appearances. He’s only 2-for-12, but his name recognition alone will keep him in the lineup early on. This is definitely bad news for players like Dahl who has five home runs this spring, or Tauchman and his eight extra base hits. It’s not perfect, but heading into the year the Rockies will roll with a very crowded outfield.

Milwaukee Brewers Outfield and First Base

This position battle is intriguing not because of certain players being assigned to the minor leagues, or recent injuries. Rather this mess is largely caused by Ryan Braun’s unwillingness to play anywhere other than the outfield. Braun could earn a few starts at first base here and there, but he’s done enough this spring to really earn the right to say he wants to stay in the outfield. This could be a bit of a problem for Keon Broxton and Domingo Santana. With Christian Yelich, Ryan Braun, and Lorenzo Cain manning the outfield it’s becoming difficult to see where both Broxton and Santana will find ample plate appearances. Don’t get me wrong, there are ways that Santana could potentially reach 450 plate appearances, but at his current ADP (currently still going in the top 100) he’s not a great value.

The good news to come out of Braun not wanting to play first base? It should get Jesus Aguilar some extra starts at that spot especially with Eric Thames having a somewhat quiet spring. Nobody expects Thames to get off to the torrid start he had last April and May. However, if his poor performance carries over into the beginning of the 2018 season then Aguilar will likely get more plate appearances.

Update (3/23/2018 at 4:15pm): So news just broke that Ryan Braun will actually be the primary first basemen when Milwaukee faces left-handed pitching. This scenario opens up the outfield a little bit more while certainly hurting the value of Eric Thames and Jesus Aguilar. Aguilar is the bigger disappointment considering he has some nice upside and likely won't see much playing time when the Brewers face off against lefties.

Milwaukee Brewers Starting Rotation

So if you’ve noticed anything about our Depth Charts they are being updated daily with every transaction heading into the spring and you’ll also notice the Brewers have an abundance of starting pitchers. But there is some clarity heading into opening day. Don’t be fooled by Jimmy Nelson’s status, he likely isn’t returning until the All-Star break, but for a guy who had almost 200 strikeouts last year he’ll probably have a spot in the rotation when the time comes. Wade Miley signed a minor-league deal with Milwaukee before the year and he will likely start the season on the disabled list. He recently suffered a groin injury, so he’ll take a few weeks to rehab the injury. Brandon Woodruff is a top prospect for the Brewers, but hasn’t looked ready for the big leagues just yet with an ERA over 7.00, but he does have nine strikeouts in just over seven innings of work. This really opens the door for Brent Suter and Junior Guerra to start the season in the rotation behind Chase Anderson, Zach Davies, and Jhoulys Chacin. Suter doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but he has seen a slight uptick in velocity this spring and Guerra has proven to be an okay innings eater in the past.

For what it’s worth I’m not completely sold that Jhoulys Chacin sticks with the rotation the whole season. He’s transitioning from a pitcher’s park to a hitter’s park. At Petco Park last season he had a 1.79 ERA and opponents slashed .172/.262/.287 against him at home. On the road those numbers ballooned to a 6.53 ERA and an opponent slash line of .295/.383/.469 so this move to Milwaukee may not bode well. Now he does have a 0.87 ERA this spring, but he does have seven strikeouts to four walks and a hit batter. So outside of Anderson and Davies, it’s hard to be completely sold on any other starting pitcher to start this season in Milwaukee.

New York Mets Starting Rotation

There wasn’t much to report about the Mets pitchers up until last week. Jason Vargas seemed like a lock to make the opening day rotation, but after suffering a fracture to his non-throwing hand, his status for next week’s start to the season is now in question. Matt Harvey seems like an obvious candidate to be the third starter early on. Through 20 innings of work he has a 4.50 ERA, but he does have 18 strikeouts. Nobody expects Harvey to be the ace from a few years back, but at his ADP he’s a decent value. One of the other spots should feasibly go to Steven Matz. Matz had a horrific start to the spring by giving up ten earned runs while recording just five outs. However, he’s rebounded well enough to the tune of four earned runs over his last 14.1 innings of work. In his last outing against Houston he took the loss, but gave up just two earned runs on five hits and no walks over six innings of work. It might also be worth mentioning he had nine strikeouts as well. The last spot will likely go to Zack Wheeler or Seth Lugo. While Wheeler might be the frontrunner between the two, he has still given up 22 hits in ten innings of work this spring, so the job could go to either guy at this point. Lugo seems like he could be the guy who could get the job, but Mickey Callaway acknowledged that if the Mets went with Lugo he would only throw 75-85 pitchers per start, which would mostly get him five innings of work. That doesn’t translate to fantastic fantasy production.

Los Angeles Dodgers Outfield, Infield, and Catcher

The recent injury to Justin Turner is a bummer to the Dodgers and anyone who drafted him in best ball formats. He’ll likely have to miss the first few weeks of the season so this opens up playing time for Logan Forsythe and Enrique Hernandez with Austin Barnes occasionally getting playing time at second base for the first 20 games of the season possibly. At worst Turner could be out until May, which is unfortunate, but at least the injury isn’t worse.

The left field position seems to belong to Matt Kemp. He looks like he is in the best shape of his life and so far this spring he’s hitting .302 with four home runs and a .628 slugging percentage. It’s been a solid spring campaign as Kemp seeks new life with the Dodgers. So while Kemp may have a firm hold on left field, the Justin Turner injury does present the possibility that perhaps the Dodgers move some pieces around that could include Chris Taylor temporarily moving to second base over Austin Barnes. This could open up a roster spot for Joc Pederson, but everyone knows what they’re getting with Pederson so it doesn’t really boost his fantasy value.

Austin Barnes is going to need the starts at second base if he wants to get in the game. Yasmani Grandal has had a very good spring. He’s definitely been a player to benefit from a new swing and be a part of the fly ball revolution. So far this spring he’s hitting .333 with five home runs and a .769 slugging percentage. Barnes hasn’t been particularly great hitting just .111 this spring but the Dodgers will try and find a way to get him in the lineup. But for now, Grandal has easily won the catching battle.