Fantasy Impact of Jorge Soler-Wade Davis Trade

By Vincent Frank on Wednesday, December 7th 2016
Fantasy Impact of Jorge Soler-Wade Davis Trade

The Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals, MLB's past two World Series champions, got together on an under-the-radar blockbuster trade on Wednesday. 

Kansas City dealt All-Star reliever Wade Davis, one of the most dominating players at his position in the game, to the Cubs in exchange for young outfielder and former top prospect Jorge Soler

This is a move that changes the dynamics for both teams. Chicago is now likely out on free agent Aroldis Chapman while the Royals now have a potential 30-plus home-run hitter in the outfield. 

Let's look at this move from a fantasy perspective for a second. 

First off, it's not yet known whether Davis will take over as the Cubs' closer. Despite likely losing Chapman, the team still has Hector Rondon returning. It's in this that Davis might very well continue his role as an eighth-inning setup man. Davis filled that role for the Royals for about half his three-year stint with the team before taking over as the closer. 

This past season saw the former starter post a 1.87 ERA and 1.13 WHIP while striking out nearly 10 batters per nine innings. That's some dominating stuff, but it wasn't nearly as good as his 2015 campaign, a performance that saw Davis post a 0.94/0.79 split with 10.4 K's per nine innings. 

All this really does is add to the value of the Cubs' starting rotation. Well, maybe it just continues to place a high value on the likes of Jon Lester, Jake Arrieta and Kyle Hendricks. All three posted 16-plus wins this past season, in large part due to the Cubs' dominating bullpen. 

With Davis now joining the likes of Rondon, Trevor Cahill, Travis Wood, Pedro Strop and Mike Montgomery, we can expect this trio to continue racking up a ton of wins. 

As it relates to the Royals, they received a high-upside youngster with the potential to round into an All-Star performer here in the not-so-distant future. Despite posting a sub .240 average last season, Soler is seen as one fo the top young position players in the game. He was a top prospect of the team when joining the big league club back in 2014 and is seen as someone with 30-plus homer potential. 

Now that Soler will be given an opportunity to play every-day in a more hitter friendly league than the NL, look for him to explode in 2017. He's currently one of the best under-the-radar outfield options as the 2017 fantasy draft season comes calling. 

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