Cheslor Cuthbert & Cody Asche: Deep League Wire

Welcome back to another edition of the deep league waiver wire, where there’s another opportunity to take advantage of an injury and a preemptive move for an imminent returnee.

Cheslor Cuthbert | 3B KC | CBS 3% Owned

Over the weekend, incumbent Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas landed on the disabled list with a fractured thumb. While the team expected Moose to be out just two to three weeks, Jeff Zimmerman is a little more pessimistic, thinking it’s the type of injury that could push his return out to five or six weeks. Christian Colon figures to see a boost in playing time, but the team recalled Cuthbert and he has started each game so far.

Cuthbert was up with the team last season and garnered 50 plate appearances, with which he did little with. His minor league track record doesn’t inspire a whole lot of excitement either, as he has made pretty good contact and posted solid walk rates, but with middling power and just a touch of speed. Basically, not a very attractive skill set for fantasy owners.

However, during his short time at Triple-A this year, he had been enjoying a power surge, as his ISO more than doubled from his time at the level last year, nearly reaching .300. While it would be easy to call it a small sample fluke, it would be silly to not take notice when a young player ups his power, even if just in the minors. This is especially true given that Dan Farnsworth said this about him in his preseason prospect roundup:

He has the physical tools to be an All-Star, but those tools haven’t translated into in-game success.

Welllllp, looks like those tools finally started to translate! He’s worth a gamble, even if he’s unlikely to have more than a bench job upon Moose’s return.

Cody Asche | 3B/OF PHI | 2% Owned

In a deep league, it pays to look forward and preemptively make moves before your competition is looking at the same player. Cody Asche has been out all season with an oblique injury and looks to be finally ready to return sometime next week. The corner outfield situation in Philadelphia this year has been laughably bad, as David Lough has been the only one to accrue positive WAR, at just 0.2 The rest of the motley crew of five names have totaled a pathetic -2.9 WAR. Yes, that’s a negative number between all five players. Although Asche was terrible defensively in left field last year, the job is his for the taking upon his return.

Once a respectable fantasy prospect with some power and speed, he has shown just mediocre pop in the Majors and an unwillingness to swipe a base. He stole 12 bases in the minors in 2013 and 11 in 2012, but has just two in over 1,000 plate appearances with the Phillies. Perhaps he’ll suddenly turn on the speed this year given the state of the Phillies offense, but coming off an oblique injury, it doesn’t seem likely.

That said, he does sport a league average HR/FB rate, a respectable fly ball rate, and pulls the ball often. He should play every day, at least against righties, with no one else resembling a Major League player. I’m not expecting a whole lot, but strong side platoon at-bats from the free agent pile is mighty valuable.