Ottoneu Position Gainers

The Ottoneu off-season has already commenced, as the first steps to turn the calendar to 2024 are underway. Over the off-season, we will continue to provide Ottoneu content, including some season recaps of what went right and wrong for our teams. But today, I want to look at positional eligibility.

There are currently 248 players rostered in one or more Ottoneu leagues who gained or lost meaningful positional eligibility. What I mean by “meaningful” is that there are some pitchers who gained or lost RP, but that has no impact on our game. A few position players gained RP and some newly drafted players are now Util-eligible. I am leaving those players off this list. The bottom of this article will have a full list but let’s take a look at some particularly interesting cases.

Players Who Gained MI or C

Middle infield and catcher are the highest-value positions a player can gain, so these are the players whose value increased the most this year purely by playing a new position. I’ll spoil the fun by saying now that no one gained C eligibility, at least not meaningfully. There were seven names on that list and they are all just catchers who were either drafted last year or this year and therefore are just earning their C. But we knew it was coming already.

There are 27 players who gained MI eligibility (i.e, they added SS or 2B but did not already have the other). There is value to going from 2B or SS to 2B/SS, and you can find those players on the master list below, but players who gained MI will see the biggest value shift. Of those 27, 12 were like the catchers – drafted last year or this year and just earning eligibility for the first time, so let’s look at the other 15:

On this list, the names that stand out are the top four. I am not sure I see much value in the others on here – perhaps a guy like Villar or Escobar sneaks onto your watchlist thanks to the positional eligibility, but they aren’t doing a ton for you no matter what. But Turner, Caminero, Keith and Vargas all have potential to be extremely valuable next year and being able to slot them in at a MI spot shifts their value. For a guy like Vargas, if he has a regular job, he is very useful at 2B but might not have been at 3B. Turner is a much easier risk to take on, given his age, as a MI than he would be as a 3B-only.

Players Who Lost MI or C

The other side of the same coin. These ones hurt. These players all had C or MI eligibility all season and no longer do. There are 23 names on this list with three who lost C-eligibility: Daulton Varsho, Hunter Goodman, and Max Stassi. For all three of these players, their value has been tanked. Goodman and Stassi are not worth rostering without C-eligibility. Stassi missed the year first with injury and then dealing with a family medical issue. If he is back in 2024 (and he should be as he is under contract), he is likely backing up Logan O’Hoppe – he’ll regain C eligibility but not sure that matters. Goodman was decent at Coors in a small sample, but struck out almost half the time at home and didn’t play a single inning at C for the Rockies.

Varsho takes the biggest hit though – he was a highly-valued piece last off-season, coming off a great season and lined up to be an everyday player who fantasy managers could slot at catcher. But his offense tanked and even his stronger second half (100 wRC+) isn’t enough to justify paying him much to be an OF. He is worth a late look in drafts, but he is probably never going to be C-eligible again.

Here are the 20 rostered players losing MI eligibility:

The top three names on this list retain fantasy value – Chisholm is still a boom-or-bust option in the OF, Muncy has enough power to play at 3B, and Lewis and Mead have enough upside to use them at their new spots.

Further down the list, things are ugly. Segura, Flores and Hiura have had some appeal at different times and in different ways, but all three are far harder to roster if you can’t play them at MI.

The other two interesting names here are Mondesi and Lux. Both have seen injuries undermine their fantasy value and both head into 2024 as util-only bats. They cannot be used they but both still have upside if and when they re-obtain MI-eligibility. Lux may be a utility guy, but he isn’t valuable to the Dodgers unless they can use him at 2B and/or SS. If he is bouncing around the IF and OF, it might take a few weeks, but he will be a MI fantasy player again. Mondesi is less of a clear-cut situation. He is most valuable as a SS but I could see him moving to another spot if a team thinks they can keep him healthier at 3B or in a corner OF spot. He isn’t a guy I want to count on, regardless.

Players Who Gained OF or 3B

There are 32 players who gained OF or 3B eligibility this year but didn’t already have one of those two spots, MI or C on their profile. There are some interesting players on the list below who were MI or C and are now MI/OF or C/OF, but let’s focus just on players who were 1B or Util-only and now have OF.

Of the 32, only three – Jared Walsh, Jake Scheiner, Justice Bigbie – were 1B-eligible before the season. Walsh is the most interesting, and even he isn’t that interesting anymore.

Another 24 are prospects who were drafted this year or didn’t play enough last year to earn eligibility. Those guys were mostly being drafted and valued as OF already (Wyatt Langford, Roman Anthony, etc.) so this doesn’t impact their value much.

The other five are veterans who lost eligibility and have no earned something back – Fernando Tatis Jr., Michael Conforto, DJ Stewart, Mike Tauchman, and Carter Kieboom. Tatis has adapted well to the OF (Baseball Savant has him as 95th percentile OAA), but his bat was not nearly as strong this year as we had come to expect. He wasn’t bad by any means, but his 5.69 P/G was barely in the top-25 for OF this year. It would be top-10 if he were still SS. Given how well his defensive transition went, I suspect he stays there and fantasy managers are going to have a tough call on how to value him in 2024. This is still a player who could be a top-5 overall bat, but he was more like a solid #3 OF for fantasy teams this year.

Players Who Lost OF or 3B

Next, we have 18 players who lost OF and/or 3B without and don’t have the other (or MI, or C) to fall back on – 18 players who are now 1B- or Util-only.

 

This list is full of names whose value will be challenged by this change. Harper is maybe the exception – he can hit and has plenty of value regardless of where he plays next year – but managers will have tough calls on Naylor, Diaz, Encarnacion-Strand, Ozuna, Vaughn, and Buxton depending on how the off-season goes and how they are priced. Buxton and Vaughn might be the easiest calls of that group – neither is cheap and neither performed that well so they are probably cuts. Naylor, Encarnacion-Strand, and Diaz are all easier to keep and slot in at 1B. Ozuna hit enough this year to play as a Util bat, but his value still takes a hit.

Most of the rest of that table just won’t be valuable unless we have reason to believe they are getting OF or 3B back (or moving up the middle, I suppose).

One final name that hasn’t appeared yet but should – Rhys Hoskins lost 1B eligibility and now is util-only after missing the entire 2023 season. He should be back next year but it remains to be seen if he is a 1B or a DH moving forward. I think he is a fairly useful 1B, even if I have to wait a week or two for that eligibility to lock in – but he is harder to roster if he is util-only. Watch the news on him this off-season.

Finally, here is the full list of position changes – gained during the year or lost after it.