Fantasy Baseball Impact: Akinori Iwamura Traded to the Pirates

According to MLB.com (click here for the article), the Pittsburgh Pirates have acquired 2B Akinori Iwamura from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for RP Jesse Chavez.

Let’s take a look at the fantasy impact of the deal.

The Pirates

Iwamura fills a glaring hole for the team, which was created when they traded Freddy Sanchez to the San Francisco Giants during their 2009 purge. Iwamura, who had lost his starting job to Ben Zobrist when he suffered an ACL tear, will provide a steady bat at the top of the lineup.

He’s a career .281 hitter and has shown a decreasing strikeout rate as he’s grown accustomed to life in the Major Leagues:

2007: 23.2 percent (491 AB)

2008: 20.9 percent (627 AB)

2009: 19.0 percent (231 AB)

It is easy to point to an inflated BABIP (.349) as a reason to expect a regression in the average department. Having done it for nearly 1,350 at-bats, though, he clearly has proven that he is capable of maintaining it.

He does not bring significant power or RBI potential, with 14 home runs and 104 RBI in his career, but he does have speed and extra base potential. He has hit 67 doubles and 21 triples in his young career, making him the perfect type of player to help set the table.

He replaces Delwyn Young at second base, a player who is much better suited to be used in a reserve role as opposed to starting. He should be inserted in the No. 2 hole behind Andrew McCutchen, where they will set the table for Ryan Doumit, Garrett Jones, Lastings Milledge, and company.

While the Pirates clearly are in need of some extra pop in the middle of the lineup, this is certainly a step in the right direction. The extra men on base should certainly benefit Doumit, who will see additional RBI opportunities at the least.

As for Iwamura, he’s not going to get pushed up the second base rankings, as he’s no guarantee to score a lot of runs. Without power or an excessive number of stolen bases (he has 29 for his career), he needs to be able to score at least 100 runs to have value for fantasy owners, and that is just not the case, especially playing for the Pirates.

It’s an intelligent move for Pittsburgh, but it doesn’t really affect Iwamura’s value at all.

The Rays

This was a move they had to make, as they were either going to have to pick up Iwamura’s $4.85 million salary for ‘10 or pay a buyout of $550,000 for a player they had no need for. This way they save the money while also picking up a potentially useful player in the bullpen.

Chavez posted a 4.01 ERA and 1.35 WHIP in 67.1 innings out of the Pirates bullpen. While he only struck out 6.28 per nine innings last season, that was over three strikeouts lower than his 2008 mark (9.60 K/9 over 15 innings).

He throws hard, averaging 94.4 mph on his fastball over the first two years of his big league career. He’s likely to be nothing more than a middle reliever, however, so don’t expect much in the way of fantasy value. Of course, the Rays are questionable in the closer’s role, but he hasn’t proven that he has the potential to grab the horns. Don’t look for that.

What are your thoughts on the deal? How is Iwamura’s fantasy value affected? Is there any chance Chavez becomes usable?

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