Marlins Make Sense for Cameron Maybin

Tumultuous: “Making a loud, confused noise. Excited, confused, or disorderly.”

Yeah, that pretty much sounds like the Marlins’ off-season to this point. And in a somewhat surprising move by the Derek Jeter-led front office, the Marlins chose to add $3.25 million in payroll for a 30-year-old veteran free agent outfielder. Maybin may not help the Marlins win in 2018, but he could help your fantasy team by providing some sneaky sleeper value. Maybin has played for five teams in the last five seasons and has averaged just 92 games per season during that span. Injuries are partially to blame for his limited playing time in years past, but maybe not as much as you might think. Maybin has missed an average of 30 days over the last three years due to time on the disabled list. Seems like a good chunk of time, but there are over 400 players who have spent more days on the disabled list than Maybin since 2015.

The real thing Maybin has missed out on is opportunity, and opportunity is exactly what he has with the Miami Marlins. Maybin fits naturally at the top of Miami’s lineup and doesn’t exactly have to fight off Derek Dietrich or Scott Van Slyke in order to get the lion’s share of the at-bats in the outfield. A full season of reps could actually provide some tremendous fantasy value given his current draft price. Maybin is currently being undrafted in standard leagues, but that will soon change and here’s why: Using Maybin’s last two seasons as a sample, his full season of production (per 162 games) would have amounted to 11 home runs, 38 steals, and a .269 batting average. This would give Maybin 49 combined home runs and steals. As a point of reference, only 12 hitters had more home runs plus steals last season, and four of the 12 had a .269 batting average or worse.

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Maybin will also be a contributor in runs considering he’s likely to bat leadoff. Yes, I know the Marlins are not a good offense, but they will still score “some” runs and Maybin, for the first time in a while, will consistently be in a premier position to rack up some runs. His run production in that role throughout his career has been pretty impressive. Maybin has hit first in the lineup 184 times in his career and scored 128 runs during those games. Realistically, 80-85 runs would be my projection, given a full season at the top of the order. That, combined with his home run and steals potential, give you a ton of value considering there are 400 players going off the board ahead of him in most leagues right now. The move just makes sense … for the Marlins, for Maybin, and for me and my fantasy teams. What about yours?