The St. Joseph Jokers took a major step in rebuilding their starting rotation as the 2024 Season opened on Monday, finalizing a blockbuster deal with the Honolulu Hammerheads. The trade will send starters Michael Wacha (2/$1), Sonny Gray (2/$2) and outfielder George Springer (2/$31) from the Honolulu Hammerheads for the 11th Overall Pick in the 2024 Reserve Draft.
Wacha and Gray are both coming off excellent seasons on the mound and enter 2024 on new clubs after signing with the Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals respectively. The duo combined for 844.0 points, a huge addition for a Jokers pitching staff that scored just 1,612.0 points total in 2023, the sixth worst mark in League History after posting the 5th worst mark in 2022.
Over the past two seasons, between the Red Sox and Padres, Wacha has posted a combined 3.27 ERA with a 21.3% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and 37.7% ground-ball rate. Despite being more of a fly-ball pitcher, he’s allowed a manageable 1.14 homers per nine frames. Pitching his home games at the spacious Kauffman Stadium should help him continue to avoid the long ball at an acceptable rate despite his pronounced fly-ball tendencies.
The number of innings that the Royals can expect from Wacha is perhaps the biggest question mark surrounding him. Wacha has been placed on the injured list nine times in his big league career, with five of those IL placements stemming from shoulder troubles (including a six-week absence in the 2023 season). Wacha has also had IL stints for oblique, hamstring, knee and intercostal strains. While the shoulder is an obvious concern, Wacha did manage a solid 3.88 ERA in 48 2/3 innings after returning from this past season’s shoulder issue. He closed out the year with a pair of particularly impressive outings, tossing consecutive seven-inning gems (two total runs allowed on nine hits and two walks with 13 strikeouts).
Gray, who celebrated his 34th birthday in November, signed a 3-year pact with the Cardinals on the heels of a dominant 2023 campaign with the Twins that saw him earn his third career All Star appearance and finish as the runner-up in AL Cy Young award voting behind Yankees righty Gerrit Cole. The veteran hurler posted a sterling 2.79 ERA (54% better than league average by measure of ERA+) along with an MLB-best 2.83 FIP in 184 innings of work across 32 starts. His 24.3% strikeout rate was a top-25 figure among qualified starters this season, while his 47.3% groundball rate ranked ninth among that same group. Only Framber Valdez, Zach Eflin, Justin Steele, and Kyle Bradish posted better figures in both stats this year.
Springer's 2023 season surprised fantasy managers in many ways. The biggest surprise of them all is the 33 year old player eclipsed the 140 gamed played mark for the first time since he played all 162 in 2016. He also went out and posted the first 20-20 season of his career which was his first full season with even double-digit steals since the 2015 season. The 21 homers was a disappointment given the tweaks made to Rogers Centre to improve offense, but those improvements did not materialize into extra homers for anyone on the roster let alone Springer. A 374.0 point 2023 season might be the new benchmark for Springer, but upside remains for a Jokers offense that needed in infusion of veteran talent behind Gunnar Henderson, Matt McClain and pair of talented catchers.
For the Hammerheads, GM Ross Horiuchi was starting at a crunch of starting rotation options with Tanner Bibee, Chris Sale, Brandon Pfaadt and Reese Olson now expected to be the top four options with Bailey Ober entering Spring Training with a chance to lock down the fifth spot.
The Heads entered the off-season without a pick in the first four rounds of the 2024 Reserve Draft, making the addition of the 11th overall pick a key target for Horiuchi. In the first 2024 Mock Draft, published in October, the Jokers were projected to select New York Mets infielder Luisangel Acuña, brother of Ronald. With only Brandon Pfaadt appearing in the latest RDBL Top 100 List, it's likely the Heads top pick will immediately become their top prospect with Pfaadt expected to be activated for the start of the 2024 Season.
