Fantasy Baseball Impact of the Randy Arozarena and A.J. Puk Trades

The MLB trade deadline is June 30 at 6 p.m. ET, but a couple trades went through late Thursday/early Friday.

Let’s discuss each trade and what it means from a fantasy baseball perspective.

Explore the best in-season tool to manage lineup/start decisions including waiver pickups, projections, trade suggestions, trade value charts, rest of season rankings, power rankings, and tons more with Fantasy Assistant. Now, with revolutionary AI Expert help. Use our fantasy baseball trade analyzer and trade value charts to break down trade scenarios.

Seattle Lands Randy Arozarena

The big trade was the Seattle Mariners getting Arozarena from the Tampa Bay Rays. The Mariners sent Brody Hopkins, Aidan Smith and a player to be named later in return.

Arozarena has seen his average and on-base percentage tumble this season, but he still has pretty solid numbers overall this season.

Arozarena played in 100 games with the Rays, posting a .211 average and .318 OBP. He has a career .256 average and .345 OBP.

The outfielder has 15 home runs and 19 doubles among his 74 total hits, along with 37 RBIs, 45 runs scored, 16 stolen bases, 45 walks and 101 strikeouts.

In what’s been a very unimpressive Mariners’ lineup for most of the season, Arozarena should give the lineup a shot of life. He should bat in the top half of the lineup, which of course is a positive from a fantasy perspective. When Julio Rodriguez returns from his injury, Seattle will have a formidable top half of the lineup.

Tampa Bay also had a pretty solid top portion of the order, and Arozarena had not been overly impressive, so temper your expectations a bit. Still, this feels like a positive move for Arozarena’s fantasy outlook, even if it is only a slight one.

Smith and Hopkins are both prospects who are a couple years likely from playing in the big leagues.

Smith was the Mariners’ No. 12 prospect and was hitting .284 in A-ball this season. He’s got at least average grades in all five tools and has an ETA of 2027. Smith could reach the big leagues sooner if he continues to excel how he had been with the Mariners’ A affiliate.

Hopkins is a 22-year-old right-handed pitcher who has an ETA of 2026. He was Seattle’s No. 22 prospect.

He’s got 60 grades for his fastball and slider, a 50 for his cutter and 45 for his changeup. Hopkins’ control is graded at a 45.

In A ball, Hopkins was 4-3 with a 2.90 earned run average across 18 starts this season. He has 95 strikeouts over 83 2/3 innings. Hopkins could move quickly through the minors depending on how the Rays approach things the next season or two. The organization always has done a nice job in developing pitchers too, so that works in Hopkins’ favor.

Arizona Trades for A.J. Puk

The other trade was the Arizona Diamondbacks acquiring Puk from the Miami Marlins for Deyvison De Los Santos and Andrew Pintar.

Puk is the most well-known player in the deal, but this deal actually might be bigger to fantasy owners because of De Los Santos. Let me explain.

We’ll start with Puk, who gives the D-Backs a left-handed arm for the stretch run.

He was treated as a starter in spring training, but struggled mightily during the regular season and has since moved to the bullpen. Across 32 appearances (four starts), Puk is 4-8 with a 4.30 ERA. He has 45 punchouts in 44 innings.

In Puk’s four starts, he was 0-4 with a 9.22 ERA across 13 2/3 innings. He allowed 17 runs (14 earned) on 19 hits and 17 walks, while striking out 12.

In his 28 appearances out of the pen, Puk has a 2.08 ERA across 30 1/3 innings. He’s 4-4, with a save, blown save and seven holds. Puk has allowed 10 runs (seven earned) on 17 hits and six walks, while striking out 33.

It’s clear Puk is more comfortable coming out of the bullpen, and that’s what he’ll likely do in Arizona. Paul Sewald has struggled a bit to close games of late, so adding Puk also gives Arizona another late-game option too. 

If Puk isn’t actually closing games though, his fantasy value isn’t that great outside really deep leagues. He’s worth tracking to see if he ever gets a chance to close games though.

De Los Santos is now the Marlins’ No. 4 prospect. The corner infielder is just 21 years old and should be in the big leagues before the end of the season.

De Los Santos has a 60 grade for power, average mark for his arm but 40 marks for his hit, run and field tools. He’s a career .293 hitter in the minor leagues, with a .343 OBP. De Los Santos has 78 homers, 450 total hits, 108 walks and 423 strikeouts across 388 career minor league games.

The Marlins are clearly rebuilding, and De Los Santos should get a chance to lock in a roster spot for the future with his play this season. He doesn’t have anything else to prove in the minor leagues, and I’d be surprised if he isn’t called up after the trade deadline. De Los Santos should be up by September for sure, and with his power, he could become a hot waiver wire option late in the season, so he’s a player to monitor. His long-term fantasy value definitely got a boost by moving to Miami, as playing time is more easily accessible now.

Pintar is a 23-year-old outfielder with an ETA of 2026. He’s got a 60 grade for his running, average marks for hit and field and below-average marks in power and arm. He hit .243 a season ago, but is at .285 this season and is up to Double-A already. 

The Marlins have some better outfield prospects, but moving to the Marlins also works in Pintar’s favor.