Fantasy baseball infielder grab bag: Roster depth around the horn in Boston, Chicago and Toronto

Jeimer Candelario, Chicago Cubs, 3B

Candelario is the only player here who was moved at the trade deadline. After just four months in Washington, the eight-year veteran was traded to Chicago to help the Cubs catch the Brewers and Reds in a race for the NL Central crown. So far so good in Candelario’s second stint with the Cubs. Candelario was a rookie with Chicago and started his second season in Wrigleyville before being traded to Detroit where he spent the next five seasons before landing on the Nationals. The newly minted Cub is 9-for-12 in three games versus the Reds scoring six runs. What a way to reintroduce yourself to the hometown crowd!

Candelario is hitting .274 on the season with 16 home runs and 54 RBI with an .854 OPS. By far, the veteran hot-corner man is having his best season offensively even though he’s coming off a July where he only hit .240. Candelario hit .295 in May so he’s shown that he can hit for average over a long stretch this season. Maybe he just needed a change of scenery. He may have also been having some “I’m getting traded” vibes in late July as Candelario has hit .370 over the past 15 days and .570 over the past week.

The Cubs schedule doesn’t get much easier as they host the Braves this weekend before heading to Queens for some hopeful relief and good times versus the Mets before heading off to Canada to face Merrifield and the Blue Jays. Candelario is now a .317 career hitter at Wrigley. Hopefully the new uniform can help turn around his batting averages at CitiField (.200) and the Rogers Centre (.250). Although not of the “lights out” variety, the new Cub is a career .268 hitter in August and a .269 hitter in September/October with the last month+ of the season being where he’s tallied the most RBI (69) over his career.

A quick side note on Candelario: the Cubs have this third baseman playing first base so he’ll have added depth in fantasy. Fun!

Good luck out there!