Tristan H. Cockcroft is senior writer for fantasy baseball and football at ESPN. Tristan is a member of the FSWA Hall of Fame. He is also two-time LABR and four-time Tout Wars champion.
Change is the name of the game for Week 18 of the fantasy baseball season.
MLB's annual trade deadline kicks the week off, as all deals must be reported to the league office no later than 6 p.m. ET on Monday. Games that night begin at 6:40 p.m. ET, with eight total on the schedule, so fantasy baseball managers might be scrambling to make last-minute lineup adjustments affected by any trades. Check back here for updates throughout the weekend and on Monday, as pitching rotations in particular are likely to change as a result of any deals.
For example, the Los Angeles Angels' Reid Detmers and Toronto Blue Jays' Shane Bieber are pitchers rumored to be on the trade block who are aligned for two-start weeks for their current teams. Additionally, the deadline's top prize, Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, is aligned for Wednesday, as is the Washington Nationals' Foster Griffin, while the New York Mets' Clay Holmes and Blue Jays' Kevin Gausman are scheduled to pitch during the weekend preceding Week 18. Any of these pitchers might need additional travel time to join new teams and/or rescheduling to fit their new rotations, so treat their upcoming matchups as just what they are -- projections.
The Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs will make up their June 21 postponement at Wrigley Field on Thursday, giving both teams seven-game weeks.
Among series highlights for the week are an interleague matchup between the National League East-leading Atlanta Braves and New York Yankees, as the 1996 and 1999 World Series competitors square off for three weekend games at Yankee Stadium. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who have baseball's best record, play three-game road series against a pair of NL wild-card contenders, first visiting the Cubs and then the Arizona Diamondbacks.
