Jesus

Bastidas

Snelling’s path to a spot in Miami’s season-opening rotation spot evaporated following the addition of Chris Paddack earlier this spring but he still looked sharp in a handful of Grapefruit League outings. It’ll come down to either Braxton Garrett or Janson Junk for the final spot in the rotation. The 22-year-old southpaw is one of the top pitching prospects in baseball and should be fantasy relevant once he arrives in the big leagues given his strikeout upside and pitcher-friendly home ballpark. He’s a name to keep on early-season watch lists, especially in deeper mixed leagues.

For a shortstop with nice pop — he’s collected 68 doubles and 41 homers in Triple-A with the Astros and Braves the last two years — Bastidas has never really any prospect attention. Still, he might surface in the majors as a utilityman at some point. The 27-year-old, who can also handle second and third, is currently playing winter ball for the first time and has hit .373/.417/.588 in Venezuela.

Bastidas heads to Atlanta as emergency organizational depth at Triple-A Gwinnett. The 26-year-old infielder has yet to reach the majors and holds a .263/353/.460 triple-slash line with 12 homers and 10 steals this season at the Triple-A level.

It doesn’t come as a total shock that Houston has an affinity for undersized infielders. Bastidas spent the last eight years in the Yankees’ minor league system, finally reaching the Triple-A level by the end of this past season. The 25-year-old infielder will presumably head to Triple-A Sugar Land as extra depth for the Astros to open next season.