Seattle Mariners fantasy draft by the Sodo Mojo staff

Sodo Mojo Mariners WAR draft – Round 2

Since we did a snake draft, Lee had back-to-back picks. With the seventh overall pick, he went with Justus Sheffield to pair with Mitch Haniger. Sheff had quite the breakout season after making some big adjustments, and will his excellent performances continue? If so, we could be looking at a 1.5+ WAR in 2021. Sheffield finished 2020 with a 0.8 WAR.

I had the next pick and chose Ty France. The infielder didn’t have the best WAR in 2020, but his Spring Training form makes me think that it will be a lot more than his 0.5 WAR from last year. Although his defense might hinder his overall WAR, I think his bat will make up for it.

Jake chose James Paxton with the ninth pick, a high-risk high-reward player. When Paxton is healthy, you can expect a WAR larger than 2. But, when he’s hurt and not 100%, he posts a -0.4 WAR like in 2020.

Yusei Kikuchi was the tenth pick by Jamey. I think Kikuchi’s adjustments between 2019 and 2020 have been well documented, and Jamey is betting on Kikuchi’s ability to adapt. Yusei came into Spring Training slimmer and has pitched well this month. He finished with a 0.1 WAR in 2020, but I am sure he will do much better than that.

With the eleventh pick, Willie chose Tom Murphy. The Mariners catcher missed all of 2020 but finished the 2019 season with an impressive 2.7 WAR. Can he replicate his 2019 season? If so, this would be one heck of a pick.

And for the final pick, Chris selected Evan White. The Gold Glove first baseman is still struggling in Spring Training, but Chris clearly has hope in him. Even with his abysmal offensive year last season, he was able to finish with a 0.1 WAR mostly because of his glove.

Now, we enter the final round of our fantasy draft.