After coming up for an emergency spot start, the Kansas City Royals sent starting pitcher Trevor Oaks back to Triple-A Omaha. Oaks has posted a phenomenal season in the minors this year, but it's been built off a ton of good fortune. In contrast, Oaks has been snake-bitten in his major league spot starts. In Triple-A, Oaks' xFIP is 2.91 runs higher since he's been hugely fortunate on stranding runners and giving up home runs. In the majors, Oaks' xFIP is 2.36 runs lower than his ERA because he's been terribly unlucky when it comes to stranding runners and hitters have posted an otherworldly .417 average on balls in play against him. Oaks really doesn't stand much chance at success in the majors with his terrible strikeout rate, but he'll continue to get more chances soon since KC is such a bad team and is trying to rebuild.
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Trevor Oaks has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha on Wednesday. Oaks will draw the start against the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday in place of Ian Kennedy (oblique), who landed on the 10-day disabled list. Oaks has allowed eight runs on 19 hits and two walks in 9 2/3 innings this season. He's a horrible fantasy option against the Indians.
Kansas City Royals pitcher Trevor Oaks is expected to be called up in order to start on Wednesday against the Indians in place of Ian Kennedy (oblique). Against a scary Cleveland offense, Oaks won't be a recommended deep streamer, what with his 7.45 ERA and 2.17 WHIP in 9 2/3 innings at the big league level this year. In his lone 2018 start, Oaks went five innings and allowed five earned runs on 12 hits in a loss to the White Sox. While the rookie may see more than one start with Kennedy on the disabled list, we wouldn't recommend picking him up.
In the power-happy Pacific Coast League, Kansas City Royals top pitching prospect Trevor Oaks has put up a sparkling 2.05 ERA for the first half of the season. His stellar performance won him a spot on the Triple-A All-Star Team, and he's a strong candidate for a call-up again in 2018. Now that all the good news is out of the way, the bad news is that Oaks will likely struggle once again when he gets called up. Oaks is striking out just 5.25 batters per nine innings in Triple-A, and the secrets to his success are an unsustainable strand rate of 79% and a miniscule 1.4% HR/FB rate. These are not numbers that bode well over the long term, and that's why his xFIP is 5.01 and his major league ERA in his short stint was 7.45. Expect Oaks to come up, but don't be too gung-ho about picking him up.
After an unimpressive stint with the big-league club, the Kansas City Royals have optioned pitcher Trevor Oaks back to Triple-A Omaha in a corresponding move to bring Justin Grimm back from the DL. Oaks was on fire when he was starting for the Stormchasers, but when he was called up to Kansas City, he initially struggled. After a poor start, he was relegated to long relief, where he had one good and one bad outing. Oaks's Triple-A success was dependent on a lot of good luck since he only had a 4.50 K/9 this season, so it's unlikely he'll have quite as good a time there upon his return. However, Grimm was terrible during his rehab stint, so Oaks could be back sooner rather than later.
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher prospect Trevor Oaks will likely see another call to the big leagues sometime soon due to his current run of dominance over Triple-A opponents. Unfortunately, its unlikely that it will turn out well. Oaks threw seven innings of one-run ball on Friday, and thats the only run hes allowed in his last 19 2/3 innings. The catch is that hes gotten extremely lucky during that streak. Oaks has posted an incredible 27/20 K/BB ratio in his time at Triple-A this year, giving him a gap between his ERA and FIP of nearly two full runs. Even during his impressive three-game run, hes carrying a 9/7 K/BB ratio. That doesnt bode well, even at the Triple-A level, so while the ERA is attractive, owners shouldnt be predicting greatness for him just yet.
Kansas City Royals starting pitcher Trevor Oaks will make his major league debut Saturday. Oaks will pitch in the first game of a double header, against the Chicago White Sox. For fantasy purposes, Oaks does not have a huge amount of upside, having struggled for strikeouts in Triple-A this season, striking out just 4.47 batters per nine. It looks likely that Oaks will be optioned back to Triple-A following Saturday's game. For this start alone, Oaks is worth an add in deep AL-only leagues but that is the extent of his fantasy value.
