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Eaton's season-ending injury changes fantasy landscape for Nationals

Mitchell Layton / Getty Images Sport / Getty

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Hera are the fantasy implications following the news that Washington Nationals OF Adam Eaton will reportedly miss the rest of the season with a lower body injury:

Eaton had hit first or second in all but one of his 22 games this season, providing an incredibly valuable table-setter ahead of 2B Daniel Murphy, OF Bryce Harper and 1B/OF Ryan Zimmerman. Owing to his .393 OBP, Eaton had already scored 24 runs and was a lock to finish in the top-10 on that particular leaderboard had he stayed healthy.

As soon as the Nationals officially confirm that the outlook is a rest-of-season injury, Eaton is droppable in all but the deepest dynasty formats.

Now, the Nationals will look at other internal options in search of their leadoff man. Second-year phenom SS/OF Trea Turner seems like a lock; he was bumped from the two-spot to lead-off duties in the first game after Eaton's injury and boasts a high on-base percentage himself -- .362 for his young career. If the byproduct of moving up a spot in the order is reduced RBI opportunities, that should be offset by increased run-scoring or Turner.

Though OF Michael Taylor found himself in the two-hole on Saturday, the team's usual fourth outfielder is better suited to a spot at the bottom of the order. He's a career .224 hitter, offering some stolen base potential, but not likely enough to warrant fantasy ownership if he doesn't stick ahead of Bryce Harper.

Expect the RBI totals for everyone in the Nats' order to take a hit. There's not much you can -- or should -- do about that. It's might be the difference between Bryce Harper finishing with 115 RBIs rather than 130, but Harper (along with Zimmerman and Murphy) are still must-own players.

If there's any silver-lining, it's that Turner should now have more opportunities to get on-base with the basepaths open in front of him. After stealing 33 bases in just 73 games in his rookie campaign, Turner has swiped just three through 13 games. He could very well steal 45-plus bases from here on out.

The final, often overlooked impact of Eaton is the loss of one of baseball's premier defensive outfielders. Since the start of last season (when Eaton was still with the White Sox), only the Cubs' Jason Heyward tops Eaton's outfield Ultimate Zone Rating of 19.8. Expect the Nats' fly ball pitchers -- like Max Scherzer -- to see some slippage in the ERA department.

Waiver Wire Targets

  • OF Kevin Pillar, Toronto Blue Jays: Pillar has some similarities to Eaton in terms of defensive reputation, but that doesn't directly impact your team. What does matter: Pillar has been leading off for most of the season and will have a chance to start scoring runs at a much higher clip once Josh Donaldson returns from the DL.
  • OF Ender Inciarte, Atlanta Braves: Speaking of widely-available lead-off hitters, Inciarte continues to do so in Atlanta despite hitting just .217 on the season. If Dansby Swanson was hitting for average, he'd be a threat to steal that role, but he isn't. Thus, Inciarte will continue to benefit from hitting in front of Freddie Freeman and Matt Kemp. His protection is better than Pillar's, but his own ability to hit lags behind.
  • SS Zack Cozart, Cincinnati Reds: As a shortstop, Cozart can't directly make up for the loss of Eaton, but if he continues to hit north of .300, he'll have an opportunity to score some runs. Cozart was recently promoted to the two-spot, meaning he'll hit between speedster Billy Hamilton and former MVP Joey Votto -- not a bad place to be.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)

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