Fantasy Fallout: Hill's DFS value climbs but role with Red Sox leaves season outlook unclear

Here are the fantasy repercussions following the news that 2B/3B Aaron Hill has been traded from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Boston Red Sox for two minor league prospects:

Season-Long Leagues

The move to Boston immediately improves Hill's per-game fantasy outlook, as he'll jump from a team that scored four runs per game (ranked 26th) to one that has scored 5.67 runs per game, tops in the majors.

Of course, Hill will need to get into the lineup on a consistent basis to validate his ownership. He's played 469 2/3 innings at third base this season and 150 at second, so his versatility as a fielder will allow for more opportunities to see starts, but he's blocked at the keystone by Red Sox lifer Dustin Pedroia.

That leaves the hot corner, where second-year pro Travis Shaw has had an up-and-down season, hitting .274 with an .801 OPS overall but just .240 with a .680 OPS since June 1. Acquiring Hill is an insurance policy against Shaw being unable to break out of his mid-summer funk, or the potential of an injury to Pedroia.

Both Shaw and Hill have hit around .290 against RHPs, but Hill has hit .263 against lefties; that points to Hill seeing the larger chunk of a potential 3B-platoon. However, if Hill ultimately doesn't become the everyday third baseman, his season-long stock takes a sizable hit. The Brewers' lineup wasn't intimidating, but at least Hill had an opportunity to play every day.

In either case, Shaw can be dropped. Considering his ownership had fallen below 50 percent in some leagues, it seems that season-long players didn't really need the Hill trade to get the message.

The two prospects heading to Milwaukee's organization -- 27-year-old Triple-A SP Aaron Wilkerson and 20-year-old Double-A 2B Wendell Rijo -- are unlikely to be fantasy-relevant players in the near future.

Wilkerson has a 2.14 ERA and a 9.9 K/9 across two levels this season, but his pedigree is such that he wasn't even listed among the Red Sox top-30 prospects by MLB.com. It wouldn't be shocking to see him start a handful of games for the major-league team, though run support will be suspect if the Brewers continue to head down the route of a fire sale rebuild.

Daily Fantasy

While Hill's season-long outlook won't be clear until the Red Sox decide how often he'll make it into the lineup, at least his DFS stock is on the rise. He'll be especially valuable against right-handed pitchers given how well he's hit off them so far this season.

At 34 years old, Hill isn't the power hitter he was in his peak, but he'll still offer GPP-potential, given his the favorable park factors at Fenway, the overall talent level of the Red Sox lineup and his extensive history in Boston.

Fenway Park is hardly foreign for the veteran infielder who played parts of seven seasons in Toronto earlier in his career. He racked up 213 plate appearances in 52 games in Boston against his former division rivals. In those games, Hill hit .308 with an .839 OPS, including seven home runs and 15 doubles.

His DFS salary is already reasonably high, so there aren't major savings to be found in the immediate aftermath of the trade, but he can still be an excellent matchup-based DFS play in both cash and tournament formats.