Fantasy Baseball Week 9 trade values chart for H2H and Roto: How to value injured stars like Mike Trout

Dealing with injuries has been an unfortunate part of the 2021 MLB season that every Fantasy player has had to deal with, and the last week hasn't made things any easier. Mike Trout went on the IL last week with a calf strain that could cost him a couple of months, and he was joined by, among others, Jeff McNeil and Michael Conforto, Zach Plesac, Nick Senzel, Franmil Reyes, Lance McCullers, Kenta Maeda, and, just Wednesday, Corey Kluber (shoulder), Luke Voit (oblique) and Marcell Ozuna (finger). 

It's just been that kind of year, and the injuries aren't showing any signs of slowing down. Which means, you might need to start thinking about trading from a position of strength to fill some holes in your lineup. Or, you might need to start considering trading your star players on the IL at a discount, just to get someone in the lineup. 

And, if you're in a good spot in the early going, now might be the perfect time to start trying to take advantage of others' desperation by acquiring some of their injured stars. If you're sitting at 6-2 in a points league or with a solid lead in a Roto league, taking the short-term loss might be worth it if you could get someone like Trout or Corey Seager to provide a big boost once they come back. 

While I try to provide suggested trade values for every player in this column every week, when it comes to injured players, so much comes down to that team context. I've got Trout valued as a 22-point player in points leagues, right around the same value as someone like Nick Castellanos rest of season. But, if you've got Trout on your roster and you are 3-5, you'd probably much rather have Castellanos. Sure, it might make your team less likely to win a title if you get to the playoffs and Trout is healthy, but you may not get to the playoffs if you don't fill that hole. 

If you're off to a poor start, you probably want to discount the injured players on this list at least a few points. You might need to be willing to take a "loss" in the long term in a trade. Because if you don't even make the playoffs, it doesn't matter much at all that you might have "won" the trade in a vacuum, because by the time you start to recoup whatever you might have lost, it'll be too late for it to matter.

Now, that's not the same thing as saying teams low in the standings should focus on sure production over upside in all trades. The opposite is true when you're talking about non-injured players, actually; you should probably be prioritizing slumping stars in deals. For example, I've got Luis Castillo as a nine point player in the chart now, a significant decrease from where he'd been previously, because I just can't trust him to turn this around. It's not the most likely outcome, which is what we're typically dealing with.

However, if you're at the bottom of the standings with a need at pitching, Castillo's downside risk doesn't really matter anymore. He can only hurt you so much now. But his upside can absolutely propel you up the standings. Right now, the most likely outcome is that someone like Freddy Peralta or Trevor Rogers returns more value than Castillo the rest of the way, but neither can hope to match Castillo's best-case scenario as an ace capable of racking up significant innings totals. So, taking that swing on Castillo makes more sense if you're in desperate straits. 

And if you're in first place? Well, you've got the luxury to do pretty much whatever you want -- assuming you believe your team's success is sustainable. Taking on an injured star has value if you can weather the short-term hit; buying into a slumping star is also reasonable because you can presumably stomach whatever struggles they do go through. However, you've got the luxury of not needing to do anything in particular, and jettisoning also has a lot of value if you're in this position -- the last thing you need is for someone like Castillo to tank your ratios if he doesn't turn it around. 

Ultimately, these values are just suggestions, they aren't hard and fast rules, and your personal situation and how you view any given player is going to play a significant role in how you value individual players. This can be a guide, but don't feel like you have to make a deal that doesn't make sense for your team. In a season like this one, flexibility is going to be key. 

Here are my updated trade values for Week 9:

H2H Points Trade Values

Roto Trade Values 

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