Fantasy baseball owners are taking it on the chin this season. From the steady stream of injuries to managers’ quick decisions to place their walking wounded on the 10-day disabled list, maintaining a full and healthy roster has been a near impossibility.
As quickly as you can grab a healthy body off waivers, another player goes down. Suddenly that revolving door that is your roster looks more like the one seen during the climactic ending of “The Godfather,” when the crime boss locked inside a revolving door is gunned down and left for dead. But before you let frustration take over and concede your league title to the Corleone family, take a step back, breathe deeply and understand that help is on the way.
According to the MLB.com injury reports and estimated return dates, those empty shelves on your waiver wire are about to be restocked from top to bottom. Over the next two weeks, barring any setbacks, we will see roughly 40 major leaguers activated from the disabled list and ready to return to full-time duty.
If you’ve been stashing Josh Donaldson and Corey Kluber, you are about to see a major influx of talent to your starting roster. Players and managers alike are champing at the bit to get their teams playing at full strength, and as they return to do the jobs for which you drafted them, your ascension in the standings should commence.
But for those who have been dealing with more recent injuries and have found it difficult to find quality replacements, your cavalry is en route as well. With every player activated from the DL, fantasy owners will be forced to make tough cuts from their own rosters.
Early injuries allowed them to grab players who were on the bubble of being drafted, and though they likely have served them better than some random, 10-day Band-Aid, a roster crunch is coming, and they’ll be forced to let them go.
Your waiver wire is set to be replenished. Need an outfielder? The return of Yoenis Cespedes and David Dahl should help open things up. Looking for a corner infielder? The return of Donaldson, Adrian Beltre and Justin Turner should push better options to waivers. Starting pitching? For sure.
Forget the Band-Aids. A legitimate cure for what ails your team is almost here.
Howard Bender is the VP of operations and head of content at FantasyAlarm.com. Follow him on Twitter @rotobuzzguy and catch him on the “Fantasy Alarm Radio Show” on the SiriusXM fantasy sports channel weekdays from 4-6 p.m.