Photo courtesy of Rocor.
Fantasy owners of Yoenis Cespedes have to be saying to themselves, “here we go again”. YC has hit the DL and has been seen sporting a soft cast to protect his left hand.
Cespedes strained a muscle in his left hand in last Friday’s game against Detroit. Fortunately he will not be missing as much time as Jose Reyes (too soon?) and hopefully he can stay as close to a 15-day DL stint as possible.
Unlike an extended stay on the DL like in Jose Reyes or Zack Greinke’s cases, you do not have to scramble to make sure your team is in good shape for the long season ahead. The reality is that 15-day DL stints have become commonplace in today’s MLB, so any fantasy owner should be able and ready to make adjustments in these situations. The key to a 15-day DL adjustment is to remain working towards your stat goal progress.
If Jose Reyes or Zack Greinke causes a mid-level surgery to your team, an injury like this to Yoenis Cespedes should be nothing more than a bandage or some burn cream.
Some owners break their stat goals down from full season into halves, quarters or even down to month to month. Whichever you do, you need to be ready to do your quick math on what you need from a decent replacement for a 15-day loss of a key player.
A guy like Cespedes is typically good for a 9.5 runs, 3.25 homers, 11.25 RBI, and 2.25 steals in the 4 typical counting stats per month. You just need to cut that in half and you come up with 4.75-1.62-5.6-1.12 for a 15-day absence.
If you struggle to round your numbers, you are simply looking for 5 runs, 2 homers, 6 RBI, and 1 steal while he is out. As previously stated for the longer term losses of key players, it is unlikely that there will be just one player sitting in free agency to fulfill the need you have. The one major benefit to just a 15-day DL visit is that you certainly can play the hot hand and or stream in players to help bolster your numbers.
This of course gets a little trickier in leagues with transaction limits or that use a free agent bidding system. In those league you are going to want to grab the best overall guy to hope you hit on your pick up. So for best available guys I have a list of names that I might be going after:
Available in 50% or more leagues:
Now to go over this list in brief, Jon Jay is the typical free agent outfielder pick up! Year in and year out he does just enough to be the best OF in FA, but never quite puts it together for a whole season to stick on a squad. Jay is probably your best bet. With these other guys you have some intriguing pick ups,
Schierholtz seems to be all over it right now, He is at a nice line of: 8 runs, 2 homers, 6 RBI, 2 steals, and a.343 average/ so far this year. If he keeps it up he may just need to be kept around on your squad, even after Cespedes returns. In that case you could try to couple 2 players together to get an upgrade elsewhere.
For those of you in deeper leagues here are some guys that I like that should be available in any size league
Smith is a nice addition as he is sure to get plenty of at bats while Cespedes is out, BUT guys like Duda, Denorfia or Venable should be great pick ups as well and they aren’t at any risk of losing at bats, either. Any of these 8 guys can get you 5 runs, 2 home runs, 6 RBI and 1 steal in a two-week period. You just have to hope that this is the right two-week period.