Cardinals Place Paul DeJong On 10-Day DL: Fantasy impact
By Bill Pivetz
The Cardinals will be without their star shortstop Paul DeJong for a long amount of time. How do fantasy owners react?
The St. Louis Cardinals got hit with another crippling injury on Friday. Shortstop Paul DeJong hit the disabled list with a broken left hand after being hit by a pitch. It was later announced that he will require surgery to his left pinky finger, according to MLB.com writer Joe Trezza. St. Louis Post writer Derrick Goold tweets that DeJong will miss significant time. How should he fantasy owners react to this news?
DeJong was following up his great rookie season with another good string of games. In 41 games this season, he was hitting .260/.351/.473 with eight home runs, 19 RBIs and 22 runs scored. He was the 18th-ranked shortstop on the Player Rater.
DeJong entered the season as the 14th shortstop drafted in ESPN leagues and 174th overall. With the combination of a somewhat small sample size of 108 games and a shallow shortstop pool, DeJong was a target for many as their starting shortstop in most leagues.
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There is no exact timetable for his return but the reports say that opting for surgery should speed up his recovery time from the usual eight to 12 weeks. In his absence, Jedd Gyorko will play shortstop which puts the struggling Matt Carpenter back into the Cardinals lineup.
Gyorko is owned in just 22 percent of CBS Sports leagues. So if you are a fan of the Cardinals lineup, he should still be available in your league. He will have multi-position eligibility, giving you flexibility within your lineup.
If you want options outside of the Cardinals organization, there are some options available that could fill the gap.
Brandon Crawford is hitting well but doesn’t provide a lot of power. If you need help in batting average and hits, he is someone to target. He’s owned in 35 percent of CBS Sports leagues.
Going deeper, the Marlins’ shortstop Miguel Rojas is widely available. While he has cooled down some over the last week, six hits in his last seven games, he does have five home runs this year. He’s owned in just 13 percent of leagues.
It’s tough to gauge on what to do with DeJong, especially without a definite return date. He is one of the few shortstops producing this season. In a 10-team league, he’s likely droppable for a different starter. In deeper leagues, the replacement pool may be too shallow. As a DeJong owner myself, I’m holding onto him until I see any new or negative information.