If there was ever a season where everyone, fantasy analysts and readers alike, need a pep talk for the seasonal game, it sure as hell seems to be this one. What a friggin’ nightmare, amirite? Grabbed an ace early? Whoops! Madsion Bumgarner, Corey Kluber, Jake Arrieta and Noah Syndergaard are stickin’ it to you there. Be smart with your FAAB budget and make sure to hold some back because it’s a long season? Not even remotely possible given the rash of injuries we’ve all endured. This season has already been an excruciating grind and yesterday’s announcement that Freddie Freeman is now out for 8-to-10 weeks with a fractured wrist is just the icing on the cake. And you know exactly what that cake is made out of, don’t you?

But before we let our frustration get to us and resign ourselves to eating, not just a slice, but that whole damned cake, let’s see if we can’t pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and figure out how to replace Freddie Freeman for the next two-to-three months. It’s not going to be easy, given his level of production before the injury, but there should be enough to work with at both first base and the corner infield spot to maybe get some patchwork going here.

Check out the Braves In-House Options

This is more of a quick glance than anything else and only if your waiver wire is bereft of all legitimate talent. The team is apparently going to give Jace Peterson a shot at the job here which, frankly, boggles my mind. The guy has a current slash line of .210/.312/.284 with a .074 ISO. What good is that to anyone? I mean, if you don’t have any power – and his career .095 ISO mark is a clear indicator of that – at least have strong on-base skills, not a career .319 OBP. To be blunt, this guy is total crap.

Now the club did call up 22-year old Rio Ruiz, another lefty bat who also struggles at the plate, but at least has more power potential than Peterson. The problem for this guy, like most youngsters, is the strikeouts. He seemed to have things under control in the lower level of the minors, but his K-rate spiked to 21.8-percent at Triple-A Gwinnett in 2016 and prior to his call-up here, it was sitting at 26.5-percent. It looks like the Braves will use him as more of a fill-in than anything else but with Adonis Garcia also on the DL, he could see some playing time between first and third, depending on how much the team wants to use Danny Santana.

If you want to do a real speculative add, the Braves did sign James Loney to a minor league deal yesterday with the hope that a week or so in the minors could be all he needs to get ready for some big-league work. Unfortunately for us, we already know Loney has a low ceiling and his inability to get on-base last year doesn’t exactly inspire a whole lot of faith. Still, with the way Sun Trust Park plays to left-handed hitting, he could be a short-term option for the completely desperate.

Check Out the Rest of the Waiver Wire

We probably should have just started here given what the Braves look like, depth-wise. A lot depends on the size of your league and your roster construction. If you’re in a 10-team league with or without a corner infield option, your waiver wire should still be loaded up with a number of players. You likely have your choice of players like Brandon Belt, Tommy Joseph, Josh Bell or Justin Bour. If there is anyone on your waiver wire who is considered better than any of these guys, you better grab them now.

For leagues with 12 teams or more, your options are going to be a whole lot more limited. Maybe a guy like Joseph is available. Maybe. But you’re probably looking at more of the corner infield range with options like David Freese, Jesus Aguilar, Adam Lind or, if you’re lucky, someone like Lucas Duda or Yulieski Gurriel is available. Just as I said above, if there is someone out there who is considered better than any of these guys, you better pounce fast. Maybe someone in your league dropped Adrian Gonzalez. I’ve seen dumber things done.

Work the Trade Market

Without trying to sound like Coach Boone from Remember the Titans during his “You can’t replace a Gary Bertier” speech, let’s face it, you can’t replace a Freddie Freeman with what’s out there right now. Again, that’s outside of a 10-team league with small rosters. He was well on his way to crushing 30-plus home runs for a second-straight season and given the improved plate discipline, his .341/.461/.748 slash line wasn’t going to see a whole lot of pull-back. His contact rates and BABIP were fairly close to being in-line with what he did last year and the year before.

To attain even close to what we’ve grown to expect from him, you’re going to have to open the vault and trade a pretty significant player to regain the expected loss in production. If you went pitching-heavy in your draft and didn’t have the injury bug take a big bite out of your ass, you might be able to swing a pitching-for-power type of deal, but you don’t want to kill yourself there either. Given the rash of pitching injuries, you’re going to need an ace to anchor your rotation. Trading a guy like Clayton Kershaw or Max Scherzer will require you also owning someone like Dallas Keuchel, Yu Darvish, Jacob deGrom or Chris Archer. Maybe if you own Stephen Strasburg, Jon Lester or Zack Greinke? There’s a little wiggle room there, but obviously it depends on your return.

I would probably try and set my sights a little lower. Let’s be honest. The moment Freeman went down, your league mates smelled blood in the water and the lowball offers probably came flying in. The biggest mistake you can make is to make an immediate deal out of panic. That only leads to deals like Darvish for Albert Pujols and Andrew Triggs and while Pujols ain’t dead, you’re definitely being taken for a ride. Make sure you take your time and really investigate the players potentially coming your way.

One guy you may want to explore here is Mark Reynolds. Despite the fact that he is absolutely crushing it right now, fantasy owners are scared to be left holding him when David Dahl comes back. The group-think seems to be leaning towards Reynolds heading to the bench while Ian Desmond heads to first base and Dahl returns to the outfield. Personally, I’m not buying it. Dahl is supposed to take batting practice in the coming days and depending on how he is feeling, could start ramping up baseball activities soon. Some people have him heading back to the majors by the end of May, but considering the nature of the injury and the fact that his return date has already been pushed back once, I’m thinking he’s not really going to be ready until the first week of June. And even when he does come back, there’s no guarantee of playing time.

In order for the Rockies to consider Dahl for regular playing time, he has to be tearing the cover off the ball during his rehab work. They already have one major disappointment in the outfield in Carlos Gonzalez, so putting a struggling bat into the other corner outfield spot doesn’t seem like good business. To take Reynolds’ bat out of the lineup means they have to have a .300-hitting power bat ready to go. Does it look like they do? No. They may eventually get there, but the hope here is that Reynolds holds onto his regular at-bats for most of the time, if not all, that Freeman is out. You can probably acquire him for a relatively low cost, especially if you talk up the Dahl angle to a nervous owner.

The knee-jerk reaction for replacing a stud like Freeman is to shoot for the moon in trade negotiations. People start throwing out things like Kershaw for Paul Goldschmidt or trade offers to land Joey Votto, Anthony Rizzo or even Jose Abreu. While yes, you may be replacing Freeman’s level of production, to do so, you’re blowing up another part of your team and will end up struggling to replace that soon enough. Be smart about it. Though every fantasy expert is out there clamoring for the regression of Eric Thames or the injury to Ryan Zimmerman, explore those options. Those are risks you can take without mortgaging your team’s chances of winning. Set your sights on guys like Justin Smoak or Josh Bell. Check out Brandon Belt or an under-performing Carlos Santana. Buy Eric Hosmer for pennies on the dollar. It’s a tough hill to climb, but certainly not one that is insurmountable.