After reading James Grande’s Waiver Wire piece yesterday, it only reinforced my opinion that, as it stands right now, your waiver wire resembles a giant, steaming pile of hot garbage. Yeah, hot garbage. Those of you in 10-team leagues definitely have options, as the revolving door to add the hot hand in lieu of fringe, under-performing starters continues to turn, but those of you in deeper leagues don’t really have a whole lot from which to choose. Sure, there are the outliers who can help – Matt Adams became a viable option with the trade to Atlanta and Devon Travis finally woke up from his early-season coma – but for the most part, a waiver move right now is probably more lateral than anything else. But that doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way and a waiver move made for the sake of just making a move could end up costing you in the end.

Most leagues have a limited number of DL spots and if your team, like everyone else’s team, has been hit by injuries, you probably have a player or two who is on the disabled list taking up regular bench spots as well. At one point, in the SiriusXM Host League, I had both DL spots occupied as well as all five of my bench spots filled with injured players. When additional injuries cropped up, I was forced to make some tough decisions. Was there someone on my bench who should be dropped so I could populate my active roster with healthy players? Obviously I didn’t want to drop anyone I had, but it was either that or spend a week or two getting zero production from a spot or two on my team.

Now if I was going through that in a 12-team league and there were a few others dealing with the same, you probably have owners in your league dealing with that issue as well. Maybe it’s you. If so, then that’s a bummer. Not the end of the world, but certainly a bummer. Nevertheless, with so many injured players heading back to active duty in the coming week (or two), the options on your waiver wire are about to get a little more plentiful.

As of today, May 25, the following players are all set to come off the disabled list by the end of this month. Some might be pushed back a few days, so we’ll say by Monday, June 5 for the sake of waiver claims being done for that week.

C: Tom Murphy

1B: Steve Pearce

2B: Howie Kendrick

SS: Troy Tulowitzki, Asdrubal Cabrera, Adeiny Hechavarria, Brad Miller

3B: Adrian Beltre, Josh Donaldson, Justin Turner, Yunel Escobar, Matt Duffy, Pablo Sandoval, Adonis Garcia, Martin Prado

OF: Yoenis Cespedes, David Dahl, Mitch Haniger, Hunter Pence, Austin Jackson

SP: Corey Kluber, Dallas Keuchel, David Price, Kenta Maeda, Felix Hernandez, James Paxton, Taijuan Walker, Steven Matz, Junior Guerra, Brett Anderson, Trevor Cahill, Wei-Yin Chen, J.A. Happ, Nate Karns, Tom Koehler, Francisco Liriano, Tyson Ross, Aaron Sanchez

RP: Cam Bedrosian, Sean Doolittle

That’s some list, right? And that doesn’t include those coming off by mid-June such as A.J. Pollock, Greg Bird, Carlos Gomez, Brandon Guyer, Jon Gray and Aroldis Chapman.

Even if you’re looking at that list and saying to yourself, “Well that’s a guy I would never roster,” the important aspect is the sheer number of players expected to be activated in the next week to 10 days. While many of these players are likely on someone’s DL already, those owners are going to have to start dropping players to activate them. That means, if you’re looking for an outfielder, you aren’t just limited to Trey Mancini and Danny Valencia. Suddenly you’re also looking at Stephen Piscotty, Kevin Kiermaier and David Peralta as potential options.

This is where patience is ultimately needed. If your league allows you to add players who are on the DL, a few of these may make for a decent stash since it’s really just a short-term move. But unless one of these players is going to be a difference-maker for you, it might be wise to simply wait and see which players get dropped by your competition this weekend. We’ve all seen some hard-to-believe moves made where a struggling star is dropped by an owner who doesn’t pay much attention, so before you say, “I’m gonna stash Tyson Ross,” maybe see if there are better options available.

And speaking of Ross…and some other potential stashes, allow me to say a few things about specific players…

Tyson Ross, SP SD – No, I don’t think he’s a good stash. Not at all. Guys who are coming off Tommy John surgery often have a lot of difficulty getting back on track upon their initial return. They regain their velocity first, but command is always an issue. Always. And command was never a real strong suit for Ross to begin with, as evidenced by his 3.64 BB/9 career mark. He had strikeout upside prior to the procedure, but if you think you’re getting back a guy who will post a 3.00 ERA with a strikeout per inning, you’re fooling yourself. The first couple of months owning him is going to be crazy frustrating for those who only read that a pitcher’s arm is stronger after the surgery.

David Dahl, OF COL – There is absolutely zero guarantee that Dahl will get regular at-bats upon his return. Mark Reynolds is still producing, Charlie Blackmon is staying in center and there’s no reason to bench either Carlos Gonzalez or Ian Desmond at this time. The Rockies are going to have to do some serious lineup adjusting as they try to get everyone playing time, so expect to see Dahl rotated in as opposed to just joining the regular lineup.

Mitch Haniger, OF SEA – Haniger will see regular playing time upon his return. In an interview on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio last week, Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto said that Haniger will go back to playing right field with Jarrod Dyson in center and a platoon of Ben Gamel and Guillermo Heredia in left field. He did say that Herdeia could shift over to center at times, but the important take-aways here are that Haniger will be a regular and Gamel will not be sent down. At least not initially.

Steven Matz, SP NYM – Another guy I am not interested in stashing. How poorly has the Mets medical staff handled its pitchers this year? Very poorly. There was talk about bringing Matz up for this weekend after he threw three innings of one-run ball in his first rehab outing, but then he got the crap beaten out of him by Triple-A Round Rock and suddenly the Mets want another rehab start. Puh-leeeze! The hype is great, the minor league track record before the injury was solid, but who are we kidding here? He may not have reported any problems after his shellacking, but how long before more issues crop up with him? There are far too many Matz-truthers out there swearing this guy is a future stud, but until he throws a full season in the majors with consistency and without injury, I’m not even remotely interested.

Aaron Sanchez, SP TOR – If this guy becomes the next Rich Hill, I’m gonna fly to Toronto myself and piss all over his hands. Not just once, but every day. Every day I’m going to take my morning leak on this dude’s little baby hands and get him right. There’s too much talent here for him to be wasting away on the disabled list.