The second half of the MLB season is upon us and fantasy baseball owners are preparing themselves for the mad rush of rookie call-ups we’re about to see as teams start shuffling around personnel with the trade deadline rapidly approaching. But while we all have dreams of being the one to “discover” the next big thing, perhaps we’re overlooking the fact that the best second-half waiver option may not be a rookie. No, we’re not talking about Bartolo Colon with the Twins. We’re talking about the return of Cleveland Indians right-hander, Danny Salazar.

That shiver down your spine upon first hearing his name is understandable. He’s been a highly-touted pitcher with fantastic strikeout potential and has done nothing but disappoint his fantasy owners this season. During his rookie campaign, he posted more than a strikeout per inning, exhibited solid command with a low walk rate and managed to maintain a very respectable 3.45 ERA over 110 innings. In his second year, the strikeout rate increased, but at the expense of his walk rate and ERA. Still, the peripherals looked solid enough to believe that, here in his third full season, he could put it all together with a dominant K-rate, strong command and killer ratios. Unfortunately, we saw none of that.

Salazar managed to produce an improved strikeout percentage this season, but the command was awful and he was giving up the long ball at far too rapid a rate. The blow-ups were becoming more frequent and in late May, Salazar was demoted to the bullpen. Even coming out of the pen, the 27-year old righty looked lost on the mound as he was just as ineffective as a reliever. Then the shoulder issue cropped up in early June and the Indians threw him onto the 10-day DL. Salazar was no stranger to injuries, so this wasn’t entirely unexpected, however, that 5.40 ERA and 1.58 WHIP were all fantasy owners had left from what was a relatively early-round investment.

Once healthy, Salazar embarked on his rehab outing with hope of returning to the Cleveland rotation as quickly as possible. His first two starts were rough as he coughed up six runs (four home runs) and posted a weak 7:4 K:BB over just four innings, but not much was made of the stat line as the team just wanted to make sure his mechanics were strong and he was throwing pain-free. His third outing was much better as he tossed five scoreless frames and allowed just two hits with a 7:2 K:BB, but skeptics pointed out that, while the effort was strong, it came against Low-A competition. But when he threw six scoreless innings with nine strikeouts against Triple-A Toledo earlier this week, the buzz of his imminent return grew louder.

According to Indians manager Terry Francona, the team has yet to announce their plans for Salazar, but it would seem his current trajectory has him rejoining the team sooner than later. It would certainly make sense for the team to insert him back into the rotation, but that would require a demotion to the bullpen for either Mike Clevinger, Trevor Bauer or Josh Tomlin. Clevinger’s performance has been strong thus far so it would be tough to remove him in the middle of a playoff chase, but both Bauer and Tomlin own ERAs north of 5.00 and each one has taken his fair share of lumps throughout the first half. Possibly working against Tomlin is that he’s pitched out of the pen before, but Bauer’s most recent blow-up (four runs over just two-thirds of an inning) is sitting fresh in his coach’s mind. Tomlin has thrown back-to-back quality starts, but no one is impressed with him beating San Diego and San Francisco, two of the most anemic offenses in the game right now. And again, we still can’t rule out the possibility of the Indians leaving things as is and use Salazar out of the bullpen either.

Interestingly enough, neither Francona nor the team has mentioned anything about the possibility of a six-man rotation. Salazar, Bauer and even Carlos Carrasco have all dealt with their fair share of injuries and should Francona, with an eye on the post-season, be interested in limiting their innings, this is certainly a possibility. In the world of real baseball, it’s definitely a team-friendly approach which could be successful, but in fantasy it can be a huge bummer. A six-man rotation means, in addition to the four hurlers in question, Carrasco and Corey Kluber would lose out on a few two-start weeks over the duration of the season. Couple that with pitchers being creatures of habit and between-starts routines being messed with, we could see some negative results from them.

Fantasy owners will simply have to wait for the team to make an announcement, but if there’s a chance you can grab Salazar off your waiver wire and stash him away until we hear word, it could prove to be a very savvy move. Young hurlers coming up from the minors have all sorts of question marks surrounding them. Salazar does as well, but his experience gives him an edge and, if all the pre-season hype actually comes to fruition, it’s very likely that he becomes a difference-maker in your leagues. If it doesn’t, he’s an easy discard and you’re no worse for the wear.