Giancarlo Stanton The All Star break is now in the rearview mirror as we prepare for the second half of the fantasy baseball season. You should consider it a rousing success if you are in the playoff hunt at this point because injuries decimated fantasy rosters every week since March. In honor of this week’s All Star Game, this edition of the fantasy baseball injury report is dedicated to picking an all star lineup of players who have been or currently are injured. The only criteria I am using are prospective fantasy value and impact to your roster based on the injuries sustained. Please note that no other baseball players were harmed during the creation of this article. So without further adieu, here is the first half all star edition of the walking wounded.
First Base – Miguel Cabrera (DET); runner up Freddie Freeman (ATL)
There was arguably no bigger injury this year than Miguel Cabrera’s strained calf which will sideline him until the end of August. His statistics and production are irreplaceable, so fantasy owners will need to be aggressive with making trades or being creative in order to tread water until he comes back near the end of the season.
Second Base – Anthony Rendon (WAS); runner up Dustin Pedroia (BOS)
After many fantasy drafts took place, we learned that Rendon would begin the season on the disabled list with a knee injury. That turned into an oblique injury. Then he made his season debut and promptly landed back on the disabled list. It has been a disastrous year for the up and coming fantasy star. If you drafted and stashed him this long, just hope he can stay healthy the rest of the way once he does return.
Third Base – Adrian Beltre (TEX); runner up David Wright (NYM)
Third base has become a vacuous hole in fantasy baseball. Outside of a select few like Josh Donaldson and Nolan Arenado, there are not many great options at the hot corner. Adrian Beltre has been a fixture there since 1999 and has stayed relatively healthy his whole career. He was shut down for well over a month which gave fantasy owners a sneak peek at prospect Joey Gallo. Beltre’s numbers aren’t where we are used to seeing them, but he is still a dependable option in the middle of a good lineup.
Shortstop – Jose Reyes (TOR); runner up Ben Zobrist (OAK)
It should be no surprise that Jose Reyes missed a few weeks this season as he typically does sustain an injury every year. This time he injured his ribs swinging the bat. Fortunately it was not a leg injury because his bread and butter is still his speed and stolen bases. Reyes’ stock has fallen over the past couple years, but he is hitting atop a dynamic Toronto lineup which should provide Reyes lots of run scoring and stolen base opportunities in the second half.
Catcher – Devin Mesoraco (CIN); runner up Travis d’Arnaud (NYM)
Fantasy owners should be furious with the way the Reds handled Mesoraco’s injury all season. He was dealing with a hip injury which lingered for weeks before the Reds finally put him on the disabled list. Then they thought they could spare him pain by playing him in the outfield. That did not work out so well in the minor leagues. Mesoraco was finally shut down because surgery was the only option to heal his injury. Mesoraco was one of the top fantasy options coming into this year after a breakout 2014 season. As it turns out, that early round draft pick you spent on him was a complete waste.
Outfield – Giancarlo Stanton (MIA), Jacoby Ellsbury (NYY); Corey Dickerson (COL); runners up Hunter Pence (SF), Yasiel Puig (LAD), Matt Holliday (STL)
If Miguel Cabrera’s injury was the most catastrophic of the first half, then Giancarlo Stanton would be a close second. Stanton rebounded from his horrific facial injury at the end of last year to mash 27 home runs before breaking a bone in his left hand. Power is at a premium in fantasy baseball, and few players are as guaranteed as Stanton to provide dominant power and run production. He should be in August, but hopefully your team is still in contention by that point.
Ellsbury has a storied injury history so he is always drafted with caution. He got off to a red hot start before injuring his knee while swinging the bat. This injury cost him well over a month which was bad news for fantasy owners. He is back now, but given his history, we are just waiting for the other shoe to drop and for him to land back on the DL at some point.
Dickerson blossomed into a fantasy favorite last year and shot up draft boards heading into 2015. There was a lot to like about him with a solid batting average along with power and run production while playing half of his games at Coors Field. However, Dickerson has been dealing with plantar fasciitis which has cost him most of the season thus far. He tried coming back earlier this year only for it to flare up again. His return is unknown, and even if he does come back it will be difficult for fantasy owners to rely on him due to the potential for re-aggravation of the injury.
Starting Pitcher – Adam Wainwright (STL); runners up Stephen Strasburg (WAS), Alex Cobb (TB)
There were concerns about Wainwright even last year as well as into spring training. The former Tommy John patient had come back wonderfully from the surgery a few years ago, but there were still concerns about potential recurrences and other related injuries. The veteran ace pitcher proved everyone’s concerns wrong and got off to a solid start to the season until he tore his Achilles tendon while running the bases in April. He is not an ace pitcher at the level of Clayton Kershaw or Madison Bumgarner, but he is one of the top options at the position and consistently provides above average statistics across the board. Losing him for the year was a big blow to fantasy owners.
Relief Pitcher – Andrew Miller (NYY); runners up Greg Holland (KC), Jason Grilli (ATL)
Closers lose their jobs all the time, so it is no surprise that the carousel would be spinning all year with most teams. But when a dominant closer goes down with an injury, it can have a ripple effect for many different people. Andrew Miller signed a lucrative free agent contract to join the Yankees and was anointed the team’s closer in spring training. He was about as dominant as a closer can be until he suffered a forearm injury pitching in a non-save situation. Fortunately he was only out for a few weeks while Dellin Betances filled in dominantly for him. Miller is back now and looks to be fine, but there was a period of time recently where fantasy owners went into panic mode at the thought of losing Miller for even longer.
Michael A. Stein, Esq. is the Chief Justice of Fantasy Judgment, the industry's premier dispute resolution service, and is also the co-host of the Fantasy Alarm podcast. You can contact him at michael.stein@fantasyjudgment.com or on Facebook and Twitter (@FantasyJudgment),