As if you haven’t already been excessively beaten over the head with injury talk, we’re going to talk about it again today. This is coming from a number of different angles and thoughts, but mainly, it is a product of excessive arguments/debates with Mets fans regarding a tweet of mine from Monday, June 21 while Jacob deGrom was on the mound for his regular start after being removed from each of his two previous outings with shoulder discomfort.

I get it. The fanbase has an inferiority complex and is hyper-sensitive to any potential criticism of their star players. They’ve been considered the “other” team in New York for generations and it is difficult to change that mentality. San Francisco Giants fans still have it in relation to the Los Angeles Dodgers and that’s even after winning World Series titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014. But we’re not talking fandom here and I certainly wasn’t criticizing deGrom at all. If anything, I was, in a roundabout way, criticizing the Mets for not giving him additional time off and trying to spare Mets fans the embarrassment of another round of “this guy is the greatest pitcher of all-time” tweets only to be silenced by another removal after just three innings.

Enthusiasm is one thing. Ignoring the facts is another. And that’s what I spent hours discussing following Monday’s show on SiriusXM. I’ve said it a million times – Jacob deGrom is the best pitcher in baseball today. I have him on a few of my fantasy baseball teams and he is doing things no other pitcher has ever done. He should be celebrated for it. But you cannot ignore the fact that he has been recently hampered by arm issues this season and as a fantasy owner, you need to stay prepared for “worst-case scenario” at all times.

In addition to this season’s problems, deGrom has also had elbow issues in the past. Despite his ability to pitch through it all without major injury, you have to wonder if this is yet another step towards something more severe. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, right? We can celebrate deGrom’s resilience and fortitude, but in fantasy, who wants to be left holding the bag at the end when we’re told the MRI didn’t catch the root of what the problem has been and he’s got to miss the next three months? I’m not saying it will happen. I’m just saying it could and these incidents may be red flags most are ignoring.

The fact that deGrom went five innings this time and looked as dominant as ever, could be your ticket to full value in a trade. He did not report any issues following the game and it looks like business as usual. Is there a better time to trade the ace than right now? Well, yeah, probably a month ago in the land of “Coulda Shoulda Woulda,” but today will suffice. 

The all-clear from Monday’s game means, if you decide to trade deGrom, your return should be huge. Straight up for Fernando Tatis Jr.? Shohei Ohtani? Vladimir Guerrero Jr.? Why not? Yu Darvish and Matt Olson? Brandon Woodruff and Rafael Devers? These are all viable options for you as a deGrom owner right now. The trades are more than fair and if they help improve the overall quality of your fantasy team and help you win, isn’t that the goal?

I understand that trading a player of deGrom’s caliber is a difficult thing to do. It scares people. But what scares me even more is wasting an opportunity to not only improve my team, but give me some peace of mind the rest of the way. Injuries can happen to anyone, but how would you feel knowing you had the opportunity to deal deGrom at full value and win your league, but you were too stubborn/scared to do so and suddenly you’re left with him on the injured list for the season with nothing to show for it?

As if to further illustrate my point…

More in the realm of “Coulda Shoulda Woulda,” the news of Byron Buxton’s hand fracture is sending his fantasy owners into a full-on tilt for the season. I’m not proudly taking a victory lap, but I said in late April/early May that your window of opportunity to trade him for a king’s ransom was rapidly closing. He was absolutely on-fire to open the year and now a series of injuries have us standing here with a guy who hasn’t played since May 6 and is now likely out until early August. Again, where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Why in the world were so many so ready to believe that this, his seventh year in the majors, was finally the season he not only broke out, but stayed healthy the entire time? Sorry, folks. Fluke injury or not right now, if you didn’t see all of this coming, you were blinded by hope and fandom, neither of which have a place in fantasy baseball.