They say that when life gives you lemons, you make lemonade, but what happens when life throws you a curveball? Can you hit that offspeed stuff out of the park or do you end up looking like Pedro Cerrano, striking out like a chump and blaming Jobu for your struggles? I can usually hit the breaking stuff, but I won’t lie and tell you this past weekend was all lollipops, rainbows and sunshine for me and now I find myself in full-on catch-up mode for the home stretch of the fantasy baseball season.

My wife’s mother passed away last week and between helping her with the arrangements, contacting family and traveling to and from the funeral, I became a little disjointed from the MLB world. Usually, the catch-up from a week off is easy, but it also happened to be the MLB trade deadline last Friday and that always turns the fantasy baseball world upside down. Now, I always preach family-first, so I’m not bringing this up to elicit sympathy or to show that I’m some callous S.O.B. thinking only of how my fantasy baseball teams are affected. I’m bringing this up, because life happens and some people have a lot of trouble balancing the two. 

Your world may be turned upside down, but the rest of the world doesn’t stop for you. I wasn’t particularly close with my mother-in-law but I needed to be there for my wife. But I have also been grinding for the past five months and am sitting in a position to win a few of my leagues. Yes, I can simply choose to walk away from the game because real-life is what’s most important, but what happens in a week from now when we’ve moved past the tragedy and have to get back to our lives? Do I just want to scrap the season and say, “oh well, that sucks”? No. I choose to keep grinding. I may have missed a lot of the news and the roster shuffles, but with two full months to go, I am not walking away from this season.

What tends to make this the most difficult is the fact that waivers have come and gone on for everyone. If your league is competitive and the top teams are always fighting to gain an edge, a lot of the big names that may have been on your waiver wire could be gone. But what you need to do is go back and scrub every deal to see if anything important slipped through the cracks. For example, the Marlins traded Starling Marte to Oakland. We know Marte is now playing center field and Ramón Laureano has moved over to right. Say goodbye to Stephen Piscotty who now becomes the odd-man out for the A’s. If you were using Piscotty, you need a replacement. If he was on your bench, chances are you can cut him and open a roster spot.

But what about what’s left in Miami? No, the Marlins are not going to be competitive, but they still need to field a team for the final two months of the season and that’s a pretty big hole in centerfield. They also traded Adam Duvall which means right field is up for grabs and, oh yeah, they also dealt Yimi García, so who’s getting the saves? Like I said, every trade needs to be scrubbed, especially when it’s a non-contending club that just had a fire-sale.

If you’re looking for speed, Magneuris Sierra just might still be available. The 25-year-old has made appearances at the big-league level before and while his stat lines have never been anything to write home about, he’s flashed some speed at a variety of levels and should receive ample opportunities to play. The Marlins have nothing to lose here, so letting Sierra run wild on the bases is likely. They won’t be stupid about it, but they also have no reason not to be aggressive.

Replacing Duvall in right is Bryan De La Cruz, the 24-year-old outfielder the Marlins got in the Yimi García trade with Houston. He’s not hitting for a world of power and he doesn’t steal a ton of bags, but he does get on-base. Since 2018, he’s never had an OBP below .339 and should end up contributing to the runs scored category, so long as he continues to work his magic at the plate. 

And speaking of the Garcia trade, who’s now getting the saves work in Miami? The general consensus says Dylan Floro, but keep a very watchful eye on Anthony Bender. This situation is likely to be very fluid, but manager Don Mattingly does seem to like having one guy hold onto the job. If Floro was picked up in your league, grab Bender and see what happens. He’s got great stuff and is more than capable of keeping runners off-base. That can help you with your ratios and augment your strikeouts, as he’ll get a handful of innings each week, but then there’s also the prospect of saves as well.

If you’ve missed any of the recent action, just methodically scrub the transaction pages and be sure you don’t leave a single stone unturned. Just because life throws you for a loop, you don’t have to let it ruin everything around you. Things slip through the cracks all the time and you’ll be surprised as to how many players are still up for grabs. No, you’re not getting the marquee names, but you’re getting enough help to keep grinding forward.