Fantasy Baseball Impact of Several Dodgers' Injuries | Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and More

The Los Angeles Dodgers have one of the top rosters in the entire MLB, but suffered a few big blows over the weekend.

Let’s discuss some of the injuries that took place and try to identify some possible replacements.

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Weekend Injuries

The big blow over the weekend was seeing Mookie Betts go down with a fractured left hand. He was hit by a pitch in Sunday’s game.

Betts will hit the injured list, but it’s also not expected to keep him out for the season, so that’s a bit of a positive. Still, losing a top-end player like Betts will hurt the Dodgers, and the fantasy owners that rostered him.

In 72 games this season, Betts had a .304 average and .405 on-base percentage. He also had 16 doubles, three triples and 10 home runs among his 86 total knocks, along with 40 RBIs, 50 runs scored, nine stolen bases, 47 walks and just 34 strikeouts.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto left his start on Saturday with what’s being reported as right triceps tendinitis - it was later diagnosed as a strained rotator cuff in his right shoulder.

It’s another injury that isn’t expected to be season-ending, but at the same time, there’s no timetable for a return yet.

In his first MLB season, Yamamoto has a 2.92 earned run average and 6-2 record across 14 games started. He has 84 strikeouts and just 17 walks across 74 innings pitched.

Michael Grove was another pitcher who was placed on the 15-day IL on Sunday. He’s got a right lat injury.

Grove isn’t the star that Betts or Yamamoto is, but with Yamamoto out, having Grove around to cover some innings would have been nice. He’s started two of the 28 games he’s appeared in this season. Grove has a 4-3 record and 5.06 ERA, with 45 strikeouts over 37 1/3 innings pitched.

Fantasy Impact Moving Forward

First off, let’s discuss what the Dodgers did after the injuries.

Moving Yamamoto and Grove to the injured list resulted in J.P. Feyereisen and Michael Petersen being brought up to the big leagues. With Betts now set to hit the IL, Miguel Vargas has been reported as the player the Dodgers will recall. Starting pitcher Bobby Miller is also likely to be activated from the injured list on Wednesday, which will be a nice boost after the Yamamoto news.

Betts was the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter, and now the team has a gaping hole at the top of the lineup. 

Rojas is the only other Dodger to appear at shortstop this season. Gavin Lux has shortstop experience, but played second exclusively this season because he has struggled in the field.

Enrique Hernandez is another option to slide over to shortstop with Betts out of action. Another problem is that Max Muncy is already out with an injury, and Hernandez has had to play third in his stead.

The team recently acquired Cavan Biggio, and the Betts’ injury should only help Biggio get in the lineup more going forward. 

Chris Taylor is another possible option at shortstop after having played there in past seasons.

Regardless of who ends up getting a majority of the starts at SS, no player will be able to make up for the loss of Betts. I wouldn’t call any of the players I’ve mentioned must adds on the waiver wire even.

I’d wait to see exactly how the lineup shakes out before even considering any of these players in standard leagues. In deeper leagues, you could gamble on one of these guys, but it’s hard to determine which one is the right choice right now.

Figuring out how the Dodgers’ rotation looks minus Yamamoto is a touch easier.

Miller will effectively replace Yamamoto in the rotation, although his impact isn’t going to be what Yamamoto’s was. 

Miller has made three starts this season, and sits with a 1-1 record and 5.40 ERA. He’s struck out 18 batters over 11 2/3 innings, so he’s a decent streaming option most nights.

The return of Miller was likely to bump Gavin Stone or James Paxton from the rotation, but now those two guys should be locked into rotation spots for a while longer still. Tyler Glasnow will have more pressure on him to deliver each outing like an ace, while Walker Buehler will also need to step things up.

Ryan Yarbrough has served as the team’s long reliever this season, and could be an interesting deep league fantasy option for the next few weeks as Miller gets back up to speed. He’s more of a streaming option when he hasn’t pitched in a few days and a guy like Miller, Stone or Paxton are the starting pitcher.