Waiver wires – like the southwest being obliterated by consistent triple-digit temperatures – are bone dry at this point. This is why every top-100 prospect who comes up gets obscenely bid up in FAAB proceedings just in case he’s ready to dominate immediately. Perhaps the ripest avenue for talent still left at this point is the disabled list, and specifically, pitchers on the mend. Let’s check in on three Tommy John returners working their way back and see if they can be our second-half saviors, especially as we seem to lose a top arm every day over the last couple of weeks.

Alex Cobb | Tampa Bay Rays

I’m starting with Cobb almost to just get him out of the way. I’ll state out front that I don’t draft TJ returners in their first year back (though I won’t completely ignore them on the wire at this point in the season). Not only are they rarely anywhere near as good as their peak, but even in those instances where they are really good, they frequently run into setbacks which often results in another DL stint (see also: Darvish, Yu this year and Fernandez, Jose last year). Cobb has all that and the fact that the Rays are notoriously deliberate with pitchers working against him.

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• The players going to and from the DL are a little wonky with the All-Star break. It seems some player would have been on it if regular games were going on. Instead, teams are going to wait until Friday to make some moves. Follow the news as much as possible to get an idea if a player is going to play or not once the break is over.

• Craig Kimbrel will be out 3-6 weeks after having surgery on his knee to repair a torn meniscus.

Red Sox All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a left knee medial meniscus tear on Saturday. He is scheduled to undergo surgery on Monday to repair cartilage in his left knee and is expected to be out for three to six weeks.

The time table is fairly realistic with the wide range of possibilities.

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• Matt Harvey is on the DL with a sore shoulder, but may have thoracic outlet syndrome. I expect quite a bit more news over the next few days.

Harvey is being examined for suspicion of thoracic outlet syndrome, which is why he’s seeing the top specialist based in St. Louis. #mets

— David Lennon (@DPLennon) July 6, 2016

For fantasy, I would expect him to be out at least a month with missing the rest of the season a real possibility.

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• Right now some lesser known players are looking to come off the DL like Adam Ottavino, Alex Cobb, Justin Morneau, and Homer Bailey

• Zack Greinke was finally placed on the DL with a strained oblique.

Greinke initially injured the oblique in his start last Tuesday against the Phillies and had to exit that game after throwing a few warmup pitches in the third inning. He had hoped to miss just one start — Tuesday against the Padres — before returning next weekend against the Giants in San Francisco.

An MRI taken Saturday confirmed the strain, and the team decided to err on the side of caution and put him on the DL.

“So with all the testing he did and him not feeling any better, he agreed that probably the best thing to do, course of action, is to go on the DL,” D-backs manager Chip Hale said. “Hopefully he’ll be ready for us after the break. That would be important, the sooner we get him back.”

Reading into the preceding quote, it seems like the Diamondbacks are expecting him back soon, but I could see the oblique taking longer to heal. Normally a pitcher takes a month to return from an oblique injury.

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• Clayton Kershaw is on the DL with lower back pain.

Clayton Kershaw will be placed on the 15-day disabled list with lower back pain, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts couldn’t say he was optimistic that his ace will return in the minimum time.

Kershaw received an epidural injection for pain relief, but the club did not release an injury diagnosis or explain whether the pain was caused by a disk issue or possible herniation.

There is just not a lot of details on his injury right now. I went and selected Pitcher, Back, and several possible injuries in my DL time tool and came up with the following values.

The median number of days lost at 36 with the average being 20 days more. I would count on him being out a month with the likelihood it could be more.

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• Not a lot of movement to and from the DL over the weekend, but there was a bunch of injury updates to the spreadsheet.

• Stephen Strasburg is out with a sore back. Let him tell you how he did it.

Strasburg was scheduled to start on Sunday’s eventual 3-2 win over the Brewers, but his back problems flared up during warmups Saturday. He revealed that he popped two ribs out of place during a weight-training mishap last week, causing the back problems. Strasburg acknowledged it was hard to breathe with the ribs out of place. A chiropractor later fixed the issue.

“I was out there running. I don’t know why. It flared back up. I tried to get it adjusted. It was the first rib that caused the tightness,” Strasburg said. “I had it adjusted today [by a chiropractor]. I have to keep my fingers crossed.

WHAT !?!?!? Just a couple of ribs … they just popped out. It seems like he won’t miss much time though.

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• The Rangers rotation is a mess right now. Yu Darvish is already down with some shoulder discomfort. Colby Lewis is now out a couple months with a strained lat muscle.

Rangers pitcher Colby Lewis is expected to miss up to two months with a strained lat muscle in the back of his right shoulder.

The injury showed up during an MRI on Wednesday. The Rangers originally thought Lewis was dealing with soreness in the right triceps area, but the examination showed it was a problem with the lat muscle.

So with two starters on the shelf, the Rangers decided to also put Derek Holland on the DL with an inflamed shoulder he has dealt with for a bit.

The Rangers placed left-hander Derek Holland on the 15-day disabled list with left shoulder inflammation ….

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• J.D. Martinez is expected to be out four to six weeks with a fractured elbow.

The Tigers lost right fielder J.D. Martinez when he suffered a non-displaced fracture of his right elbow hitting a wall while chasing a fly ball in the right-field corner at Kauffman Stadium in the second inning. According to Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, Martinez is expected to be out four to six weeks.

• Jose Bautista is on the DL with a hyperextended toe.

Jose Bautista will travel to Charlotte, N.C., on Monday to undergo further tests on his injured left big toe. After that, the Blue Jays should be able to provide a timetable for his return.

Bautista was placed on the 15-day disabled list Friday afternoon with a hyperextended toe. The Blue Jays seem confident he does not have a fracture, but further examinations are required before that can be known for sure.

The veteran slugger is expected to undergo a stress X-ray and possibly a CT scan to determine the exact nature of his injury. The tests also should be able to tell whether there is any damage to the ligaments in Bautista’s left foot.

It looks like we will find out more information on the injury’s extent tomorrow.

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• Yu Darvish is headed back to the DL with shoulder and neck tightness.

Darvish had made just three starts in his return from Tommy John surgery before beginning to feel the discomfort. He left his most recent start, on Wednesday, after five innings and continued to experience tightness over the weekend in Seattle.
…
“There were no acute findings in either MRI, which is a good thing,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “Nothing structural that was a cause for concern. Yu still has a level of discomfort, so we are going to put him on the DL and give him time to recover.”

I am not surprised to see Darvish back on the DL. It seems like most pitchers coming back from TJS initially struggle to stay healthy.

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• Felix Hernandez got some bad news. He will not be back for four to six weeks.

The team initially hoped that Hernandez, who is 4-4 with a 2.86 ERA in 10 starts, would miss only two starts after being placed on the disabled list June 1. But Hernandez told ESPN’s Marly Rivera on Saturday that while the second MRI showed improvement, the Mariners’ medical director, Dr. Edward Khalfayan, wants him to rest the calf for four to six weeks.

“I have already been [on] the DL about 12 days, so those days are included [in the 4-6 weeks],” Hernandez said, adding that he expects to be throwing again before the team returns from its next road trip on June 24.

This update sucks for Hernandez owners.

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