Roto Riteup: March 16, 2015

The Roto Riteup is back for 2015, baby! David Wiers and I will be your hosts for yet another year, providing white hot baseballing content on a daily basis during the regular season. For the next couple weeks leading up to Opening Day, we’ll be publishing on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to keep you up to date on news of interest around the fantasy baseball universe.

If you have any suggestions for the 2015 RR — other than replacing Wiers with someone who doesn’t love My Little Pony — please do leave them in the comments.

On today’s agenda:
1. Jake McGee on the mend
2. Drew Smyly to miss first turn through rotation
3. Rusney Castillo coming back slowly
4. Jake Smolinski making his case

Jake McGee on the mend
The Rays closer for most of last season, McGee underwent arthroscopic surgery on his elbow late last year, and has been working his way back from surgery for the last few months. McGee is set to throw a bullpen session tomorrow, and the Rays still believe he’ll be back in the bigs by early May. Brad Boxberger will handle ninth inning duties for the time being, and this author believes that he may pitch so well that McGee won’t automatically reclaim the job once healthy.

Drew Smyly to miss first turn through rotation
Sticking with the Rays, manager Kevin Cash has already proclaimed that Smyly will miss his first scheduled start of the season while recovering from tendinitis in his throwing shoulder. Smyly isn’t ready to throw off a mound yet, but the Rays are still hoping that he’ll only miss the one start. All-in-all, Smyly missing his first couple outings could be a blessing in disguise — the left-hander has yet to throw more than 153 innings in a season, and missing a couple starts early will be help limit his workload.

Rusney Castillo coming back slowly
The young Red Sox outfielder has been sidelined with a strained oblique, but he took some normal swings yesterday and appears to be on a path back to full health. Boston hasn’t made a prediction of when Castillo will be ready to appear in games, and with Mookie Betts playing well and a general glut of qualified outfielders, the team can afford to move Castillo along slowly. Once healthy, one would hope that the Cuban import will get a chance to win a starting job, but nothing is guaranteed.

Jake Smolinski making his case
Smolinski got some help from the BABIP gods in his 24 game audition late last season, but the Rangers outfielder has picked up where he left off this spring. Smolinski’s hitting .368 in Cactus League play, jacking three homers in 19 ABs. The Rangers don’t have a solution in place in left field, with Ryan Ludwick, Nate Schierholtz, and Michael Choice also in the mix for playing time, so Smolinski is going to have to fight it out to prove he belongs. It looks to be somewhat of a lost year for Texas, so they will hopefully look towards the future and give Smolinski a chance at an extended look in April and May.