Roto Riteup: September 18, 2013

Today’s Roto Riteup chooses to ignore the fact that David Wiers did not proclaim the absolute virtue of King Felix Hernandez when given the opportunity yesterday.

On today’s agenda:
1. No surgery for Matt Harvey
2. Clayton Kershaw to get some added rest
3. Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Cecil are done for the season
4. Starling Marte is back

No surgery for Matt Harvey
After hanging out with Dr. James Andrews at the beginning of the week, the Mets’ ace is going to forgo surgery and attempt to work his way through his elbow injury. Harvey’s schedule consists of simple rehab and strengthening for at least a month, and then the right-hander will begin a throwing program if all goes well. While rehabbing almost never works for pitcher’s trying to stay away from Tommy John surgery, this is one of the times when the approach is the right way to go. Because going under the knife now would mean missing the entire 2014 season anyway, there’s nothing wrong with waiting to see what happens.

Clayton Kershaw to get some added rest
With a playoff spot locked in, the Dodgers have no reason to push Kershaw down the final stretch of the season, so the team will give him a little bit of time off between starts. Kershaw was originally supposed to pitch today against Arizona, but now the team will start Stephen Fife instead, moving their ace back to Saturday. Kershaw’s rest really screws with teams in head-to-head playoffs, so be sure to adjust your lineups accordingly.

Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Cecil are done for the season
Encarnacion is going to sit out the last two weeks of the season due to a wrist injury, and the masher will have surgery on the joint at some point later in the week. Encarnacion ends his campaign with the exact same WAR as last year, along with 36 taters and a .272 batting average. Assuming no complications during his rehab this offseason, Encarnacion is looking like a building block for fantasy teams everywhere next season.

Cecil found a great niche in the Blue Jays’ bullpen, but he’ll miss the rest of the year with elbow problems. No word yet if Cecil will need any sort of surgery, but one certainly hopes he will not. Cecil was not overly valuable in fantasy leagues, but he was a fringe candidate to be owned in slightly deeper leagues due to his superb strikeout rate.

Starling Marte is back
With the Pirates trying to beat out the Cardinals for the NL Central crown, the team will get a huge boost for the stretch run with Marte rejoining the lineup. It’s too late for owners in weekly leagues to rely on the outfielder, but you should be sure to utilize him in daily leagues.