What to do about injured players who have yet to be put on the disabled list
With most drafts already complete, the primary concern for fantasy
owners before the start of the regular season is what to do about
injured players.
Most leagues have a waiver claim period before opening day to allow
owners to put injured players on the disabled list and pick up free
agents so they have a full roster for Week 1.
The problem is, MLB teams have until the day of their first game to
finalize their rosters. Many of them wait as long as possible for the
latest health updates before putting players on the disabled list.
That’s where things get dicey for fantasy owners. If teams haven’t
put injured players on the DL, the websites that host fantasy leagues
can’t officially list them on the DL. And if those players aren’t,
fantasy owners won’t be able to replace them.
In the Leagues of Alternative Baseball Reality (LABR), we’ve had a
generous replacement policy that seems to work well for us. As
commissioner, I put out a list of players who are expected to
begin the season on the DL and those players are allowed to be dropped
to pick up a replacement. Once the free agent claims are made (and the
injured players are officially put on the DL), those players are added
back to their respective teams’ rosters.
If any leagues want to adopt the LABR model, here are the players I’m
designating as likely DL residents on opening day. (We’ll update this
later in the week as more names surface.)
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