Baseball is back, but so are the injuries. With players returning to action, we knew we were in for more news like this. But did it have to be Fernando Tatis Jr. again? The superstar is once again facing significant injury. Joe Pisapia, Scott Bogman, Christopher Welsh, and Mike Maher — co-hosts of Leading Off, our daily in-season fantasy baseball podcast — are here to provide his updated ranking for Tatis and the fantasy baseball fallout of the injury.

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Fernando Tatis Jr. is hurt…AGAIN!

Tatis will have wrist surgery after sustaining a fracture this offseason and will miss up to three months. In dynasty, all you can do is hold on and hope. However, in redraft, I am bumping Tatis down to around player 100 overall and at the shortstop position behind Bobby Witt Jr. (making Tatis SS15 overall in my ranks).

Is this harsh? Why, yes it is. But, three months is half a season, and wrist injuries for hitters like Tatis can be very dicey. He’s a remarkable talent, but 81 healthy games are what you’re looking at with him in the best-case scenario. In any head-to-head format, he becomes a very dangerous investment. In season-long roto, he’s a calculated risk for a high-quality, half-season.
– Joe Pisapia

The latest in injury setbacks throws a big wet blanket on the player I would have taken first overall. The potential loss of close to three months is pretty devastating. Tatis has shown the ability to recover quicker than most listed timelines, but that should be taken with a grain of salt. A 141 game projection from ATC had Tatis at 43 home runs and 27 stolen bases. The safe bet is to cut that in half for overall production from a roto standpoint.

Still, 21 homers and 13 stolen bases are pretty valuable, and that is not accounting for him beating any timelines. He is impossible to take in the top 50. I think there is a home for him between 75-100 if you manage risk accordingly. Shortstop is the deepest position, so this shouldn’t be hard. Tatis vs. Witt is an interesting comparison now, and I think they are in the same range. I’d look to draft Tatis right after the top 12 SS have come off the board.
– Christopher Welsh

Fernando Tatis Jr. Suffers Fractured Wrist: What’s His Realistic Recovery Timeline?

Three months for wrist surgery is a brutal blow for the first-overall pick on most boards in Fernando Tatis Jr. Most will find it hard to pass up on his potential in rounds 3-5, so I would expect him to go in that range. But he will sit outside the top 75 on my board. Wrist injuries have been known to hamper power plus the ongoing shoulder issues make Tatis too risky to be a top 5 round pick IMO.
– Scott Bogman

The MLB lockout is over. The MLB hot stove is piping. Fernando Tatis Jr. is…hurt again and could miss up to three months. UGH. Tatis has been diagnosed with a “fractured staphoid bone” and apparently suffered the injury earlier in the offseason. Unfortunately, the wrist issue flared up again a couple of weeks ago, but we’re just now hearing about it because the MLB lockout limited our access to players.

There are a few things I don’t like about this news: 1) He suffered the injury earlier in the offseason, meaning it wasn’t addressed, lingered, and then flared back up; 2) He suffered this most recent setback while swinging a bat; 3) As of now, Tatis is undecided about whether or not he will undergo surgery.

The bad news is that this is not the first time we have seen Tatis deal with a significant injury that could both sideline him for an extended period of time and affect his ability to swing a bat. The good news (kind of) is that Tatis has proven to be a quick healer in the past. Last year, we thought he might be done for the season because of a shoulder injury that required surgery. He landed on the injured list three separate times but opted against surgery and somehow managed to hit 42 home runs in 130 games.

Will we be that lucky this time around? I’m not so sure. But I’m also not completely betting against Tatis anymore. I dropped him to 71 in my overall rankings and have him just outside of SS1 territory in my shortstop rankings. Everyone in your upcoming drafts is going to be looking around the room wondering who is going to be the manager to take a chance on Tatis. If you’re in a draft with me, you’re looking at the guy who is going to take that chance.
– Mike Maher

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Dennis Sosic is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Dennis, check out his archive and follow him @CALL_ME_SOS.