Ranking DL Stashes: Lance McCullers, A.J. Pollock high priorities

Don't know which of injured players are honestly worth stashing? Or which are worth adding if you have a free DL spot? Scott White is here to help.

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Nothing scares Fantasy owners away from a player faster than that little red cross next to his name.

But for as uneasy as they make us, injured players still have value. The season is six months long. Any player you believe can improve your team's bottom line during that time -- crack the starting lineup, in other words -- is worth stashing, at least to the extent that it doesn't hurt your team's bottom line in the meantime. And in leagues that offer bench and/or DL slots, it doesn't.

At least not in a direct way.

I make that distinction because every lineup decision impacts your bottom line in a smaller, indirect way. A player who improves your bottom line later could block one who would improve it sooner, once the breakthrough is validated and he has earned your trust.

Aaron Sanchez, for example, could turn out to be better than Lance McCullers. I'd bet against it at the moment -- not because I don't like Sanchez, but because McCullers has set the bar so high -- but if he does, I won't be the one to benefit because I stuck with McCullers instead.

Now, McCullers' timetable is short enough that I won't really care what becomes of Sanchez, but if the comparison was between Sanchez and Alex Cobb, well ...

Which brings me to my criteria for injury stashes. For each possibility, I'm asking four questions:

1. Do I have an available DL slot?
2. How good is the player?
3. How hurt is the player?
4. What's the timetable?

If the answer to the first question is yes, then I might as well hold the player, right? No sense in leaving an available slot vacant. But if the answer is no or doesn't even apply in my league, then I'm going to have to prioritize.

To that end, I've ranked the top 25 DL stashes according to the answers to those other three questions. Have at 'em:

2. Jung Ho Kang, 3B/SS, Pirates (knee surgery)
3. Yu Darvish, SP, Rangers (Tommy John surgery)
4. Lance McCullers, SP, Astros (sore shoulder)
5. A.J. Pollock, OF, Diamondbacks (fractured elbow)
6. Brad Boxberger, RP, Rays (abdominal surgery)
7. Devon Travis, 2B, Blue Jays (shoulder surgery)

9. Ben Revere, OF, Nationals (strained oblique)
10. Yasmani Grandal, C, Dodgers (sore forearm)
11. Homer Bailey, SP, Reds (Tommy John surgery)
12. Hyun-Jin Ryu, SP, Dodgers (torn labrum in shoulder)
13. Javier Baez, 2B, Cubs (thumb contusion)
14. Eduardo Rodriguez, SP, Red Sox (dislocated kneecap)
15. Zack Wheeler, SP, Mets (Tommy John surgery)
16. Alex Cobb, SP, Rays (Tommy John surgery)

18. Marco Estrada, SP, Blue Jays (sore back)
19. Kevin Gausman, SP, Orioles (shoulder tendinitis)
20. Jhonny Peralta, SS, Cardinals (thumb surgery)
21. Jon Gray, SP, Rockies (strained abdominal)

23. Anthony DeSclafani, SP, Reds (strained oblique)
24. Jarrod Dyson, OF, Royals (strained oblique)
25. Jason Motte, RP, Rockies (strained shoulder)

Some thoughts:

• I'd say the first four are definitively must-own, and I'd include Nos. 5 in 6 in a league of any respectable size. I understand Pollock could be out for the year, but even six weeks of him late would be worth the wait. You're not going to find production like his on the waiver wire.

• Revere is one of the newer additions to the list, having strained his oblique on opening day. It doesn't sound like an especially long-term injury, but his job won't be waiting for him if power-speed threat Taylor takes to an everyday role. You pretty much have to stash Revere in a Rotisserie league because batting average and stolen bases are two of the hardest categories to fill, but his presumed lack of job security is why I rank the iffier Travis ahead of him.

• Catcher is one of those positions where a player's value can change drastically with the depth of the league. In a 12-team one-catcher league, Grandal is pretty fringy, but he does have some upside for a 16-team one-catcher league or a two-catcher league of any size. Maybe in those formats, you should bump him up ahead of Travis.

• Situations like Ryu's are why I ask that third question: How hurt is the player? Theoretically, he should be back by mid-May, but he would be only a year removed from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder. Michael Pineda needed more like two years to recover from that same procedure and lost some of his fastball in the process. Effectiveness will be a real concern for Ryu, and part of me wonders if he's worth stashing at all. His track record earns him the benefit of the doubt.

• The difference between Bailey and the Wheeler-Cobb duo is about two months' time. I actually think Bailey is the least talented of the three, but those other two won't return until after the All-Star break. All three are probably must-own when healthy.

• Brantley, Kang, McCullers, Gattis, Grandal, Baez, Kendrick, Estrada, Gausman, Gray, DeSclafani and Dyson are the ones you can expect back before the April, so their order mostly has to do with how good I think they are in the first place. Estrada I think is in line for some significant ERA regression, which is why I rank him with the Gausmans and Grays of the world.