Fantasy Baseball Hot Stove: Ryan Kalish

December 30, 2011 @ 11:48:08

By Tim Heaney
Edited by Nicholas Minnix

Your fantasy baseball draft isn't far off. KFFL.com's Fantasy Baseball Hot Stove surveys free agency, trades, salary arbitration and injuries that will affect your rotisserie or head-to-head baseball league. You're cleared for your MLB offseason program: The Arizona Fall League, Baseball Winter Meetings, Rule 5 draft and more will shape your fantasy baseball rankings.

Boston Red Sox OF Ryan Kalish likely to miss start of 2012

Boston probably knew this when they grabbed Ryan Sweeney as a throw-in in their recent trade for Andrew Bailey, which cost them outfielder Josh Reddick.

Bulging disc makes Kalish kabob

A healthy Kalish would've been the favorite for the right-field job, but he's recovering from November surgery that fixed a torn labrum in his left (throwing) shoulder; this came after a September procedure to repair a bulging disc in his neck, a consequence of putting off the labrum patch-up in a lost 2011. He could be out until May or June, per a speculated timetable.

Kalish flashed a handy contact bat and a power-speed combo during two months of 2010 MLB work, filling in for a then-injured Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron, who was traded away at the non-waiver deadline. If you can get away with stashing the soon-to-be 24-year-old in ALs for a reasonable price, he could be a late-season boon. No bother considering him for mixed drafts, but he's worth a pre-emptive tuck-away - especially in deep leagues - if his rehab goes smoothly, say, around April.

In this roster picture, Kalish's delay boosts the playing-time potential of lefty-hitting, BA-friendly Sweeney, who can play all three outfield spots. Boston could also try internal names like Darnell McDonald, Mike Aviles, pop prospect Juan Carlos Linares (depending on recovery from ankle surgery) and stolen-base product Che-Hsuan Lin - if they don't explore external pieces, which is not a smart wager.

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Tim Heaney

Since the Boston University alum joined KFFL in 2006, his work has been featured by USA Today/Sports Weekly and Yahoo! Sports, among numerous publications.

Tim competes in Tout Wars and LABR and appears every Wednesday on 1570 AM WNST in Baltimore, as well as frequently on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio.

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