Five Injured Players to Stash in Fantasy Baseball - Waiver Wire Pickups for Week 2 (2026)

April 3, 2026

Dan highlights five injured fantasy baseball players worth stashing in redraft leagues, as of April 6, 2026 (Week 2). His waiver wire pickups for IL players.

Hello again, RotoBallers, and welcome to the latest edition of the Five Injured Players to Stash in Fantasy Baseball series. This column will highlight some players you should consider picking up as we head into Week 2 of the fantasy baseball season.

Whether you are in a league with weekly waivers or one that allows daily transactions, most of the moves you make will be to help your team in the short term. Given the length of the baseball season, it is important to maintain a long view as well.

The five ballplayers featured this week, as in any other edition, won’t be able to pitch in right away. But if your league uses injured list slots or you have space on the bench, you could do yourself a service by stashing these players now and avoiding the rush to add them once they are healthy. When you are done reading, check out the collection of waiver wire articles at RotoBaller’s MLB hub to get more great advice on in-season roster management.

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Merrill Kelly, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks

Rostered: 64% Yahoo!
Estimated Return: Early to mid-April

Last week, I featured Corbin Burnes (elbow), a starting pitcher with the potential to deliver help later in the season. This week, I submit another Diamondback pitcher in Merrill Kelly (back), who should pay off in the more immediate future.

Kelly’s spring training was delayed by a back injury that may have contributed to his inauspicious preseason performance (nine earned runs and 15 hits allowed in 6.1 innings pitched over three starts). Having missed the typical buildup, Kelly was placed on the 15-day injured list to start the season, but he might not be on the shelf for very long.

Kelly is slated for a rehab start on April 3, and if all goes well, then he should be reinstated once eligible on April 8. The 37-year-old has never been a fantasy ace, but is still a viable starter. Since his MLB debut in 2019, Kelly ranks 13th among MLB pitchers in quality starts (88) and 15th in innings pitched (1,008.1 IP). He represents a solid path toward adding some early-season wins and strikeouts to your tallies without putting ratios at grave risk.

Torey Lovullo gave us an update on Merrill Kelly.

He threw a bullpen session today and will be making a rehab start on Friday. pic.twitter.com/Gwx0f4i4XQ

— Megan Plain (@MeganPlain) April 1, 2026

Jackson Holliday, 2B/SS, Baltimore Orioles

Rostered: 57% Yahoo!
Estimated Return: Mid-April

Back in 2024, Jackson Holliday (hand) came into the majors as one of the most-hyped prospects we’ve seen in a while. The then-20-year-old struggled to adjust to the pace of the big leagues and posted a pitiful .189/.255/.311 slash line in 60 games that season. In 2025, he took a step forward, raising that triple-slash to .242/.314/.375, hitting 17 home runs, and stealing 17 bases. Perhaps even more significantly, the young Oriole cut his strikeout rate from 33.2% to 21.6%.

After the progress Holliday showed last year, it was reasonable to be optimistic about his prospects in 2026. Unfortunately, Holliday was discovered to have suffered a broken hamate bone in his right hand just ahead of spring training. The injury prevented him from participating in preseason games, and he started the season on the 10-day IL.

Luckily, treatment and recovery for a broken hamate is not intensive. The small bone is surgically removed, and after a few weeks of rest, players can begin rehabilitation and training. Holliday was able to take batting practice and do fielding drills just as spring training was ending, and he began a stretch of rehab games with Triple-A Norfolk on March 27.

With Jeremiah Jackson and Blaze Alexander off to decent starts, Baltimore would be better served by not rushing Holliday through his stint with the Tides. And that’s OK. The longer Holliday stays in the minors, the more time he has to adjust to the change in grip strength that accompanies hamate surgery and subsequently saps batters of power on their return to action. Hopefully, by the time Holliday is activated, he will be closer to his baseline and leading off for the O’s as he did in 2025.

Jackson Holliday has two straight games with a double. pic.twitter.com/3TWG22n79o

— Norfolk Tides (@NorfolkTides) April 1, 2026

Andrew Vaughn, 1B, Milwaukee Brewers

Rostered: 41% Yahoo!
Estimated Return: Mid-May

Speaking of broken hamate bones, Andrew Vaughn (hand) was the latest major leaguer to succumb to the injury, fracturing it during the Brewers’ win over the White Sox on Opening Day. Vaughn underwent surgery to remove the fractured bone on March 30 and is expected to be ready again in six weeks.

Vaughn was a popular fallback option at first base going into 2026 after his drastic midseason turnaround in 2025. Last year, Vaughn played 48 games for the White Sox before being optioned to Triple-A on May 23. At the time of his demotion, he had five home runs and a dismal triple slash of .189/.218/.314. After Milwaukee acquired him via trade, Vaughn looked like a completely different player at the plate, producing nine home runs, 46 RBI, a .308 batting average, and an OPS of .869 in 64 games with the Brewers.

As mentioned above, the hamate removal affects grip strength, which in turn affects how much power a batter can generate. Vaughn isn’t a slugger in the first place, but the injury plus the recovery time almost certainly caps him at his typical 15-20 home run output. He should still be a good source for RBI and even batting average, if he continues to hit as he did at American Family Field last year.

Kyle Teel, C, Chicago White Sox

Rostered: 12% Yahoo!
Estimated Return: Late April

Kyle Teel (hamstring) made a strong first impression in his debut season last year. In 2025, Teel played in 78 games, hitting .273 with eight home runs, 35 RBI, 38 runs scored, and three stolen bases. His sophomore effort will be delayed, though, after suffering a Grade 2 hamstring strain on March 10 while playing for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic.

White Sox and Team Italy catcher Kyle Teel is leaving with an injury. You could see him in pain just after he rounded first base pic.twitter.com/wOXUqINGgA

— Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 11, 2026

Teel’s initial timeline for recovery was four to six weeks. “Progression is going really well. Definitely say we are ahead of schedule, but it’s just being smart and doing everything we can to get back stronger,” Teel told MLB.com reporter Scott Merkin on March 21. Teel went on to say that while he does feel some soreness after running, he was experiencing no discomfort while catching.

Teel has yet to begin a rehab assignment, which indicates that the preseason prognostications for an early-April return were overly optimistic. Even if the White Sox play it safe and aim for the far end of his original timeline, he should be back before the end of the month. Upon his return, Teel should slide right into the starting catcher role. Backups Edgar Quero and Reese McGuire are a collective 1-for-20 to start the season.

Justin Steele, SP, Chicago Cubs

Rostered: 12% Yahoo!
Estimated Return: June

I included Justin Steele (elbow) at the end of last week’s article in a table of “high-owned IL stashes” that I advised fantasy managers to search for as a measure of due diligence. Perhaps a better qualifier for that table would have been “high-profile,” as Steele was an outlier at 17%, whereas most of the players on the list were rostered in more than 75% of leagues on Yahoo.

Steele is approaching the one-year anniversary of the premature end of his 2025 season due to elbow tendinitis and a subsequent UCL revision repair. Perhaps his long absence has pushed him out of the minds of fantasy managers as a potential contributor in 2026, and explains his low roster rate.

The lefty has held steady around his career average 24.4% strikeout rate since his 2021 debut. Not outstanding, but Steele’s real value lies in his potential to get wins supported by a talented Cubs lineup while keeping ratios in check. Steele has had a 5.7% walk rate and 1.14 WHIP since 2023, and a career 3.18 ERA since 2022. The 30-year-old is throwing bullpen sessions but has yet to start a rehab assignment. Currently on the 60-day IL, Steele is eligible to return as soon as May 24.

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