Corey Kluber Fantasy Baseball Replacements on the Waiver Wire

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The Indians lost two-time Cy Young award winner Corey Kluber to a broken forearm Wednesday after he was struck by a 102-mph line drive. The timetable for Kluber to return has not yet been set and will certainly not be anytime soon. While the Indians take a massive hit losing their ace this early in the season, fantasy owners across the country are in agony as well. There are few things that derail a season faster than losing your top pitcher to injury.

In order to survive the rest of the season without Kluber in the rotation, there needs to be a viable replacement. It's impossible to completely replace Kluber's production, but here are three players who might be able to soften the blow a bit on your fantasy team.

1. Martin Perez, SP, Minnesota Twins

Perez has been great since being added to the Twins rotation, most recently pitching eight innings of shutout ball against the Astros. He's averaging a career high 7.9 K/9 and has a solid 3.41 ERA overall. If we remove his relief appearances and just include his four starts, his ERA drops to just 2.08. Just like the Twins, Perez is off to a hot start and should be added while he's still available.

2. Merrill Kelly, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks

Kelly is a journeyman who's finally getting a shot in the big leagues after years in the minors and Korea. So far, in six starts for Arizona, he has a 3.60 ERA, 1.371 WHIP and 7.5 K/9. He has yet to give up more than 4 ER in any start and has three quality starts on the year.

3. Reynaldo López, SP, Chicago White Sox

López did not have a spectacular first three starts, which is why he has a 6.30 ERA, but he's come around over his last three starts. Since April 16, he has a 1.50 ERA with a ridiculous 13.5 K/9. He had already shown flashes of skill in 2018 on the White Sox but appears to finally be putting it all together. He's most likely still available because of his bad start to the year, but grab López fast before he truly becomes an ace.

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Ian McCafferty is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Ian McCafferty also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username itmccaff. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.