Fantasy owners have to think this is a bad joke considering how many players have fallen to Tommy John surgery, and today we hear of another. The very promising young New York Mets starter Zack Wheeler has been diagnosed with a torn forearm ligament, and will need Tommy John surgery to repair it. While this is just terrible news for the Mets who were looking to Wheeler to help the team be successful this year, fantasy owners are also up in arms. This injury could not come at a worst time for many, though to be fair there is no time this news is good for owners, since the draft season is well underway and now there are teams out there that just lost a very solid number three or four starter for their teams.

Talking about Wheeler is only going to exacerbate owners who have lost him so lets just skip ahead to the pitchers that will likely replace Wheeler in the rotation. As of now the Mets had tentatively announced the rotation as Matt Harvey, Jacob DeGrom, Zack Wheeler, Jonathon Niese, and Bartolo Colon. With Wheeler out the obvious first choice would be Dillon Gee who last year pitched very well with an 11-11 record, and ending the season with a K/9 of 9.08 and a BB/9 of 3.84. He also limited hitters to a .237 batting average, while ending the season with an ERA of 3.54 and more impressive a FIP of 3.55. Overall a strong season that did net Gee a positive 1.8 WAR which is average but could have been better if he was able to limit the walks and limit the home runs. 2015 left him in trade bait limbo since he had announced that he would not pitch out of the pen and wanted a rotation spot. As of now his position has not changed.

The second player that could inherit the rotation spot is the more likely of the candidates, Rafael Montero. Montero had limited play in 2014 only pitching in 10 games, eight as a starter, and was limited to only 44 innings pitched. His limited time makes it hard to make judgment calls on his numbers since it is a very small sample size, and he did not fair so well in that small time having a HR/FB rate of 14.5 percent and a BB/9 of 4.67. He has strikeout potential but is more of a control pitcher so do not expect a 10.0+ K/9. Montero could even out the other numbers given more innings and some time with coaches to help him hide the ball better from batters who were able to pick up the rotation of his pitches early. Overall, Montero has been rated by scouts as a fourth or fifth starter so why is he the frontrunner? Well the team said so, not leaving owners much room for interpretation.

So an owner just lost Zack Wheeler, who is likely the teams third to fourth starter, and needs to replace him. The best in house options would be Jonathon Niese, Noah Syndergaard, and Dillon Gee. Niese is the best of the three only because we know he has a rotation spot, and is a decent pitcher who will get a decent amount of strikeouts while not hurting owners in the ERA and WHIP departments. Syndergaard is the best potential pitcher but is not likely to break camp as a Met. So unless this is a dynasty league, and why Sydergaard would be available defies logic, best to pass for now but keep him on the watch list just in case. Dillon Gee is likely on the move if the team is indeed planning on using Montero, but if he does make it he will likely look exactly like Niese so owners will have to choose.

Outside options very from league to league, but in a basic 10-team league some potential options would be pitchers like Chris Tillman from Baltimore. He will get owners a good amount of strikeouts but does tend to be a little wild so weigh the risk versus rewards on him. Matt Shoemaker from the L.A. Angels made a decent name for himself in 2014, but was a big home/away splits pitcher and would be better served as a spot starter pitcher than a player owners would want to keep. The last guy we will look at, since the list is quite long on potential replacements, is Jake Peavy from the San Francisco Giants. While he is the oldest of the three mentioned he also has a good stadium to play in and was quite effective with the Giants after his first three rough starts for them.