I have good news and bad news.
The good news is that amid the injuries to Oneil Cruz, Tim Anderson, Corey Seager and Dansby Swanson, some middle infield help is on the way. The bad news is that Edouard Julien isn't a shortstop, but a second baseman. (And it may be a stretch to even to call him that.)
If you lost one of the aforementioned shortstops, I'm sorry to say it's slim pickings on the waiver wire. Shortstop was like the worst position to get hit with an injury bomb, in fact. It may have seemed deep on Draft Day, but its depth was mostly at the high end, meaning it's already been distributed by now. Your better bet is to make a trade, with the target being a team that happened to double up at the position.
I may have one shortstop pickup I can recommend through gritted teeth and crossed fingers, but before we get to him, let's talk about Julien.
Possible waiver wire pickups
From purely an offensive perspective, which is mostly what we care about in Fantasy, I'm all-in on Edouard Julien, who has reached base at about a .440 clip over the past two minor-league seasons. It's not just some gimmick either. When he does get a pitch in his wheelhouse, he knows what to do with it. The minor-league numbers speak for themselves, and between spring training and the World Baseball Classic this year, he hit .317 (15 for 36) with five homers. The problem is that the Twins will need to hide his glove somewhere, and while second base seems to be their preferred choice, Jorge Polanco is well into a rehab assignment already. Julien is worth a speculative pickup for the upside, but it's possible he's just a short-term depth piece with Joey Gallo going down.
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If his 2-for-13 start had you turning the page on Jarred Kelenic already, believing you had seen this movie before, you might want to poke your head back in the theater. Over his past six games, he's 9 for 20 with two homers, three doubles and three walks. His quality of contact has been exceptional, placing him in the top 20 percent for both average and max exit velocity, and he's even had a little success against breaking balls. This is far from a final verdict on a breakout season -- even while sitting against left-handers, Kelenic has struck out at a 27 percent rate -- but there remain reasons for optimism.
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Tuesday's outing makes it back-to-back quality starts for Mitch Keller, and what's particularly impressive about this one is it came against the defending World Series champions. He had just 11 swinging strikes on 94 pitches after having 10 on 107 last time, but he's finding success in other ways, namely by keeping hitters guessing with an expanded arsenal of six pitches. He threw the sweeper most in this one, but it was the fastball last time and the cutter the time before. Between that and improved command (he's thrown 68 percent of his pitches for strikes compared to 63 last year), hitters just aren't squaring him up, and it's reason to roster him in all formats during what's been a frustrating period for pitchers.
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You'll need to keep expectations reasonable for Austin Hays. Sure, he's enjoyed an amazing two-day stretch in which he's gone 6 for 9 with two homers and two doubles, but a look under the hood suggests there isn't a lot of staying power. Mostly, his barrel rate is five times what it normally is, which is a more sophisticated way of saying he's just really hot right now. That's bound to happen when facing the Athletics pitching staff. So why do I have him as a waiver wire pickup? With the way the ball is carrying early, there's a reasonable chance he gets back to being the 20-to-25-homer guy he was two years ago. It's possible we had him ranked too low in the first place.
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All the injuries at the shortstop position have basically forced us to take a glass-half-full view with Orlando Arcia, who himself is already rostered in more than 50 percent of CBS Sports leagues. Indeed, his track record is uninspiring, and it seemed like his claim to the shortstop job this spring was more of a procedural move. But he is a former top prospect who arrived too early at age 21 and then fell out of favor just as he was entering his prime. For the Braves' Triple-A affiliate in 2021, having already been cast aside by the Brewers, Arcia homered 17 times in just 74 games. He's off to a nice start, and the Statcast indicators have been as promising as the actual production. Fingers crossed!
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It seems like the Diamondbacks have already turned the page on Scott McGough and settled on Andrew Chafin as their closer. The left-hander struck out the side for his second save Monday, with McGough working the eighth, and he has yet to allow even one hit this year. Because he's the team's only high-leverage lefty, it's possible the Diamondbacks will deploy Chafin in a more situational role, with McGough and maybe even Miguel Castro remaining in the mix for saves. But if there's one Diamondbacks reliever to roster right now, it's clearly Chafin.
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