Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire: Danny Duffy set to return; Ross Stripling, Chris Flexen come through

You may not have seen this one coming.

Barely a month after being diagnosed with a strained forearm flexor, without being sent on a formal rehab assignment, Danny Duffy is set to return to the Royals rotation Wednesday.

You remember at the time of the injury, he was on the ascent, having ramped up his fastball to its highest average velocity since his career-best 2016, when he went 12-3 with a 3.51 ERA, 1.14 WHIP and 9.4 K/9. His numbers so far this year are much better than that.

It may be surprising, then, to learn that he’s actually available in a quarter of CBS Sports leagues — and perhaps many more than that on certain other sites. The presumed severity of the injury likely had something to do with him being dropped, as did the lack of status updates ahead of this abrupt return.

More than anything, though, Duffy was probably just a casualty of the onslaught of injuries we’ve seen in the weeks since he went down, getting crowded out of an IL spot in leagues where he might have otherwise remained stashed. Now, he gets to help resolve the attrition at starting pitcher rather than contribute to it. 

Possible waiver wire pickups