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We're dealing with another significant injury to a star player. J.T. Realmuto is set to undergo a meniscectomy in his right knee to alleviate pain caused by a torn meniscus that he has been playing through. Realmuto is expected to miss about a month recovering from the surgery, and it may explain why he was just 2 for 24 with 10 strikeouts in his past six games before going on the IL.

It's a big blow, even if Realmuto has been somewhat disappointing this season; he was still a consensus top-five catcher in the rankings and had actually just finished up a pretty terrific May where he hit .318/.356/.471 in 20 games. And now, you're left looking for a replacement for at least the next month – though as CBS Sports' Dayn Perry noted Tuesday, this procedure often carries more like a 6-8 week timetable. 

If you're in a shallower one-catcher league, go check and see if Logan O'Hoppe or Francisco Alvarez are available, as they're both roasted in fewer than 80% of CBS Fantasy leagues right now. I prefer Alvarez, but both bring rare power potential to the table and should be solid, useful starters in Realmuto's absence. You could also consider Shea Langeliers or Tyler Stephenson, both of whom could be especially useful in points leagues, given the playing time edge they have over most catchers (though Langeliers' poor plate discipline does hurt him in that format, for what it's worth). 

For those of you in deeper leagues where you have to start multiple catchers, I'd be looking at Patrick Bailey (30% rostered), Keibert Ruiz (28%), or Ivan Herrera (20%), the latter of whom is filling in for another injured, must-start catcher, Willson Contreras. Bailey is my favorite of that group. He's an elite defensive catcher, so playing time shouldn't be an issue, and he's managed to cut his strikeout rate down to 20% while simultaneously improving his quality of contact, leading to real breakout potential; Bailey actually has the second-best expected wOBA of any catcher this season at .362. His .280 average may not be a fluke. 

If none of them are available, the pickings are incredibly slim, but I still think there's some upside with Tyler Soderstrom. He's barely playing catcher but has played fairly regularly at first base for the A's. He isn't doing much with his opportunities yet, but Soderstrom remains a top-100 prospect who has produced at the highest level of the minors, so if I'm going to bet on any long shot, it'll be that one.

The truth is, there's probably no replacing Realmuto, of course. Not with anyone on the waiver wire at least. Your best bet might be to try to swing a buy-low trade for someone like Sean Murphy, who hasn't done much yet this season but remains one of the most talented hitters at the position. He shouldn't cost much and might be the most realistically attainable replacement who might help you forget Realmuto, at least for a little while.

Wednesday's top waiver targets

Drew Thorpe, SP, White Sox (38%) – Thorpe mostly looked as expected in his MLB debut. The changeup was terrific, and he threw it more than any other pitch, generating eight whiffs on 19 swings. Everything else? He averaged 91.3 mph with his fastball and got four whiffs with his non-changeup pitches, which is to say, it all mostly looks pretty average. Thorpe is a high-floor pitching prospect, but that floor sags under the weight of all the futility surrounding him on the White Sox. I think Thorpe is worth adding in most 12-team leagues, but I don't expect him to be much of a difference-maker. 

Masataka Yoshida, OF, Red Sox (55%) – Yoshida is a tough player to value because his contact-heavy skill set works better in an H2H points context, where you care more directly about strikeouts and walks, but that's also the shallower format in Fantasy. The good news is, the state of the outfield position is so poor that Yoshida might be able to clear the bar for being worth starting even in that shallower format. He's back from his thumb injury and batted fifth Tuesday, and is worth adding in most formats. 

Miles Mikolas, SP, Cardinals (35%) – Miles Mikolas will go through stretches where he looks fantastic and others where he looks completely useless, and sometimes, those stretches last for entire seasons. He's currently enjoying one of the good stretches, having recorded a quality start in five of his past six starts, including his seven shutout innings against the Pirates Tuesday. Even when things are going well, Mikolas is rarely an especially exciting pitcher, and he has just 29 strikeouts in 36 innings during that stretch to prove that point. 

Andrew Vaughn, 1B, White Sox (32%) – I've pretty much given up on any hopes of Vaughn living up to his prospect hype, but that doesn't mean he can't be a useful player. He's been a mess this season, hitting way too many pop-ups and striking out too often, but if you squint, you can still see the makings of a useful Fantasy option. Vaughn hits the ball pretty hard pretty consistently, ranking in the 77th percentile in average exit velocity and the 67th percentile in hard-hit rate, and while his 24% strikeout rate is unseemly, he actually doesn't swing-and-miss as much as you'd expect, so there's reason to hope for better moving forward. Vaughn is starting to heat up, having hit safely in 11 straight games, batting .364 during that stretch with three homers and only eight strikeouts.