During the 2010 season Salazar had a TJ surgery. After the 2011 season, the Indians placed him on their 40-man roster even though he only made 15 starts the previous two seasons because of the TJ surgery and still haven’t gone beyond Single-A.

After the surgery, “According to multiple reports, post-surgery, Salazar actually has added some life on his fastball. Instead of just generally touching the mid-90s, he’s now hitting 98 and consistently reaching 94-96. This isn’t all that uncommon, as Jon actually referenced an article yesterday about relievers and their revitalization following a second UCL reconstruction.” (Source: Jacob Rosen). His fastball is extremely electric and it’s no surprise how aggressive he is when he throws it, primarily up in the zone (image below courtesy of BrooksBaseball.net).

Combine that information with two above average secondary offerings you begin to the makings of a four category stud and a top 10-15 fantasy pitcher (in terms of ultimate ceiling). There are questions if he can hold up to a starters workload, but he pitched 145 innings between the majors and minors last year and showed no signs of fatigue. Also with the pending loss Ubaldo Jimenez the Indians are going to give Salazar every opportunity to be successful as a starter. That said, if he doesn’t work out as a starter he can be the best closer in baseball. Some fantasy owners may have concerns about the aggressiveness with the fastball or the injury history, but Salazar’s ceiling is too high to pass up. According to Tristan H. Cockcroft’s initial rankings at ESPN, he has him ranked 70th overall, just behind Yovani Gallardo and Dan Straily. To me that’s crazy because of his ultimate ceiling and he should provide elite level strikeouts and a low walk rate, which will keep his WHIP down. I am going to target him in all of my drafts.

If you are looking for his statistical projections please go here and download my latest projections.