Fantasy baseball: What to do without Mike Trout

The best player in baseball will be out for six to eight weeks, leaving his fantasy owners in trouble.

Mike Trout tore a ligament in his left thumb while sliding headfirst into second base on an attempted steal in the fifth inning of a loss to the Marlins on Sunday. He’ll have surgery Wednesday.

The two-time AL MVP was off to the best start of his career, slashing .337/.461/.742 with 16 home runs, 36 RBIs, 36 runs and 10 stolen bases in 47 games, living up to his No. 1 average draft position as the top-rated fantasy player this season.

There’s no one out there who can live up to Trout’s dominance. Not only has he been one of the most productive players in the game throughout his career, but also he’s been among the most durable. This is his first stint on the disabled list, and he averaged 158 games per season since 2012.

But fantasy owners do have a few options.

Fellow Angels outfielder Cameron Maybin has been on a tear of his own, slashing .270/.414/.438 with two home runs, seven RBIs, 20 runs and 10 stolen bases in May.

Maybin mostly has served as the Angels’ leadoff hitter the past couple of weeks, with Trout batting either second or third. The speedy outfielder inevitably will suffer without Trout behind him, though.

But if he can continue to get on base at such a high clip, he’ll at the very least keep racking up stolen bases. Maybin was available in 65 percent of Yahoo! leagues and 67.9 percent of ESPN leagues, as of Monday morning.

Depending on the league, Dodgers utilityman Chris Taylor could be a good player to add, but he hasn’t gained outfield eligibility yet in some leagues. Taylor, who has primarily played second base this year for the Dodgers, is eligible at second and third in most leagues and has additional outfield and shortstop eligibility in some leagues.

In the last month, Taylor is slashing .317/.429/.524 with four home runs, 14 RBIs and 17 runs and has found himself in the lineup more consistently.

Taylor is available in 59 percent of Yahoo! leagues and 71.4 percent of ESPN leagues, but he needs four more games in the outfield to gain eligibility there in ESPN standard leagues.

In deeper formats, Rays outfielder Kevin Kiermaier could be a suitable fill-in. He has reached base safely in six straight games, going 9-for-25 (.360) with a home run, three RBIs, four runs and three stolen bases in that span.

Kiermaier is widely available. As of Monday morning, he was owned in just 18 percent of Yahoo! leagues and 28.4 percent of ESPN leagues.