David Price, Felix Hernandez, and Andrew Miller are all back from the disabled list

After various amounts of time on the disabled list, David Price, Felix Hernandez, and Andrew Miller have all been activated this week.

Hernandez will return to the mound for the Mariners on Thursday night, Price will come out of the bullpen for the Sox as he continues his rehabilitation, and Andrew Miller will (hopefully, for Indians fans) resume his mantle as the most important piece of Cleveland’s bullpen.

Their returns may be too little too late for either them or their teams, though. Depending on how things shake out, being brought back in September could be great news or not as exciting as teams hope.

With David Price, it’s a matter of his rehabilitation process. Because the minor league season is over, the Red Sox are slotting him into a relief role for the rest of the year. Price has still never won a playoff start in his career, and the rotation has held its own in his absence, especially as Doug Fister has made an impression and could be relied upon in a postseason setting.

Price hasn’t pitched in a relief role since 2015, but with Red Sox fans already unhappy with much of his performance this season, relieving might be the best bet for him. If he puts together some clutch multi-inning relief performances as the team is hoping he can do, maybe the fan base’s opinion will turn in his favor for when he comes back in a starting role next year.

In Hernandez’s situation, his much-needed return might be too late to help the Mariners make the postseason. They’re currently 3.5 games back of the second Wild Card slot with less than 20 games to go, and the best starting pitching in the world might not be enough to push them over the top and into the playoffs.

He’s been out more than a month with shoulder bursitis, and had shoulder issues earlier this year, as well, but will pitch on Thursday night. While he’s only started 13 games this season, with a record of 5-4 and a 4.28 ERA, Hernandez is still the face of stability for the Mariners and could have been the difference between them making the postseason or not.

As it is, Hernandez is coming back to a team too late in the game to truly make an impact, but he could make the last month of the season at least more bearable and entertaining for Seattle.

Andrew Miller is the most positive of the three, as the Indians are obviously on a bit of a hot streak right now and Miller coming back will only help them continue it. He’s been out for a month, after making a brief comeback from the disabled list a few weeks ago and his knee almost immediately failing him again.

Hopefully for the Indians, Miller recuperated long enough this time and finally takes the mound at full strength again. The win streak is a nice jewel in their regular season crown, but the Indians are hoping to make it back to the World Series after a close call with the title last year, and a permanently healthy Miller is their best bet to do that.

It can never hurt to have one of the best relievers out there back and healthy in your bullpen.

Three star pitchers, three situations that haven’t panned out as anyone thought they would this year, and three levels of expectations as they return to the mound to finish the season.