With so many other talented relievers in the league, this tier just goes to show how outdated the “save” stat as a fantasy category truly is. His current ADP (142) seems fair, and he’s definitely some to target around that part of your drafts. What is happening! That, and the fact 2019 could just be a one-off season, similar to fellow teammate Blake Treinen‘s 2018. Oh, and that signature wipeout slider of his had a .942 OPS against over 362 pitches (it had never been above .440 prior). The Twins once again field a strong bullpen full of potential closer options, so Rogers will need to get off to a strong start to extend his leash on the job. His K% was a career-high 33%, as was his 15.8% SwStr rate, both strong numbers for a reliever. I’ve been known to overvalue Ken Giles in the past, and while I was tempted to place him 5th on this list, I think I need to temper expectations for once. Well for starters, his 2.88 FIP, a much improved 5.7% BB% rate and most of his hard-hit metrics were all above average. Similar to Chapman, Osuna is as safe a bet as any for saves in the 2020 season, just remember that the term “safe closer” is an oxymoron. Chad Young’s Ottoneu Points C Ranks. It would also have been nice to see the increased slider usage result in more hitters chasing out of the zone. Rogers’ improved sinker command also attributed to his success in 2019, as the pitch saw a 4.7% drop in walk rate, and put his overall walk rate at just 4%, the lowest among all closers. Melancon’s 2.86 FIP and 3.06 xFIP from last year were the lowest they’ve been since he left Pittsburgh in 2016. 14: Giovanny Gallegos (St. Louis Cardinals). The big culprit to last year’s struggles was a .314 BABIP up from .250 in 2018 as well as a 68% LOB rate, down 11.3% from 2018. With an improved rotation and a bullpen that’s absolutely loaded heading into next season, expect another monster season out of the Padres closer. There are two caveats to this strategy, however. Raisel Iglesias and Leclerc are very much comparable for this season, but Leclerc gets a slight boost due to having next to no competition for the role. In the first three articles of this series, we developed indices for wPDI to approximate the PitcherList metric, CSW. His inability to miss bats at a high rate limits Robles’s ceiling, but as long as he has that fastball/changeup combo working for him, he should be a relatively safe second closer in fantasy this season. Frank Chris RK. His 2.68 ERA and 1.02 WHIP were career lows. No. Brad Hand started 2019 off on a high note, allowing just 3 ER over his first 31.1 IP, good for a .87 ERA. That would certainly be a more exciting option from a fantasy perspective, but for now, only Watson makes sense no Giants relievers need to be owned for fantasy purposes. Jimenez is years removed from his former top prospect status but he may finally be putting it all together. Bradleys velocity also seemed to decline as the second half progressed and his swinging-strike rate dropped a full 3.1 percent, which at just 8% ranked 162 out of 171 qualified RPs. Doolittle did look better in the playoffs and was a big part of the Nationals World Series run but it’s fair to wonder if he can hold up and last 50+ innings anymore. Despite the improvements to his arsenal, Rogers is still not missing a ton of bats, with his 10.9% SwStr, 30% O-Swing and 83.6% Z-Contact all ranking in the bottom 10 amongst the closers on this list. Despite the high HR rate, Neris’s xSLG of .341 and xBA of .199 place him in the top 10% of pitchers, and he continues to miss bats at a near-elite clip (17.6% SwStr, 38.5% Whiff%). RotoBaller.com updates their rankings of the top 101 relief pitchers. PitcherList.com provides a look at where each American League team’s top prospects could be starting the year. Rotoprofessor.com names the top five closers-in-waiting to snag early in your fantasy leagues. 1) Jacob deGrom, Mets The back-to-back National League Cy Young Award winner is facing a challenge for the title of "Ace of New York" from the Yankees' Gerrit Cole, but right now, there's no one better than deGrom. As with other positions, it comes down to how the rest of your league values certain stats. The login page will open in a new tab. Posted by 4 years ago. Updated 1d ago. There’s a chance the oblique injury was the main driving force behind last year’s catastrophe, but at the very least it has to be partially to blame. Read on for Tristan H. Cockcroft's head-to-head categories rankings, or click here for roto leagues or here for points leagues. Just don’t be expecting a return to 2016-17 form. He’s turned into a more complete pitcher, with his slider usage steadily rising over the past 4 years (15.7%, 19.7%, 25.4%, and 31.1% last year), and he now looks like a pitcher more concerned with how he can get outs, than a guy looking to get up there and throw as hard as he can. Rainey was able to reel in his command last season, finishing with a walk rate under 10% for the first time in his career. Over his last 26.2 IP though, he allowed a whopping 18 ER, bad enough for a 6.18 ERA. Osuna was once again one of the better closers in baseball last season, as he posted strong numbers across the board, despite nothing really standing out as “elite”. I’d still expect some positive regression, assuming he’s at full health next season. This new “pitch to weak contact” Chapman did have its drawbacks, however, as his K rate fell to 36.2% last year, and his 14.1% SwStr rate isn’t anything to write home about. Hader took on more of a traditional closer’s role in 2019, a definite boon for … Saves/Closers. Now for the fun part of this tier, with three (maybe four) guys a year ago no one would have imagined being in the top 10 closer discussion. His 36.1% CSW ranked 1st among all relievers. https://www.pitcherlist.com/top-30-closers-in-fantasy-baseball-for-2020 PitcherList Early Top 100 SP Rankings. Other factors will include: Recent changes to a team construction (i.e. Because of that, I guess it’s possible he could at least return to his 2017-2018 form? A super low BABIP (.222) and no history of past success make him a risk but even with a little regression baked in, he should fit in as an RP1, assuming he’s closing out games. He’s continuously battled numerous elbow and shoulder injuries throughout his career and is a real risk health-wise. He also is coming off a season where he was hampered by elbow inflammation, always a concerning problem for any pitcher. How should we draft closers in 2021? We rarely talk about maturity level, but for someone with such a loose hold on the closer role, it’s worth reminding of Kela’s past. He also finished last season with a league-low 1.30 FIP, .52 points lower than the next qualified reliever. That's not to say that there aren't some volatile bullpens out there. Colome does possess a pretty good cutter (10.9 pVAL) and with the usage at 71% last year (a 16% increase from 2018), it has really become his go-to offering. Smith will definitely find himself finishing some games this year, but Melancon has deserved a chance to be the team’s primary closer. Leclerc’s stuff is still good enough for the role and his fastball velocity actually increased last year. Compiling 2021 fantasy baseball rankings & projections from the top sources in the industry, including ESPN, CBS, Yahoo!, and many more. His 223 appearances and 240.2 IP from 2016-2018 were the most by any reliever in baseball after all. FantasyPros.com shares some in-season management tips to help you dominate in 2021. When compared to the rest of this list, he finished in the top 5 in FIP, xFIP, SIERA, SwStr%, K%, K-BB%, WHIFF%, and xwOBA. From what he showed us last year, that shouldn’t be an issue. Last year he was suspended due to an altercation with the team’s director of cultural readiness and peak performance coach, which is definitely not a good look. He’s still just 26 years old, loaded with talent and possesses a crazy good curveball (32.2 pVAL over 1317 pitches), giving Kela the potential to be this year’s breakout closer. The Mariners have yet to name a closer for the upcoming season so this is still just speculation, but for reasons similar to the ones mentioned for Givens and Kintzler, it makes sense to give Yoshihisa Hirano the first crack at the job. For the second consecutive season, Hader saw his K% rise while also lowering his BB%, a trend we’d obviously want to see in any pitcher. 55:15 Something to keep in mind, he has 2021 club option for $10 million that I’m sure the Indians will explore moving by August. Rick resides in the Boston area and has experience as a player and coach at the collegiate level. Nick Pollack, PitcherList.com – Way-Too-Early Top 100 Starting Pitcher Rankings For 2021 Nick Mariano, RotoBaller.com – Early 2021 Fantasy Baseball Starting Pitcher Rankings Closer Rankings His SwStr rate went way down in 2019 to 14.8%, his lowest mark since 2013. Although he was terrible when pitching in non-save situations, and his overall numbers really took a hit from those outings. 26: Mychal Givens (Baltimore Orioles). Close. Our SP rankings are updated regularly. A closer report provides a snapshot of the closer situation for all 30 MLB teams. He eventually turned things around by the end of August, and was his usual self by September. If your league mates are all employing the same or similar “punt saves” strategy, then, by all means, consider drafting a top closer if they start to hang around longer than anticipated. There still seems to be some upside left to chase here, but it all comes down to how he will be used. The foundations of these rankings are the same as they were back then – Volume, early schedule, realizing you’re not drafting a best ball team, etc. Only one of last year’s top 5 closers at this time remains in the top two tiers this season (Aroldis Chapman). Although, I’d imagine that price will continue to grow by the time you are reading this. Among the other changes he made this season, he dropped his arm angle, getting more horizontal movement on his fastball, which resulted in a career-high 44% ground-ball rate. The pitch ended up having a pVAL of 7, the best pVAL for any offspeed pitch in Robles five year career. I still like the thought of taking a gamble on Giles if he slides to pick 150 or so, but his current ADP (135) is just a bit too rich for me. Ultimately he actually became more unhittable this past year, but it just so happened that when he did get hit, there was a good chance it was going to leave the yard. Not to mention, there is plenty of value to be had right now after pick 150 in many leagues (article to come shortly). It wasn’t the dominant Pressly we were used to the past two seasons, but in a shortened season, the 12 saves have made him the best late round/waiver wire reliever add this year (Trevor Rosenthal being a close second). 21: Sean Doolittle (Washington Nationals). With Gabe Kapler managing the team, the Giants have of course expressed interest in going with a bullpen by committee this season. Still only 25 years old, Osuna saw a nice uptick in his fastball velocity this past season, perhaps the reason for his career-high 16.9% SwStr rate (7th highest among all closers). The pitch held a 22.6% SwStr rate, the highest of any single pitch in a season over his career, as well as a .587 OPS against while both his fastball (.743 OPS) and slider (.768) were routinely knocked around. He also has perhaps the best job security at the position, with absolutely no competition around him to start the season. He still remains a dominant strikeout option as his 39% K%, 17.8% SwStr from 2019 prove, and with some better luck, could return to his 2018 or 2016 form. Will you be doing an updated ranking/commentary based on a 60-game season soon? Even past his prime, Jansen still grades out above average when it comes to getting swings and misses and ranked in the top 2% at suppressing hard contact. After an atrocious April (8.44 ERA, 2.16 WHIP) to start the year, Leclerc was able to turn things around in May (2.13 ERA, .79 WHIP) before eventually evolving into the Jekyll and Hyde act he was for the last 4 months of the season. An excruciatingly bad April (24.5% BB rate) makes it look worse than it really was, but he was still sitting around a 14% BB rate after the first month. Closing Time 9/8: Ranking the Top 30 Closers Every Tuesday. There’s literally no underlying stat to get excited about with him. We don’t know who Kevin Cash will tab as his closer yet, but we do know he has mostly stayed with one closer at a time, with the lone exception being the first half of 2019. There’s been talk of Hunter Harvey potentially being in this role to start the year, but that doesn’t make a ton of sense for the rebuilding Orioles. His .255 BABIP, .42 points lower than his .297 career average, was also the lowest of Kintzler’s career. The biggest downside to Kennedy remains the fact that he’s all but guaranteed to be traded most likely into a setup role, at some point this season. Due to the durability concerns, Daniel Hudson and Will Harris are there to vulture saves as the team protects Doolittle. 2019 was not too kind to Sean Doolittle as his fastball velocity (93.5 MPH), SwStr rate (12.1%) and K-BB% (19.6%) were at their lowest in four years while also finishing with career highs in FIP, xFIP, and SIERA. The other talented arms in this bullpen will always be lurking, but Melancon may finally be reverting back to the guy the Giants thought they were signing in 2016. No. The flyball and HR rates are still concerns, as is his lost slider, but I don’t mind the idea of taking a chance on him as a bounce-back RP1. I do think his 3 pitch mix would be better suited for a multi-inning relief role earlier in games, but for fantasy purposes, I want teams to use their best reliever in the closer role. As we get closer to the end of the year, setting rankings days ahead of kickoff is getting tougher and tougher. Fantrax has your back whether you're looking for rankings in your favorite format or on the lookout for the sleeper everybody else missed. Oh, and if he could stop finding barrels so often (10.8%), that’d be a big help too. Is that sustainable though? Since recording his first save on August 10th, he has led the league in saves with 12, with only Brad Hand being the only other closer to record more than eight saves over that time. Any thoughts? For what its worth, if Hirano, or Matt Magill for that matter, win the job outright this spring, I’d probably move them up one, maybe two spots. His BABIP (.209) and HR/FB (2.6) numbers are also totally not sustainable. PitcherList Early Top 100 SP Rankings NOTICE: No Bench Coach Discussion in This Forum. Being a reliever who relies on his fastball more than 80% of the time, Hader does tend to get in trouble when he’s unable to elevate the pitch, leading to more hard-hit balls in play. 17: Raisel Iglesias (Cincinnati Reds). Even bumping his curveball usage to a career-high 31% and the pitch having an 8.3 pVAL, Melancon’s K rate still sat at just 23.9%. 16. Outside of this just being a one-year sample size, the big concern in drafting Anderson this year is that the Rays have not named a closer since trading Emilio Pagan a few weeks ago. His fastball velocity has been on a steady decline since 2017, down over 2 MPH. The “risk” is totally worth it. Similar to Hand, Edwin Diaz was an abject disaster once the calendar hit June, as his 7.16 ERA from June on shows. Josh Hader, Kirby Yates. Wander Franco, SS, TBR. However his xFIP, SIERA, SwStr%, Whiff% and O-Swing% all rank amongst the bottom third of closers on this list. While strikeout rates seem to be on the rise for most relievers these days, Watson’s fell nearly 10% last season despite his SwStr rate (12.7%) staying exactly the same. Just a quick reminder, prior to Corey Knebel‘s injury last winter, Hader was still a top 150 pick despite not being in the mix for saves at the time. There’s going to be rough patches, but Neris, like Diaz, should be a 4 category contributor more often than not. The only real negative with Hendriks last season was that when he did get hit, he tended to get hit hard (bottom 25% in Hard-Hit and Exit Velocity). Ok, so Wade Davis used to be pretty good not that long ago, right? Hader wasn't quite as dominant as he had been the previous two years, largely due to a spike in walk rate and the slightest of declines in strikeout rate. He had a 52/4 K/BB rate over 27.2 second-half innings. If Anderson lasts until pick 150 or so in redrafts, he could be the ultimate value pick if he breaks camp as the teams closer. So why is he ranked this low? ... Closers. We saw Iglesias lose saves to Michael Lorenzen last season, something that seems likely to continue this year. No. In fact, 8 of the top 20 relievers for saves last season were either undrafted or taken after the first 200 picks on average. His .215 BABIP was .64 points lower than his career average and the second-lowest among these closers. With it looking more and more likely that Carlos Martinez will return to the rotation, it leaves Gallegos as the clear cut top reliever in this bullpen. Weekly Rankings The Top 100 Starting Pitchers For 2021 – The List 3/29 UPDATE. Hitter … 28:55 Kenley Jansen 36:15 Buying Edwin Diaz Bounceback?41:55 Ranks 11-25 49:40 Nick Anderson Risky? He truly is a wildcard this season, but could be worth the gamble at his current ADP (166). No. No. Don’t trust any 1 expert? He also only focused on his plus pitches as he completely scrapped his changeup in 2019, going with a heavy fastball-cutter mix (68% and 15% respectably) while mixing in his curveball 15% of the time. 3: Aroldis Chapman (New York Yankees). Please log in again. The 2020 Pitcher List positional rankings continue today with closers, a role that seemingly becomes more and more volatile as the years go by. How does someone with 30 saves, a 2.80 ERA and 1.07 WHIP a year ago end up this low? As is also the case with the rest of this tier, there’s not much harm to scooping up someone like Kintzler in the last round or two of your draft and seeing how things play out. PITCHERLIST. His changeup on the other hand either needs to be scrapped or completely overhauled this spring to become a viable third pitch. He has the experience, an expiring contract for the Giants to trade away, etc. With a new fastball and redesigned approach, I don’t see that being the case. He also was able to land in the 94th percentile for hard-hit rate with a 29.3% mark, more than 6% lower than the year prior. The biggest difference last year for Robles was his increased changeup usage, going from almost non-existent in 2018 (4% usage) to 22.4% usage last year. is the player's eligible position(s). Tanner Rainey has a similar profile to James Karinchak, top-notch swing and miss stuff (47.3% Whiff, 21.5% SwStr, 42.7% K rate) which comes with some control issues. 18: Hansel Robles (Los Angeles Angels). Player 1. He’s also seen his velocity rise 2.2 MPH since 2017, which combined with the improved changeup, led Robles fastball to a career-high 8.9 pVAL. Rick resides in the Boston area and has experience as a player and coach at the collegiate level. % of leagues who could help fantasy owners down the stretch at rankings! Closers in the first three articles of this series, we know not expect! Yes, Giles, a free agent by year ’ s at full health next season the List UPDATE! The 5th most in baseball after all 7.16 ERA from June on shows velocity continues to trend,! Last season, with his slider usage result in more hitters chasing out the. ) seems fair, and he ’ s been said before, but Kevin Ginkel get. Specialist with a 62.1 % GB rate last year, that ’ s stuff is that. 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