Top 50 Dynasty Relievers for 2026 Fantasy Baseball

The 2025 baseball season is still not quite finished, but for dynasty league players, the planning for the 2026 season is, or should be, already started.

It is never too soon to start formulating your plan and compiling your lists of the top players you should target in trades or upcoming drafts or auctions. If you want to win the league title next year, the first steps to do that start now.

This is where I step into the picture? In an effort to kickstart your offseason planning, welcome to the first positional breakdown of the 2026 Top Dynasty players. For the next 10 weeks I will break down who I think are the top 50 (or 100 for the starting pitchers) players at each position, with outfielders broken down into left, center and right fielders – not one big blob.

So get your pencils sharpened and pad of paper out (does anyone actually use a pencil and pad of paper these days) to take notes on the Top 50 Dynasty Relievers for 2026.

THE RELIEVERS

This week the first installment of Top Dynasty Keepers for 2026 features relief pitchers.

When it comes to relievers, I have slowly evolved how I rank them and go after them over the years. When fantasy baseball first started, no one cared about setup men as holds was never tracked as a scoring category. The only people we cared about were closers, closers and more closers.

With most leagues now including holds as a separate scoring category or go with Holds + Saves or some combination that includes holds, the top setup men are now top assets to have on your team.

Who To Target?

But who do you target? Closers? Setup men? Both?

Relievers are very inconsistent and have a shorter shelf life compared to other positions. Relievers could have had a great 2024 or 2025 season only to implode implode and are suddenly in the minors or buried to mop-up duty.

I Also don’t care as much about age of a reliever like I do with position players. OK, age is still a factor as a 38-year-old reliever scares me more than a 28-year old reliever. But if a reliever is 33 and has been consistent for several years, I’m going to take him just as quickly as I would a 25-year-old flamethrower who hasn’t figured it out on the mound yet.

Target a team?

This is my biggest change in how I am approaching my relievers. Instead of trying to guess who the top closers and top setup men are going to be, I am starting to target teams that have had the best BULLPENS for the last two or three years. Teams like the Padres, Mariners or Astros, to name a few, have had very deep bullpens. If a closer goes down, like the Astros had with Josh Hader this year, you don’t have to scramble as much to find a closer if you already had Bryan Abreu, Bryan King and Bennett Sousa on your team.

This approach obviously works with teams expected to win a lot of games and not the Colorado Rockies. But if you have three to four relievers from one top team, you will rack up a lot of saves and especially holds.

Now, let’s get to the relievers who cracked the Top Dynasty Keepers list for 2026.

TIER 5

*Age as of April 1, 2026

RANK	PLAYER	2025 TEAM	AGE
50	Will Vest	DET	30
49	Seranthony Dominguez	TOR	32
48	Pete Fairbanks	TB	32
47	Kyle Finnegan	DET	34
46	Fernando Cruz	NYY	36
45	Orion Kerkering	PHI	24
44	Bennett Sousa	HOU	30
43	JoJo Romero	STL	29
42	Camilo Doval	NYY	28
41	Jose Alvarado	PHI	30

A Stew of Good Relievers

You can shuffle the players in this tier in any order you want. There are a host of players in this tier who are closers or have been closers. Lead by Will Vest, Pete Fairbanks and Kyle Finnegan, this group racked up more than 115 saves and more than 100 holds.

Together, they are all solid pitchers who aren’t going to hurt you. If you are looking for strikeouts in your pen, you can do a lot worse than Seranthony Dominguez, Fernando Cruz, Bennett Sousa or Jose Alvarado. Those four players all averaged more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings this year. However, Dominguez and Cruz also walked more than four batters per nine, not a trait you want in your relievers.

The one player who I could rank higher is Alvarado as he racks up the strikeouts and doesn’t walk a lot of batters. But with Jhoan Duran now in Philly, Alvarado’s role in 2026 is not defined as he has a club option with the Phillies. So he could be a setup man, and in leagues that value saves more than holds, that hurts his value.

TIER 4

RANK	PLAYER	2025 TEAM	AGE
40	Randy Rodriguez	SFG	26
39	Matt Strahm	PHI	34
38	Garrett Whitlock	BOS	29
37	Brendon Little	TOR	29
36	Griffin Jax	TB	31
35	Bryan King	HOU	29
34	Luke Weaver	NYY	32
33	Garrett Cleavinger	TB	31
32	Phil Maton	TEX	33
31	Edwin Uceta	TB	28

Need Strikeouts?

If you want to give this tier a nickname, it would the the Strikeout Gang. Every player in this tier averaged more than nine strikeouts per nine innings and nearly all of them were over 10 K/9. That is pretty impressive.

Together these are the relievers who coming into high leverage situations and earning the holds while picking up a few saves here and there when the team’s closer has the day off.

One of the players I really like in this tier is Randy Rodriguez of the Giants. Appearing in 50 games, he had a 1.78 ERA and 0.888 WHIP to pair with an 11.9 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 rate. The reason I didn’t rank him higher is due to the fact that in 2024 he had a 4.30 ERA and 1.242 WHIP while posting a 9.1 K/9 rate and 3.1 BB/9 rate. So, what kind of pitcher is Rodriguez going forward, the 2025 version or the 2024 version?

TIER 3

RANK	PLAYER	2025 TEAM	AGE
30	Jason Adam	SD	34
29	Tony Santillan	CIN	28
28	Felix Bautista	BAL	29
27	Brad Keller	CHC	30
26	Jeff Hoffman	TOR	33
25	Raisel Iglesias	ATL	36
24	Hunter Gaddis	CLE	27
23	Gabe Speier	SEA	30
22	Trevor Megill	MIL	32
21	Kenley Jansen	LAA	38

Setup Men Are Just As Valuable

Jason Adam is an outstanding reliever, but he underwent season-ending surgery in early September to repair a ruptured left quadriceps tendon and is expected to need six to nine months to recover. That means he could be out until June, hurting his value. But when healthy, he strikes out batters, doesn’t give up a lot of hits or walks and racks up the holds.

Hunter Gaddis and Gabe Speier know their role and they do it well as they are not counted on to get the save, but they put out a lot of fires. Gaddis earned 35 holds this season while striking out 9.86 batters per nine and posting a 1.19 WHIP. Speier, who was limited to 23.2 innings of work in 2024, bounced back to have an outstanding season with a 2.61 ERA and 0.87 WHIP while strikeout out 11.5 per nine and recording 24 holds.

Just Keeps Recording Saves

When it comes to Kenley Jansen, I have just decided that he is going to pitch forever and rack up saves forever. The dude is going to be 38 on Opening Day and for the last several years I keep thinking Father Time is going to catch up to him. Yet all he did this year was record 29 saves with a 2.59 ERA and 0.95 WHIP and nearly averaged a strikeout per inning. So I’m not going to write him off.

TIER 2

RANK	PLAYER	2025 TEAM	AGE
20	Ronny Henriquez	MIA	25
19	Alex Vesia	LAD	29
18	Emmanuel Clase	CLE	28
17	Carlos Estevez	KC	33
16	Daniel Palencia	CHC	26
15	Devin Williams	NYY	31
14	Matt Brash	SEA	27
13	Emilio Pagan	CIN	34
12	David Bednar	NYY	30
11	Aroldis Chapman	BOS	38

The Breakout

Ronny Henriquez, who missed the 2023 season, accumulated 31 total innings of work in 2022 and 2024 but had a 2.90 ERA and 1.161 WHIP. He finally had his breakout season in 2025 as he had 26 holds and seven saves with a 2.22 ERA and 1.10 WHIP with a 12.08 K/9 rate. The only drawback with Henriquez is plays for a team that simply doesn’t like to try to win. So while I expect him to remain a very good reliever, he is likely not going to have a lot of saves and/or holds as the losses outnumber the wins.

Ready to Bounce Back

Emmanuel Clase has been a top closer for several years when it comes to notching saves, and if you want to move him up, be my guest. He didn’t have a bad season – unless you count being suspended for 80 games as bad. The suspension didn’t drop Clase in my rankings, his recent history did. In two of the last three seasons he has posted ERAs of 3.23 and 3.22 with WHIPs of 1.23 and 1.16 while striking out less than a hitter per inning. Those numbers are a far cry from his 2024 season in which he had a 0.61 ERA and 0.66 WHIP. He is still a very good closer, just not a top 10 reliever in my world.

You probably see Devin Williams in this tier and laugh at him being ranked 16th on my list. Yes, the 4.79 ERA was the worst of his career while his 1.129 WHIP was his worst showing since 2021. But Williams also had a 13.1 K/9 rate and his 3.6 BB/9 was his best rate since 2020. While his 6.5 H/9 was his worst rate since 2021, opponents still only hit .197 against him.

Williams was not great this season, but his underlying numbers were close to his career average. I’m not going to throw him to the curb after one bad season.

The Old Man, Version 2

Let’s talk about Aroldis Chapman. Basically everything I said about Jansen above applies to Chapman here. He is Jansen, but better –  much higher strikeout rate, better walk rate, better H/9 rate, lower ERA and lower WHIP. Until Chapman hits the wall, I’m not going to avoid him just because he will be 38 next year. There is nothing wrong with targeting a few players you want for only a year or two in dynasty leagues.

TIER 1

RANK	PLAYER	2025 TEAM	AGE
10	Robert Suarez	SD	35
9	Abner Uribe	MIL	25
8	Jeremiah Estrada	SD	26
7	Cade Smith	CLE	26
6	Bryan Abreu	HOU	28
5	Edwin Diaz	NYM	32
4	Jhoan Duran	MIN	28
3	Andres Munoz	SEA	27
2	Josh Hader	HOU	32
1	Mason Miller	SD	27

Like a lot of the pitches found in list of 50 relievers, Robert Suarez is no spring chicken as he will be 35 when next season starts. But since joining the Padres in 2022 Suarez has a 2.97 ERA and 0.981 WHIP in 206 appearances with a 9.4 K/9 rate and 2.7 BB/9 rate. That is pretty dang good. He notched 40 saves this season after having 36 in 2024 and he doesn’t appear to be slowing down as his 9.7 K/9 was the second-best of his career while his 0.904 WHIP tied for his career best.

The Non-Closer Studs

You may be surprised to see Abner Uribe listed here. He appeared in 32 games in 2023 and had a 1.76 ERA, 1.174 WHIP and an 11.4 K/9 rate. He was limited to 14 games in 2024 but had a breakout season this year. In 75 appearances, he posted a 1.67 ERA and 1.035 WHIP. He had only seven saves but he had 37 holds while also striking out 10.8 batters per nine innings. Like another reliever in this tier, Uribe is an excellent setup man who can easily be a closer if called upon to do so.

It doesn’t matter what role Jeremiah Estrada, Cade Smith and Bryan Abreu fill. They are simply three of the best relievers in the game.

Estrada only notched three saves this past season, but he had 30 holes and had a 13.32 K/9 rate. And that rate is no fluke as his career rate is 13.35 K/9. Meanwhile, Smith has established himself as a top reliever in his two seasons in Cleveland. When Clase was suspended, Smith stepped in an recorded 16 saves to go with his 19 holds. Like Estrada, Smith can blow the ball past hitters as he had a 12.71 K/9 rate this year and in his brief career it is 12.50.

Abreu has been dominant out of the pen for several years now. This year was no different as he had 25 holds and then stepped into the closer’s role when Josh Hader went down and finished with seven saves to go along with a 13.31 K/9 rate.

Two Stud Closers and a “Former” Closer

It seems Andres Munoz is just getting better as each season passes. Over the last four seasons his ERAs have been 2.49, 2.94, 2.12 and 1.73 his save totals have been 4, 13, 22 and 38. Munoz has a career K/9 rate of 12.3 with a 1.027 WHIP. At this stage of his career, he is pretty much automatic when it comes to closing a game for the Mariners.

The same can be said for Hader. Over the last two seasons with the Astros he is 42-for-47 in save opportunities and was 28-for29 this season. He struck out 12.99 batters per nine this year and 13.31 last season. That is notch below his career rate of 14.56, but I’ll take nearly 13 K/9 for a season all the time. Hader did suffer a shoulder injury in August, but he should be 100% by the start of next season, meaning you can pencil him for success on the mound once again.

In one of the more biggest surprises of the season, the Athletics traded Mason Miller to San Diego ahead of the trade deadline, allowing the Padres to add to a bullpen that was already amazingly deep. With the A’s Miller had 20 saves and a 3.76 ERA and 1.017 WHIP with a 13.9 K/9 rate. With the Padres, Miller was used more as the setup man to Suarez as he had only two saves but recorded 10 holds.

His numbers in a Padres uniform were just silly. In 22 appearances he had a 0.77 ERA and 0.729 WHIP. In 23.1 innings he allowed only seven hits while fanning 45 batters! This is a 17.4 K/9 rate. Those are video game numbers. Whether Miller is the closer or not next season doesn’t matter. He is my top reliever in the game.

Thank You

I know some of you will agree with this list for the most part and others will strongly disagree, but no matter what, thanks for reading. Come back again next week when I unveil the Top 100 Dynasty Keepers – Starting Pitchers list for 2026.