Bullpen Chart
Below, you’ll find bullpen charts for each team. Bullpens are a messy business to track, but the purpose here is to highlight each team’s closer(s) and setup men. Middle and long relief pitchers will not be listed. You can more or less expect the chart to read left-to-right, top-to-bottom in order of importance, but again, it can be a fluid situation day-to-day and/or week-to-week. So, not only are we highlighting saves options, we’ve got you holds folks covered, too!
For stats/rankings/projections, see all the fun links below.
Please note: For injuries, only official IL placements are recorded.
Check out the Player Rater and filter by “RP” to see rankings!
Check out Season, Last 7 Days, and Last 30 Days stats pages and filter by “RP” to see stats!
Subscribers: Check out the Relievonator for today/tomorrow projections and for all relief game logs from the last 14 days!
* denotes LHP
AL West | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Closer | Setup | Setup | Injured | |
Angels | Carlos Estevez | Robert Stephenson | Ben Joyce | |
Astros | *Josh Hader | Ryan Pressly | Bryan Abreu | |
Athletics | Dany Jimenez | Lucas Erceg | Zach Jackson |
|
Mariners | Andres Munoz | Matt Brash | *Gabe Speier | Gregory Santos |
Rangers | Jose Leclerc | Josh Sborz | David Robertson |
AL Central | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Closer | Setup | Setup | Injured | |
Guardians | Emmanuel Clase | Scott Barlow | *Sam Hentges | Trevor Stephan |
Royals | *Will Smith | James McArthur | Carlos Hernandez | |
Tigers | Alex Lange | Jason Foley | *Tyler Holton | |
Twins | Griffin Jax | Justin Topa | *Steven Okert | Jhoan Duran |
White Sox | John Brebbia | *Tim Hill | Jordan Leasure |
AL East | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Closer | Setup | Setup | Injured | |
Blue Jays | Jordan Romano | Erik Swanson | *Tim Mayza | |
Orioles | Craig Kimbrel | Yennier Cano | *Danny Coulombe | Felix Bautista |
Rays | Pete Fairbanks | Jason Adam |
|
|
Red Sox | Kenley Jansen | Chris Martin | Josh Winckowski | |
Yankees | Clay Holmes | Tommy Kahnle | *Caleb Ferguson |
NL West | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Closer | Setup | Setup | Injured | |
Diamondbacks | Paul Sewald | Kevin Ginkel | Scott McGough | |
Dodgers | Evan Phillips | Brusdar Graterol | Joe Kelly | |
Giants | Camilo Doval | Tyler Rogers | *Taylor Rogers | |
Padres | Robert Suarez | *Yuki Matsui | *Wandy Peralta
Woo Suk Go |
|
Rockies | Justin Lawrence | Daniel Bard | Jake Bird |
NL Central | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Closer | Setup | Setup | Injured | |
|
Trevor Megill | *Hoby Milner | Taylor Clarke | |
Cardinals | Ryan Helsley | Giovanny Gallegos | *JoJo Romero | |
|
Adbert Alzolay | Hector Neris | Julian Merryweather | |
|
David Bednar | *Aroldis Chapman | Colin Holderman | |
|
Alexis Diaz | Lucas Sims | Emilio Pagan |
NL East | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Closer | Setup | Setup | Injured | |
Braves | Raisel Iglesias | *A.J. Minter |
|
|
Marlins |
|
*Andrew Nardi | J.T. Chargois | |
Mets | Edwin Diaz | *Brooks Raley | Drew Smith | |
Nationals | Kyle Finnegan | Hunter Harvey | Tanner Rainey | |
Phillies | *Jose Alvarado | Jeff Hoffman | Seranthony Dominguez |
Good rankings. A few notes. Harvey is better than Finnigan and should overtake him. Kenley Jansen may well be traded and the favourites are the Dodgers or Royals. So be careful on Evan Phillips. Of course Phillips can do the job just as well so why the Dodgers would replace him is questionable. San Diego is a real crap shoot that may start with Suarez but Yuki Matsui will take over quickly if Suarez falters. Go has closer experience and might be considered. Finally Alvarado is an excellent pitcher and should be able to keep the job….except….Philly’s bullpen has 4 to even 5 guys that can close. I would still go Alvarez.
Yeah I’m a little iffy on Finnegan vs Harvey but right now just leaning with the guy who saved 28 games.
Got an article coming out pretty soon that breaks all the pens down in a cursory way…Suarez makes much more money than Matsui so I figure he’s top dog even if it’s a timeshare, and Alvarado doesn’t have any competition in my mind. Maaaybe Kerkering eventually but I’m not giving a dude with 3 innings to his name much leverage for the time being.
Hi JKJ! Nice work. One bit of feedback, Yuki Matsui is a lefty too!
Ope! Good catch.
NL only 5×5 keeper.. I have both Finnegan at $5 and Harvey at $8- it would be crazy to keep both.. but is it gonna end up being Harvey’s job? Who do I keep, or is it neither and see what I can get in a trade?
I wanna say it’s Finnegan to start. Leash is probably short. If I’m keeping one it’s Finnegan for sure, then hoping to snag Harvey off waivers if necessary.
umm Not too sure about that. Harvey is clearly the better pitcher so I would bet on him overtaking Finnigan. But at $5 and $8 I would not protect either. Sounds funny but you can get them even cheaper.
With Robertson going to the Rangers is he the guy? How many saves do you see?
He struggled with Miami so it’s really hard to say. I still like Leclerc to be the lead there.
Cool, thanks
Hader or DWill as the better keeper option?
It’s honestly like comparing a honeycrisp apple to a pink lady. Personal preference. Upside is almost identical but their situations aren’t. Hader is getting PAID but still might have a tad shorter leash with Pressly behind him, while Airbender has no challengers yet is on a worse team.
I’m waiting for the Holds Chart Thread. Do you know when is it gonna be up? Thanks in advance. :)
Thank you for doing this chart.
I’m thinking of joining a 12 team saves/holds league for the first time. Can you give me your thoughts on when to draft a relief pitcher? It seems that closers won’t go as early in drafts with each MLB team having a “holds” guy as well. The league rules are 9 pitchers active for each week so would it be 6 SP’s and 3 RP’s or 7&2? I could be totally wrong on my thinking, please pass along the strategy of drafting a pitching staff. Thanks again.
Hey Pack (can I call you Pack?),
I’m always a bats-early type of drafter, though I do like a starting arm by round 5 probably. Kind of just depends how the draft is going and all that.
Is this a league with SVHD as a category or separate SV and HD categories? If it’s the former, you can wait on RP for a good while, cuz that just broadens the field considerably. If it’s the latter, then that changes things a little. I do like the idea of securing a top closer or two as opposed to just “guys in the mix.” I’m not against paying a single-digit round price for a Helsley or a Williams or a Romano. My usual strategy is to grab one of those types then wait til the end for a couple speculative types, like Herget or Hughes or Graveman this year.
On the other hand, you can just outright punt RP if you want. Slot RP-eligible starters in there. If it’s a points league, I wouldn’t recommend that, cuz a steady stream of saves/holds will add up. If it’s cats or roto, you can straight punt if you like.
Pack is fine…..lol
It’s a roto league, 12 teams, save/holds is one category.
So you are saying the draft strategy would be to get an established closer then I can wait for further closers and hold guys?
It’s a pretty hefty entry fee so I want to enter but have never played SVHD cat before. There is FAAB so there is always that too.
I draft bats first as you said so that doesn’t change.
Roto is a bit different beast, so I still like to get at least one of the elite-er guys cuz they help keep your ERA, WHIP, K, etc. in check. I bet you see Diaz and Clase go in like R3 or R4 at the latest. Don’t think you need to go paying that, especially in SVHD. But a Helsley, Doval, [Scott] Barlow, Bednar type…they’re going later and should still give good coverage across the board.
So yeah, my advice would be to grab one of those later guys in R7 or R8, just depending on if there’s been The RP Run in your draft yet (seems like all drafts have one), and then wait a bit more for a Leclerc, Sewald, Munoz, Fairbanks type. Those guys are high-upside but a tad volatile cuz they aren’t 100% closers and/or consistent and/or are injury risks.
Also, setup guys always come out of nowhere. There will be gems on the wire throughout the season.
So to sum up: secure a very good closer/setup man like Helsley, Barlow, Duran, Bautista, Bednar, etc. a tad earlier, then fill in with Jose Leclerc, Alexis Diaz, Jorge Lopez, Seranthony Dominguez, Alex Lange etc. types later. And keep an eye on the wire for guys rising to higher-leverage situations. My weekly SAGNOF Bullpen Report will do its best to highlight guys like that!
Great, thank you. I think I’ll give it a shot.
The baseball season is such a grind and you can tell when some fantasy players in the league take a week off or more. Gives us guys who stick it out a better chance for key pick ups on the wire.
Thanks JKJ!
Will look do Deal Bautista.
Have Helsley(10) and Bautista(10) and Bednar(4) I know keeping closers is not usually wise. Would you keep Severino(10) or Luis Garcia (5) or Pablo Lopez(6)
or Gleyber(10) over any of these closers?
Standard 5×5 $260
9 keepers
Hey Eric,
With the way saves are these days, I’m not against keeping the elites. Helsley and Bednar both qualify in my book. Wouldn’t keep Bautista even with how impressive he was. I’ll ping Blair, our resident SP expert, to chime in on which arm to keep over Bautista, but my call would be PabLo.
I would keep a wild raccoon in my bathroom over keeping a closer.
With 9 keepers per team I imagine others will be doing the same. I say keep them saves lest you spend the season scraping the wire and lamenting what you could have held onto!
Haha