All Star Break Consensus Ranks: Closers
Time to rank the closers!
Again, we’re going to the bullpen report guys to do the rankings — Alan Harrison, Ben Pasinkoff and Colin Zarzycki at your service.
Take a good look now, because any minute now things might change. The Brewers, Phillies, Mets, Astros, Marlins, Cubs, and Padres all look like they could sell a bullpen piece. Problem is, there are fewer identifiable buyers with that need. Detroit is obvious. Maybe the Braves could use a lefty. Maybe the Orioles would buy a closer. Maybe the Dodgers would trade for a reliever, Ned Colletti is crazy like that.
So maybe there will be less movement in these rankings than we anticipate.
With the color-coding we hope to highlight the biggest movers. That definition changes as you follow the ranks down the list — players had to move more to register a color change as you near the bottom of the list. These are rest-of-season rankings for 5×5 roto. You can find the projections on every player page and the depth charts here.
| RG | Reliever | BP | AH | CZ |
| 1 | Craig Kimbrel | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Aroldis Chapman | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Kenley Jansen | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | Jason Grilli | 3 | 4 | 6 |
| 5 | Joe Nathan | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| 6 | Greg Holland | 4 | 7 | 5 |
| 7 | Mariano Rivera | 7 | 6 | 8 |
| 8 | Addison Reed | 9 | 8 | 11 |
| 9 | Sergio Romo | 11 | 10 | 7 |
| 10 | Edward Mujica | 8 | 9 | 12 |
| 11 | Glen Perkins | 10 | 14 | 10 |
| 12 | Bobby Parnell | 13 | 12 | 15 |
| 13 | Casey Janssen | 15 | 13 | 13 |
| 14 | Rafael Soriano | 12 | 15 | 14 |
| 15 | Grant Balfour | 16 | 11 | 16 |
| 16 | Jonathan Papelbon | 17 | 16 | 18 |
| 17 | Fernando Rodney | 14 | 18 | 19 |
| 18 | Koji Uehara | 20 | 26 | 9 |
| 19 | Jim Johnson | 19 | 20 | 17 |
| 20 | Chris Perez | 22 | 19 | 21 |
| 21 | Ernesto Frieri | 18 | 21 | 23 |
| 22 | Joaquin Benoit | 21 | 22 | 20 |
| 23 | Huston Street | 23 | 17 | 24 |
| 24 | Rafael Betancourt | 24 | 25 | 22 |
| 25 | Francisco Rodriguez | 25 | 23 | 26 |
| 26 | Steve Cishek | 26 | 24 | 29 |
| 27 | Tom Wilhelmsen | 27 | 27 | 25 |
| 28 | Kevin Gregg | 29 | 28 | 27 |
| 29 | Jose Veras | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 30 | Jim Henderson | 30 | 31 | 33 |
| 31 | JJ Putz | 32 | 33 | 36 |
| 32 | Mark Melancon | 34 | 36 | 32 |
| 33 | Rex Brothers | 37 | 30 | 37 |
| 34 | Luke Gregerson | 36 | 38 | 31 |
| 35 | Heath Bell | 33 | 32 | 41 |
| 36 | Trevor Rosenthal | 31 | 34 | 41 |
| 37 | David Robertson | 35 | 37 | 35 |
| 38 | David Hernandez | 40 | 35 | 34 |
| 39 | Tommy Hunter | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| 40 | Andrew Bailey | 39 | 40 | 41 |
Also ranked once were Oliver Perez, John Axford, Antonio Bastardo, Jesse Crain, Steve Delabar, and Drew Smyly.
With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.
Kenley Jansen at 16 by AH sticks out like a sore thumb? Why the mediocre ranking? Seems like Jansen has metrics that puts him in top5. Is it health concerns in past?
Admittedly, my ranking of Jansen was an error on my behalf. He should be ranked #3 for me.
wow that was fast. Thanks.
That would put jansen #3 overall in consensus.
Not a problem. Just a “clerical error” from my secretary. I fired her, in case you were wondering.
I can’t believe how off Jeff Z’s rankings are! If he’s not going to put any thought into…oh wait
No “Where’s Verlander?” to complete the dead horse beating comments?
Where’s Ryan Howard?!
Well, if you put Ben Revere at pitcher, you’d probably see more home runs than Ben Revere the hitter…
No Brad Ziegler believers?
Bad platoon splits and very low strikeout percentage.
Will get some save opps until he gets burned, but will eventually slide back into a middle-relief role where he’s more useful (can come in with runners on and get GB, for example).
Glad to see Greg Holland getting some respect. He is dominant.
How is Holland not #1?!?!?
I’d put Frieri more around 12-15. Dude’s been excellent save for a few meltdowns, which relievers do have from time to time. A poor man’s Kimbrel/Chapman with a ridiculous K%.
While the K% is good, I think we’re all a little leery of the fact that he has the 3rd highest BB% of guys with 2+ saves. He’s not hurting you too much in WHIP with it, but a lot of that is due to a low BABIP/high LOB%.
Although 17th-26th (for me, at least) is fairly interchangeable.
Where do the experts agree: The good (Chapman, Kimbrel), the not in closing position (Bailey, Hunter), and the ugly teams (Veras, Gregg).
Where do the experts disagree: Uehara, Rosenthal, Bell, Brothers, Street, Gregerson.
On Rosenthal, that must have gone in as a typo since I have him 31. He’s another one we agree on!
If Bailey is out for the rest of the season how far up do you move Uehara?
This. Would love to hear if this changes that ranking or not.
Why is Benoit ranked so low? Wouldn’t you guess Detroit is going to have a lot of wins in the 2nd half? He seems to be their go to closer.
My personal concern is whether or not the Tigers will acquire a guy like K-Rod or (gulp) Gregg before the deadline. Benoit will probably jump 7-8 spots after the ASB.
Jim Leyland was extremely hesitant to let Benoit close, even with his elite peripherals. He really loves his “Proven Closer(TM)” (see Valverde)