Closer Rankings (7/10/19)

Another week, another set of closer rankings. The following ranks are based on accumulating Saves with talent as a secondary consideration. The order is the ranking I would prefer to roster them. In some instances, I wasn’t sure (e.g. Ken Giles), I made a note.

I had a tough time ranking #12 to #30. Each of these pitchers has some questions surrounding them mainly be traded or being replaced by someone the team trades for. It’s a tough balance.

Closer Rankings (7/10/19)
Rank Tier Name Notes
1 Studs (won’t be replaced) Josh Hader
2 Brad Hand
3 Craig Kimbrel
4 Kenley Jansen
5 Aroldis Chapman
6 Roberto Osuna
7 Carlos Martinez The Cards situation is unstable
8 Studs who may be traded Kirby Yates
9 Will Smith
10 Edwin Diaz
11 Felipe Vazquez
12 Decent but team could add a stud Sean Doolittle This and the next two groups form a blob of unknown
13 Hector Neris
14 Emilio Pagan
15 Shawn Kelley
16 Hansel Robles
17 Taylor Rogers
18 Uhhh … they have a job for now Raisel Iglesias He’s tough to rank/place. Must own and could see at #10
19 Liam Hendriks
20 Greg Holland
21 Scott Oberg (Wade Davis)
22 Luke Jackson
23 Brandon Workman
24 Mychal Givens
25 Roenis Elias
26 OK and likely to be traded Shane Greene Moved this group down. The above group and it have a trade off of talent vs role
27 Ken Giles He could be up at #12, tough rank
28 Alex Colome
29 Sergio Romo
30 Ian Kennedy
31 Top of the queue if the closer is traded Aaron Bummer I moved this whole group up. Buy the talent.
32 Joe Biagini
33 Joe Jimenez
34 Kyle Crick
35 Nick Anderson
36 Reyes Moronta
37 Knocking on the door for a job Blake Treinen All are must own at this point
38 John Gant
39 Nathan Eovaldi
40 Wade Davis (Scott Oberg)
41 Michael Lorenzen
42 A.J. Minter
43 Seth Lugo
44 Hunter Strickland
45 Colin Poche
46 Craig Stammen
47 Stud backups with good ratios Chris Martin
48 Ryan Pressly
49 Ty Buttrey
50 Adam Ottavino
51 Dart throws Jose Leclerc
52 Matt Barnes
53 Daniel Hudson
54 Trevor May
55 Fernando Rodney
56 Tony Watson
57 Miguel Castro
58 Sam Dyson
59 Yoan Lopez
60 Amir Garrett
61 Richard Bleier
62 Kevin McCarthy
63 Jose Alvarado
64 Diego Castillo
65 David Robertson
66 Nick Wittgren





Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.

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Robertmember
4 years ago

Since Andrew Miller isn’t even a dart throw, is he not worth rostering at all?