Closer Rankings (7/2/19)
From now until the trade deadline at the month’s end, I will be publishing a weekly post on overall closer rankings. The focus is not the best closers, but the combination of talent, opportunity, the chance of being traded, other bullpen arms, and mainly accumulating Saves. These rankings could change on a dime but at least they provide some structure for speculating on Saves.
I find the rumor mill boring but usually where there is smoke, there is fire. For that reason, I’m basing the chances of being traded on MLBTraderumors and The Athletic’s most likely traded lists. If they are wrong, I’m wrong.
Here are the ranks so let the complaining begin.
| Rank | Tier | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Studs (won’t be replaced) | Craig Kimbrel | |
| 2 | Kenley Jansen | ||
| 3 | Josh Hader | ||
| 4 | Roberto Osuna | ||
| 5 | Aroldis Chapman | ||
| 6 | Brad Hand | ||
| 7 | Carlos Martinez | Tough to place, could be down at #18 | |
| 8 | Studs who may be traded | Kirby Yates | |
| 9 | Edwin Diaz | ||
| 10 | Will Smith | ||
| 11 | Felipe Vazquez | ||
| 12 | Decent but could add a stud | Sean Doolittle | |
| 13 | Hector Neris | ||
| 14 | Shawn Kelley | ||
| 15 | Hansel Robles | ||
| 16 | Taylor Rogers | ||
| 17 | Greg Holland | ||
| 18 | OK and likely to be traded | Ken Giles | |
| 19 | Shane Greene | ||
| 20 | Alex Colome | ||
| 21 | Sergio Romo | ||
| 22 | Ian Kennedy | ||
| 23 | Uhhh … they have a job for now | Raisel Iglesias | Lorenzen may already have the role |
| 24 | Scott Oberg | ||
| 25 | Emilio Pagan | ||
| 26 | Luke Jackson | ||
| 27 | Liam Hendriks | Treinen and he could change spots this week | |
| 28 | Brandon Workman | ||
| 29 | Mychal Givens | ||
| 30 | Roenis Elias | ||
| 31 | Knocking on the door for a job | Blake Treinen | |
| 32 | Nathan Eovaldi | ||
| 33 | Michael Lorenzen | ||
| 34 | Hunter Strickland | Could close once off the IL | |
| 35 | Joe Jimenez | ||
| 36 | Kyle Crick | ||
| 37 | A.J. Minter | I believe Atlanta will add a closer which limits his value | |
| 38 | Craig Stammen | ||
| 39 | Tony Watson | ||
| 40 | Wade Davis | ||
| 41 | Jose Alvarado | ||
| 42 | Diego Castillo | ||
| 43 | Top of line if the closer is traded | Aaron Bummer | |
| 44 | Nick Anderson | ||
| 45 | Joe Biagini | ||
| 46 | Reyes Moronta | ||
| 47 | Stud backups with good ratios | Chris Martin | Gets some Saves |
| 48 | Ryan Pressly | ||
| 49 | John Gant | ||
| 50 | Ty Buttrey | ||
| 52 | Adam Ottavino | ||
| 53 | Dart throws | Matt Barnes | |
| 54 | Trevor May | ||
| 55 | Fernando Rodney | ||
| 56 | Jose Leclerc | He could be higher, a tough situation to guage | |
| 57 | Miguel Castro | ||
| 58 | Sam Dyson | ||
| 59 | Daniel Hudson | ||
| 60 | Amir Garrett | ||
| 61 | Richard Bleier | ||
| 62 | Kevin McCarthy |
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.
Hector Neris?
Added him and Eovaldi
#13