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Closing Time 4/18: Ranking the Top 30 Closers Every Tuesday

Ranking baseball's closers for the 2023 season.

Ryan Pressly currently has an 8.44 ERA, 0-2 record and has not pitched since April 11th when he allowed 3 earned runs on a walk of home run to Ji Hwan Bae (not sure the changeup was the best call, Pressly did not locate it well) . The early results aren’t concerning to me, what is is though is the possibility he may be dealing with something (potentially an injury) that is once again limiting his availability.

For a closer of Pressly’s caliber, it’s way too early to consider dropping him, but we should get a sense of where he’s at health wise this week hopefully, as he missed this entire past week. The good news is, Pressly has been able to get Whiffs at a high rate still, and control remains a plus with just one walk over 6 games. Even though he dips in the ranks this week, you’ll still want to stick with Pressly in all formats and hope that he’ll be available to pitch as soon as today.

 

Notes

 

  • Daniel Bard is set to return from the IL today and is worth a look in most leagues where he was dropped. Bard struck out the side in his lone rehab inning of work, and all reports indicate his velo is in the upper 90’s.  Pierce Johnson pitched well outside of one outing in his stead, but will move back into a setup role sooner rather than later.
  • It’s been a slow start for a few closers on this list (ahem, Camilo Doval) so it was nice to see Alex Lange pick up his second save of the season last week, and he’s now put up three great outings in a row (3 IP, 0 H, BB, 4 K). The Tigers will make rostering Lange frustrating, but he still has one of the breaking balls in the game and should start missing more bats once he see’s more right handed batters.

 

  • David Robertson and Adam Ottavino are both likely to see save chances for the Mets moving forward, with Robertson the clear 1A option. I think in deeper leagues it makes sense to roster both as they at least shouldn’t hurt your team, but just don’t expect either to eclipse 25-30 saves this season.
  • Andrew Chafin picked up another save for the Diamondbacks yesterday, now bringing his total for the season up to 3. Chafin is looking like the clear cut closer option here, especially with Scott McGough continuing to struggle. Miguel Castro should be in the mix against right handed heavy lineups as well, but Chafin should be the favorite for most situations moving forward.

 

Rank Pitcher TeamChange
1Emmanuel ClaseT1CLE-
2Félix BautistaBAL+2
3Devin WilliamsNYM-1
4Josh HaderHOU-1
5Jordan RomanoLAA-
6Ryan HelsleyBAL-
7Kenley JansenDET+1
8Jhoan Duran
T2
PHI+1
9Pete FairbanksMIA+1
10Paul SewaldARI+1
11Ryan Pressly-4
12Evan PhillipsLAD-
13David Bednar
T3
NYY-
14Clay HolmesNYM-
15Alexis DíazTEX-
16Camilo DovalNYY-
17A.J. PukARI+2
18Daniel BardSEA+UR
19Alex LangeKC+3
20David Robertson
T4
-3
21Andrew ChafinCIN+6
22A.J. MinterNYM-2
23Scott BarlowATH-2
24José LeclercSD-1
25Reynaldo LópezATL-1
26Michael FulmerSF-8
27Carlos EstévezKC-2
28Kyle Finnegan
T5
DET+1
29Craig KimbrelNYM-3
30Zach Jackson+UR

 

Watch List

 

And if you want more daily reliever updates, please check out our Reliever Ranks series

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Rick Graham

Rick resides in the Boston area and has experience as a player and coach at the collegiate level. He has been covering relievers for Pitcher List since 2017.

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