After a rocky start to the season, Ryan Pressly has turned things around and become one of the best early season waiver wire adds at the position. He’s battled through some bad luck (.392 BABIP is almost a full .100 higher than his career average) yet was still able to hold a 3.60 ERA and 31% K rate. Since recording his first save on August 10th, he has led the league in saves with 12, with only Brad Hand being the only other closer to record more than eight saves over that time. It wasn’t the dominant Pressly we were used to the past two seasons, but in a shortened season, the 12 saves have made him the best late round/waiver wire reliever add this year (Trevor Rosenthal being a close second).
Notes
- Giovanny Gallegos return to the Cardinals could have gone better. He allowed two hits and a walk over .2 IP but did strike out two batters. It remains to be seen where the Cardinals go with their closer situation for the last week of the year, but Gallegos, who missed just 10 days with a groin injury, should be considered the favorite at this point.
- Rafael Dolis had locked down the Jays closer role leading up to his knee injury this past week, and he is expected to be available today. Anthony Bass picked up a save on Sunday in Dolis’s absence, but I don’t see that happening with a healthy Dolis.
- Mike Mayers, the Angels best reliever this season, finally picked up a save last night and very well could be the team’s closer for the final week of the season. The veteran added a cutter to his repertoire this year, which has helped lead to his breakout.
- Daniel Hudson has only picked up one save over the past two weeks and may be out as the team’s closer. Kyle McGowin converted the team’s last save and could be an interesting deep league pick up for the final week of the season.
| Rank | Pitcher | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liam HendriksT1 | - |
| 2 | Aroldis Chapman | - |
| 3 | Kenley Jansen | - |
| 4 | Edwin Díaz | +1 |
| 5 | Brad Hand | +2 |
| 6 | Ryan Pressly | - |
| 7 | Josh Hader | -3 |
| 8 | Trevor RosenthalT2 | +2 |
| 9 | Mark Melancon | -1 |
| 10 | Raisel Iglesias | +1 |
| 11 | Alex Colomé | -2 |
| 12 | Jeremy Jeffress | +3 |
| 13 | Nick Anderson | - |
| 14 | +4 | |
| 15 | Héctor NerisT3 | +2 |
| 16 | Taylor Rogers | -2 |
| 17 | Matt Barnes | +8 |
| 18 | Stefan Crichton | +11 |
| 19 | Rafael Montero | -7 |
| 20 | Daniel Bard | -4 |
| 21 | Brandon Kintzler | -2 |
| 22 | T4 | -2 |
| 23 | Yoshi Hirano | -2 |
| 24 | Giovanny Gallegos | +UR |
| 25 | Bryan Garcia | -2 |
| 26 | Richard Rodríguez | -4 |
| 27 | Rafael Dolis | -1 |
| 28 | +UR | |
| 29 | Daniel Hudson | -5 |
| 30 | César Valdez | - |
Photo by Mark LoMoglio/Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@freshmeatcomm on Twitter)