Only six relievers rank in the top 8 this year in both K-BB% and SIERA: Edwin Díaz, Josh Hader, Ryan Helsley, Andrés Muñoz, Liam Hendriks and Joe Jiménez. That’s pretty elite company for the once highly-regarded RP prospect who has finally been able to put it all together for this breakout season. Jiménez only has eight SV+HLD’s on the year, however with three of them coming in the past week, Michael Fulmer now out of the picture, and Alex Lange struggling, we may finally see him receive consistent high leverage work, being that he is the team’s best reliever and all.
Notes
- We have three new names at the top of the list as the trade deadline created chaos in the reliever realm. While they likely won’t get many save chances moving forward, they should still be great for holds leagues. It will take some time for this list to stabilize following all of the trades as we wait and see what roles guys will settle into, so expect a lot of movement over the next few weeks.
- July was a particularly rough month on A.J. Minter as he allowed 7 earned runs and 15 hits over 9.1 innings of work. Luckily, with Will Smith out of the picture and Tyler Matzek still lagging behind, Minter should remain as the Braves top left-handed set up option. However, with Raisel Iglesias now in the picture and Kirby Yates back soon, the overall number of holds Minter may see could drop a good amount.
- Trevor May, Anthony Bender and Dany Jiménez all have returned from the IL this week, with the latter two likely being in the mix for saves right off the bat for their respective clubs. May has some new competition for holds now with Mychal Givens in town, but he should be able to win out there as Givens’ debut with the Mets did not go so well (5 hits, 5 ER, 2 HR while getting just 2 outs).
- A pair of Guardians relievers are sticking out, and while I talked about James Karinchak last week, Trevor Stephan has had a bit of a rollercoaster season when it comes to holds value. He’s pitched great most of the year, but only had two SV+HLD’s from April 22nd through July 10th while appearing in 25 games. He now has four over his last nine games (as well as a win) while also striking out 17 and walking ZERO (although he has allowed eleven hits). Both relievers are back on the rise giving their immense strikeout potential and increased high leverage usage.
Photo by Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter)
