Following up on our weekly closers and holds articles will be our top 100 relief pitchers for SV+HD leagues every Friday. Use this list to get a feel for the current reliever market and to gauge value for trades, waiver adds, etc.
Keep in mind, holds are much more volatile and harder to predict than saves. Only seven pitchers have recorded 30 or more holds since 2016, while 37 closers have gone over 30 saves in that same time frame.
Notes
- After a full, strange week of baseball, of course, Shane Greene is leading the league in saves with five. Working in his third game in as many days, Greene finally allowed his first baserunner yesterday and has been stellar to begin the year. While I don’t believe this run will last, the Tigers and fantasy owners alike have to be excited Greene keeps pumping up his trade value.
- Behind Greene’s five saves, Josh Hader and Lou Trivino each had four saves/holds of their own. Trivino has great stuff and despite the second-half struggles from last year should be a quality set up man.
- A.J. Minter was activated off the DL yesterday and will enter the save mix right away. He should be a good source of saves/holds and good ratios, and his strikeout numbers should rise given his 15.5% career swinging-strike rate.
- Relievers Dellin Betances and Jeremy Jeffress are both about a week away from returning. Betances is scheduled to face hitters soon, and Jeffress is starting a rehab stint today. Both should return to setup roles with Jeffress mixing in for saves as well.
Always appreciate these lists but tiers and something indicating week-to-week movement would make them even more helpful.
Absolutely agree. Knowing who’s rising and fallling is really helpful.
Hopefully by next week we will have those tables, similar to last years, ready.
I know Lugo has been super shaky lately but I’m a little surprised to not see him in the top 100
Seems to falling out of favor behind Familia and Wilson (maybe Gsellman?). Few good appearances can get him back on the list.
Any guess where you will slot Kimbrel once he signs, team aside? Or maybe best and worst case?
Top 12 for sure unless it’s the Dodgers where he’d work the 8th.
Is this a season long list? I’m confused why Greene would be 47th when he’s been so dominant to this point? Is it because he’s expected to be traded into a setup role at some point?
Always thinking about the rest of the season with these lists. He’s that low partly cause he’ll likely be traded and partly because he has pedestrian career numbers.
Is #87 supposed to be Javier Guerra from the Jays or Junior Guerra from the Brewers?