We are in week 3 now and like every season, the closer position is one of uncertainty. Jim Johnson has already been replaced, Craig Kimbrel‘s shoulder is dinged up and Aroldis Chapman‘s face is in tact, but not his health status (he had his first bullpen session since getting hit in the head with a ball).

You could also own Ernesto Frieri who just started off your week with a blown save and a 52.000 ERA and 12.000 WHIP (I fall into this category). If you’re like me, you are just looking at all the options available to you which is where this closer report will help. So without further ado…

KFFL: Fantasy baseball closer depth charts

There are so many names, but only a few closers provide that sense of security. With that, comes the difficulty of knowing who is in what position with their respective teams. Tim Heaney (KFFL) just made your life easier by providing a closer depth chart with all the pertinent information. In a straight forward table, you can see who the current closer is, who their understudy/fill-in is and where their job security (JS) ranks on a scale from 1-5. You can also find their health outlook (HO) in case you don’t want to pick up glass man. Both scales are read from 1 being unstable and fragile to 5 being untouchable and durable. Below is Heaney’s chart for the AL Central, for the rest of his MLB closer depth chart, head over to his article.

AL Central

TEAM	JS	HO	CLOSER	UNDERSTUDY/FILL-IN	LURKER(S)
	1	5	Matt Lindstrom	Daniel WebbNate Jones DL	Maikel CletoRonald Belisario
	3	5	John Axford	Cody Allen	Vinnie Pestano
	4	4	Joe Nathan	Al Alburquerque	Joba ChamberlainPhil Coke
	5	5	Greg Holland	Kelvin HerreraWade Davis	Tim CollinsAaron Crow
	5	5	Glen Perkins	Jared Burton	Casey FlenMichael Tonkin

SportingNews: Ranking MLB closers in terms of job security

The closer carousel can spawn into its own new game following the likes of knockout pools. Pick a closer every week or two and if they lose their job, that’s a strike against you. This is the approach Matt Lutovsky (SportingNews) took when writing up his closer article. If job security is what you are after then these are the guys to look at. Below are Lutovsky’s top tier guys who would likely require an injury for them to be replaced as the closer for their team.

• Craig Kimbrel
  
• Kenley Jansen
• Greg Holland
• Glen Perkins
• Trevor Rosenthal
  

SI: Fantasy baseball closer rankings, news and notes

Michael Beller (Sports Illustrated) knows as well as anyone that the closer position is rarely ever static. Throughout the season, news comes up, notes are added and rankings are updated as well. For example on April 10 news broke that Jim Johnson would be out as the A’s closer and that it would be a closer by committee. Now Sean Doolittle, Luke Gregerson, Ryan Cook, and Dan Otero all will have the chance to fill the role any given night. For a sneak peek, here are his players ranked 8-12 (I just happen to like the guys he has in these slots).

If you are wondering who is ranked 1-7 and 13-49, you can find the rest of Beller’s updated rankings over at Sports Illustrated.

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