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Updated Closer Report (Fantasy Baseball)

Updated Closer Report (Fantasy Baseball)

Nice work, guys – we’ve made it to our final closer report of the preseason. Thankfully, it’s been a fairly uneventful spring for closers. No major injuries. Not many random switching of roles. Where we were a month ago, for the most part, we remain!

Nevertheless, as always, there’s been some shift in the hierarchy of closing situations. So let’s do our last preseason dive into the closing landscape. And shed no tears, my friends. We’ll be right here with you each and every week updating the relief pitcher landscape. But for now, let’s see how things stand:

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Team (Closer) Current Rank Previous Rank
Yankees (Aroldis Chapman)  1  1
Dodgers (Kenley Jansen)  2  2
Orioles (Zach Britton)  3  3
Giants (Mark Melancon)  4  4
Mariners (Edwin Diaz)  5  10
Cardinals (Seung-Hwan Oh)  6  5
Blue Jays (Roberto Osuna)  7  7
Red Sox (Craig Kimbrel)  8  8
Cubs (Wade Davis)  9  6
Royals (Kelvin Herrera)  10  9
Rays (Alex Colome)  11  11
Mets (Jeurys Familia)  12  13
White Sox (David Robertson)  13  12
Indians (Cody Allen)  14  14
Astros (Ken Giles)  15  15
Marlins (A.J. Ramos)  16  16
Tigers (Francisco Rodriguez)  17  19
Rangers (Sam Dyson)  18  17
Angels (Cam Bedrosian)  19  21
Pirates (Tony Watson)  20  18
Braves (Jim Johnson)  21  20
Rockies (Greg Holland)  22  24
Nationals (Blake Treinen) 23 28
Brewers (Neftali Feliz)  24  23
Diamondbacks (Fernando Rodney)  25  22
Phillies (Jeanmar Gomez)  26  27
Padres (Brandon Maurer)  27  26
Athletics (Ryan Madson)  28  29
Twins (Brandon Kintzler)  29  23
Reds Committee  30  30

 
As you can see, the changes have been fairly minimal, but there’s still plenty to discuss. I’ll break down the groups into the three different categories, mainly because I am OBSESSED with headings. Seriously. It’s a disorder, and I’ve sought help.

The guys at the top

We’ve got two big movers in the top 10. Edwin Diaz jumps several spots to fifth overall, while Wade Davis makes a similar move in the opposite direction.

I’ve always thought Diaz should be a notch lower than he was being drafted, just because of the tiny bit of uncertainty with the youngster, and the options behind him. But Steve Cishek and Tony Zych are not going to be ready to pitch in the majors anytime soon after their offseason surgeries, and Diaz has looked like his normal self this spring. With a 15.3 k/9 rate and an 18.5% swinging-strike rate in 2016, Diaz could easily be the best closer in fantasy baseball. So, he gets the appropriate bump.

As for Wade Davis, well, let’s not go crazy over spring numbers. But the fact that he’s given up eight runs and 14 baserunners in four innings this spring, and is coming off an injury-plagued 2016, has me slightly worried. The Cubs obviously would not have traded for him absent a clean bill of health, so he’s likely just a bit rusty. But the rough spring is enough to drop him just a tad, behind the rest of the elite closers.

The jumble in the middle

Not all that much to talk about in the middle. Jeurys Familia jumps one spot in light of the lower-than-expected 15-game suspension, and Francisco Rodriguez returns to where he was in prior rankings because the minor injury he suffered in the World Baseball Classic appears to have had no impact.

Tony Watson’s rough spring also drops him down a few spots and finally, FINALLY, Cam Bedrosian moves into the top 20. It’s fair to say that Bedrosian should be higher, but it’s far less about his talent and much more about how Mike Scioscia will handle the situation when Huston Street returns. Plus, to be fair, Bedrosian has had just a single impressive year in baseball (and admittedly, last year was SUPER impressive) and it ended with an injury. He’s not exactly the safest option out there. Still, a top 20 closer, come on. That’s not bad, right?

The mess at the bottom

Alright, so it’s apparently Greg Holland and not Adam Ottavino who will be manning closing duties on Opening Day. Be a bit careful here – that’s mainly speculation from Rockies beat writers, as Bud Black hasn’t officially announced anything yet. But given Holland’s velocity this spring (94.3 mph, right in line with his usual spring number) and his 10 strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings, it seems likely that Black will make it official shortly.

As for the Nationals, while we were all analyzing the Shawn Kelley vs. Koda Glover race, Dusty Baker threw us a curveball and named Blake Treinen the closer. In hindsight, Treinen probably should have been a more legitimate consideration for fantasy owners. Kelley has had two Tommy John surgeries and the Nationals were publicly reluctant to pitch him on back-to-back days. And Glover barely has any major league experience, so it would be a bit much to throw him into the fire like that. Treinen was used in tons of high leverage situations last year, has had a heavy workload each of the last two years, and pitched to a 2.28 ERA with a reliever-leading 17 double plays recorded in 2016. There’s no guarantee Treinen will succeed (he has a career 1.33 WHIP, after all), but with the job in hand, he jumps up to the level of “guy who has the job who isn’t definitely getting traded” level.

Finally, Brandon Kintzler also takes a drop because . . . well, he’s not all that good, and other teams have actually named their closer. His inflated ranking was largely due to Paul Molitor saying he would be the closer earlier than other managers named their respective closers! But that doesn’t get you as far as it used to.

 

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Dan Harris is a featured writer for FantasyPros. For more from Dan, check out his archive or follow him on Twitter at @danharris80.

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