The non-waiver trade deadline has come and gone, and while it certainly brought with it some movement, only a handful of closer situations were actually affected. But regardless of how many relievers were traded, the deadline always brings with it clarity in the world of saves. And that means a lot of movement in our closing situation rankings.

So let’s check in and see how things stand now that we (probably) don’t have to worry about any more trades affecting the rankings. Here’s your closer report for Week 18.

Bookmark our Closer Depth Chart for updated coverage throughout the season

 
The Teams Involved in Trades

It was pretty obvious that the Mets would have a new closer after the trade deadline, but it looked likely to be one of a handful of mediocre pitchers who would just be keeping Jeurys Familia’s seat warm. But instead, the Mets traded for A.J. Ramos, as much to have a reliable reliever next year as to create a market for Addison Reed. With Reed gone, Ramos steps in as the closer, and although there are whispers of Familia returning, that’s still very up in the air. With a bit of stability, the Mets take a major leap.

The Tigers shipped off their very reliable closer, Justin Wilson, to the Cubs, and Brad Ausmus immediately named Shane Greene as the team’s new closer. Greene easily converted his first two save opportunities on back-to-back days, and has an extremely respectable 2.59 ERA and 1.19 WHIP, with 15 straight scoreless appearances entering Thursday night’s game. Greene still walks too many batters (27 in 48 2/3 innings) and Joe Jimenez is always lurking, but Greene has been a good soldier for his time in Detroit, and Ausmus seems willing to give him some rope. While he isn’t an upgrade over Wilson, now that the uncertainty is lessened, the Tigers move up.

A.J. Ramos’ departure left an opening in the Marlins’ ninth inning, and although we were all stashing Kyle Barraclough, his injury allowed Brad Ziegler to step in. Ziegler has had a miserable and injury-plagued year, but he’s a good reliever and he’s not scared by the ninth inning (86 career saves). He converted his first opportunity cleanly and certainly could hold the job all year. It’s far from the safest situation, but given Ziegler’s pedigree, it’s not the most dangerous, either.

Finally, the Twins traded Brandon Kintzler to the Nationals, throwing two closing situations into disarray. First, the Twins immediately become the worst situation in fantasy. The word is that it will be a committee between Taylor Rogers and Matt Belisle. Without knowing which one of these sub-par relievers will be getting saves, it seems like a situation to avoid. As for the Nationals, the team hasn’t had a save chance since Kintzler arrived, so we just don’t know if it’s going to be Kintzler or Sean Doolittle. My money happens to be on Kintzler, as his closing “pedigree” and Doolittle’s left-handedness seem to point in that direction. But until we get some more clarity, we’ll just have to wait and hope the Nationals win a close game sometime soon.

Random Musings

After being hurt for most of the year and then rumored to be on the trade market for weeks, Zach Britton wound up staying put in Baltimore. Britton isn’t an absolute lock to be closing games for the Orioles all season. If the team falls out of the playoffs race – and they’re only on the very outer edges as we speak anyway – then it’s possible it would look to deal him in August. Given Britton’s high salary and the fact that he’ll likely get a raise next year, the only way he gets dealt is if a team can afford a major add in payroll and is willing to give up significant prospects bites. That’s pretty unlikely, so the Orioles situation takes a step up. With Britton’s velocity back and his stuff looking cleaner, the Orioles will likely continue to move up the ranks.

A surprising non-trade pushes the Padres way up the ranks, as Brad Hand gets to stay and close games for the rest of the season. Hand deserves a round of applause (thanks, I’ll be here all week – tip your waiters) for his performance so far this season, as he’s blown through the league with a 1.96 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and 72 strikeouts in 55 innings. The Padres don’t provide that many save opportunities, but Hand’s ratios and job security move this situation way up the ladder.

Trevor Rosenthal has officially seized the Cardinals closer job, as he’s flawlessly executed the last three Cardinals save opportunities, striking out 10 (!) batters in those three games. Seung-Hwan Oh has pitched well lately, but this is Rosenthal’s job to lose. And, if you’ve watched him pitch over the last several years, you know he’s entirely capable of losing it. But for now, he’s pitching well.

Although Jim Johnson stayed put with the Braves, those stashing Arodys Vizcaino were rewarded when Johnson lost the closer’s role anyway based on him just being Jim Johnson (i.e., eight blown saves). Vizcaino converted the only save chance he has received since Johnson lost the job, and he certainly has “closer of the future stuff.” While Brian Snitker claims he is going to mix and match in the ninth inning, it’s been pretty obvious all season that Vizcaino is their guy, and he did have 10 saves last year. Add with confidence.

Finally, although I love Alex Claudio and his ability to get through innings quickly (just 12.3 pitches per inning, MLB-low among relievers), I’m not entirely sure what Jeff Banister is doing here. After Claudio surprisingly received and expertly handled several ninth inning assignments, he was brought into the seventh inning of a tied game on Monday and the eighth inning of a game the Rangers were losing by one on Tuesday. He then received and easily converted a save opportunity on Thursday. So, yeah, that’s what we’ve got. Claudio doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but he’s getting the job done far better than any other Texas reliever right now. My guess is that when the Rangers have the lead, Banister will hold back Claudio for the save chance, but he also won’t hesitate to use him in a high leverage situation in the middle innings. While I applaud Banister for his appropriate use of his best reliever, I despise him as a fantasy owner! Stick with Claudio, but understand that you may lose out on some opportunities.

Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | SoundCloud | Google Play | TuneIn | RSS

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