There is a ton of news to get to in this week’s Closer Report — Cody Allen’s demotion is just the tip of the iceberg — so let’s do away with the formalities and jump right in. I’ll save the clever intro paragraph for next week!

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Big Movers

San Diego Padres
I said last week that the only thing keeping Yates from rising further up the rankings was the fact that nobody really deserved to move down to make room for him. Well, Yates has continued to be lights out and a few of the guys in front of him have shown the smallest of cracks in the armor, so Yates ascends to the number three spot this week. Don’t expect him to give it up anytime soon.

Los Angeles Dodgers
One of the aforementioned closers who has shown some cracks in the armor is Kenley Jansen, who has been scored upon in five of his last seven outings. This will most likely prove to be a blip on the radar for Jansen, whose peripherals still look pretty solid, but for now, he drops a few spots.

Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox generated three save opportunities last week, and Ryan Brasier got — and converted — all of them. Brasier has now collected six saves since Matt Barnes got one in Boston’s first victory of the season. Doesn’t sound like much of a committee, does it? We’ll go ahead and name Brasier the closer here, and the Red Sox correspondingly get a sizable bump up the rankings with this newfound clarity. But I wouldn’t go dropping Barnes in any league where non-closing relievers have even an ounce of value — he has a bonkers 19.16 K/9 rate so far with excellent accompanying ratios.

Chicago Cubs
With the Cubs struggling to generate save chances and Brandon Morrow inching closer to a return, it seemed like Pedro Strop might have been running out of time to lock down the Cubs’ closer job. But that concern is out the window now that Morrow has experienced a setback in his recovery from a right elbow injury. Morrow is at least a few weeks away from even picking up a baseball, so a return before the All-Star break is probably unrealistic at this point. It was far from guaranteed that Morrow would take the job back from Strop even if he did make it back quickly, and the odds of it happening at any point in 2019 look considerably longer now. Strop shares get a big boost as a result.

Texas Rangers
Jose Leclerc appeared to be getting back on track last week, but he had two more rough outings this week including a truly ugly four-walk performance on Sunday. Control is the big worry for Leclerc, so that is the last thing his owners want to see. The Rangers seem dedicated to sticking with Leclerc in the ninth for now and don’t have a lot of great alternatives, but that may not matter if Leclerc doesn’t get straightened out soon. He still has a ton of upside with his bat-missing stuff, but this week’s rankings account for the growing risk that he isn’t able to hold down the job.

Miami Marlins
The Marlins bullpen has five saves so far this season, and Sergio Romo has four of them — including the last three. In other words, this is another closer situation that no longer looks like a committee. Romo has not be nearly as good in recent seasons as he was in his prime San Francisco days, and it is a bit troubling that he’s generating a lot fewer swings and misses so far this season. He’s also unlikely to see a ton of save chances on a team that is going to lose a lot of games. Still, it isn’t out of the question that Romo is able to repeat his 2018 season, when he collected 25 saves with a 4.14 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, and helpful strikeout rate. Those kind of numbers would be useful in just about all leagues that value saves.

Los Angeles Angels
The Angels announced on Wednesday that Cody Allen has been temporarily removed from the closer role after a rough start to the season, and that the team will employ a committee until Allen gets back on track. Allen has a lengthy track record as a closer and the Angels are paying him like one, so his hiatus from the ninth could be short, but seasoned save chasers will also recognize that there’s no guarantee he gets the job back.

Ty Buttrey would seem to be the favorite to see the bulk of the save chances for however long Allen is deposed, and given his elite bat-missing ability, he is capable of being a dominant closer if given the opportunity. But Angels manager Brad Ausmus may prefer Buttrey in a flexible, high-leverage role, so it’s possible that Hansel Robles is the one who gets saved for the ninth inning (pun intended). Ausmus also named Luis Garcia as a candidate to close, but he would seem to be behind both Buttrey and Robles in the pecking order at the moment.

Random Musings

Milwaukee Brewers
Josh Hader has looked human of late, giving up three homers and five earned runs over his last three innings. He also struck out the side in all three of those appearances, though, so his performance isn’t something to worry about. Whether Hader will continue to serve as the Brewers’ closer is a different matter, however.

Jeremy Jeffress has made four scoreless appearances since returning from the injured list, and appears to have quickly found his midseason form after getting hit hard during his minor league rehab assignment. The Brewers have lost seven of their last eight games, so there haven’t been save chances available for anybody, but if there had been they probably would have gone to Hader, not Jeffress, who is still being worked in slowly in the earlier innings. Still, this is a situation to closely monitor going forward.

Tampa Bay Rays
The Rays’ two-man closer committee may be expanding to three, as Emilio Pagan picked up back-to-back saves on Monday and Tuesday while the team rested Jose Alvarado and Diego Castillo. Rays manager Kevin Cash heaped praise on Pagan for stepping up, so it wouldn’t be shocking to see him get more save chances going forward. All three of these guys are pitching really well and are worth owning, but there is no sugarcoating the fact that a three-way committee is less appealing than a two-way committee for fantasy purposes.

Minnesota Twins
Lefty Taylor Rogers has picked up each of the Twins’ last two saves, but that may have just been because Blake Parker was sick. Rogers could certainly factor into more save chances going forward, particularly against lefty-heavy lineups, but I won’t consider this a true committee situation until we see Rogers close a game when Parker is healthy.

Philadelphia Phillies
Hector Neris has three of the Phillies’ four saves so far this season, excluding a four-inning save for Jerad Eickhoff in a blowout victory on April 16. The Phillies simply haven’t generated enough save chances yet to say that Neris is the closer with any great confidence, especially considering manager Gabe Kapler’s tendency to mix and match in the ninth inning. But Neris has to be considered the committee head at the very least, with Pat Neshek likely next in line. Seranthony Dominguez may be Philadelphia’s best reliever, but he’s yet to see a save opportunity.

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Andrew Seifter is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Andrew, check out his archive and follow him @andrew_seifter.