Some folks believe you should never pay up for saves in fantasy baseball drafts. Others just simply cannot resist the eye-popping strikeout rates and microscopic ratios of those early-round firemen that have a closing gig locked down. Probably the best way to approach the saves column is to land somewhere between those two extremes. Let’s take a look at which door slammers to target and which ones to avoid based on current ADP trends around the industry.
- Catchers to Target & Avoid
- First Basemen to Target & Avoid
- Second Basemen to Target & Avoid
- Shortstops to Target & Avoid
- Third Basemen to Target & Avoid
- Outfielders to Target & Avoid
- Starting Pitchers to Target & Avoid
- Fitz’s Positional Primers
- Justin Mason’s Draft Day Cheat Sheet
- Players the Experts Draft
- Latest Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft
2023 Closers to Target & Avoid at ADP
Avoid
Emmanuel Clase (CLE): ADP – Overall 39.8 | Closer 2
Mets’ closer Edwin Diaz (ADP 34.2 overall) is going too high in drafts for a closer, but Clase’s current stock is even more unreasonable. Yes, he has been phenomenal with his ratios while racking up 66 saves, including a league-leading 42 last year, over the past two seasons. However, to justify a fourth-round – sometimes third-round – selection, the strikeout rate must be otherworldly. With Clase, it’s simply not, as he has punched out 74 and 77 batters respectively over the last two years.
Clay Holmes (NYY): ADP – Overall 126.6 | Closer 13
Holmes is anything but a sure thing given how the second half of his season went last year. He was a breakout star in NYC during the first half, nailing down 16 saves alongside a 1.31 ERA as he supplanted Aroldis Chapman as the Yanks’ closer. The second half was a different story for Holmes. His ERA ballooned to 4.84 over 22 1/3 innings while his WHIP was 1.30. He will enter 2023 with the gig, but one has to imagine the leash is short. Wait a round and take Bednar instead.
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Nate Miller is a featured writer at FantasyPros and a 9-year veteran of the fantasy sports industry. For more from Nate, check out his archive and follow him on Twitter @Miller_RotoDad.
