As the Yankees’ closer, Aroldis Chapman was virtually unhittable during the early part of the season. However, after several implosions, it looks as if he’s lost his closers gig. There seems to be a little more clarity regarding the Phillies bullpen configuration with a Ranger coming to the rescue this week, and we’ve also identified another three relief pitchers who you can potentially stream in weekly leagues. Please enjoy this week’s Bullpen Report.

Weekly Save Leaders 

Heading into Wednesday’s action Astros closer Ryan Pressly recorded three saves over the past week. Pressly hasn’t given up an earned run in his last 13 appearances and he has held opposing batters to a .114 BAA during that time span. 

Four other pitchers saved two games each last week: 

Adam Ottavino two saves for the Red Sox last week give him seven on the season. He’s also held 15 games. 

Even though the Reds continue to use a committee approach in managing their bullpen, we list Heath Hembree as the first in line to pitch in save situations based on his two save performance last week. Unfortunately for the fantasy managers trying to make sense of the Reds bullpen, Amir Garrett is just as likely as Hembree to nail down Cincinnati’s next save. He’s saved four games and held two others since June 15th.

Scott Barlow also saved two games for the Royals last week, but unfortunately, they have used a committee approach in managing their bullpen all season long and that is unlikely to change.

Raisel Iglesias recorded two saves for the Angels last week and has five saves and two wins in his last seven appearances. He’s struck out 12 batters and walked none, while pitching to a 2.25 ERA in those appearances dating back to June 27th.

Weekly Holds Leaders

Ryne Stanekwho we list as next in line behind Astros closer Ryan Pressly on our closer grid, led all relievers with four holds last week. Stanek has rebounded nicely from his disastrous final June appearance, in which he gave up five earned runs. In his four July appearances since then, he hasn’t given up a run and has limited opposing batters to a .077 BAA.

Brad Brach and Josh Osich picked up three holds each for the Reds last week. Brach has seven holds on the season (all of which have been recorded since June 1st) and may be given the occasional save opportunity should Heath Hembree and Amir Garrett be unavailable. Osich made his debut on June 21st and has pitched to a 1.08 ERA. He picked up his third hold of the season (and the week) on Wednesday.

Noteworthy Bullpen News

Yankees

In the June 17th edition of this column, we mentioned that the spin rates on Aroldis Chapman’s pitches had been steadily declining and that in his nine appearances beginning on May 23rd Chapman had a 6.14 ERA, and opposing hitters had a .300 BAA him. In six appearances since that column was posted Chapman has blown two saves, pitched to a 20.77 ERA, and he has a triple slash against of .421/.645/.737. Yankees manager Aaron Boone has tried to be sensitive in talking about it, but it’s obvious that Chapman is no longer considered the Yankees closer. On Tuesday, he pitched the ninth inning of a game that the Yanks were leading 12-1 and while he didn’t give up a run, he still struggled. He gave up a hit and walked two batters in that outing. On Wednesday night it was Chad Green who came in to save the Yankees’ 5-4 victory over the Mariners. In all likelihood Chapman will be given the opportunity to win back his closers job. However, with Green pitching to a 0.57 ERA since June 8th and Zack Britton expected to be reinstated from the IL either this weekend or right after the All-Star break, the Yanks have the luxury of letting Chapman take his time in working through his recent issues in low leverage relief situations. Jonathan Loaisiga is also in the mix to pitch in save situations for the time being.

Phillies

In last weeks column we mentioned that Ranger Suárez was the only Phillies relief pitcher who should be trusted for the short term. This week he’s listed as the teams’ best option to pitch in save situations on our closer grid. The Phillies will probably still use a committee approach, but he has pitched the ninth inning of two close games this week and picked up a save. 

Relief Pitcher Streaming Options

In recent columns, we’ve been featuring relief pitchers who typically work multiple innings per week who you can consider using in your weekly lineups in place of struggling starting pitchers who have tough matchups. The following three pitchers each posted a solid ERA and struck out at least seven batters over the past week. We’ve listed each pitcher’s overall season stats, as well as their stats for the past week. 

Anthony Bender, Marlins

Zero wins and losses, one save, five holds, 0.68 ERA, 0.722 WHIP

Time FrameIPW/L/H/SK’sERAWHIP
July 1st – July 7th41 S, 1 H90.000.25

Michael King, Yankees

Zero wins, four losses, zero holds, 3.72 ERA, 1.386 WHIP 

Time FrameIPW/L/H/SK’sERAWHIP
July 1st – July 7th4 90.001.000

Carlos Hernández, Royals

One win, zero losses, zero holds, 4.98 ERA 1.662 WHIP

(3.21 ERA, 1.286 WHIP since June 12th)

Time FrameIPW/L/H/SK’sERAWHIP
July 1st – July 7th4.2 71.930.6429

If you've been a subscriber here at Fantasy Alarm, you've seen the Fantasy Baseball Closer Grid before. If you're new, it's very simple. We not only list who the closer is for each team, but we then go another two-deep into the bullpen to let you know who would be next in line to accrue saves should there be an injury or a change, as well as which relievers you may want to target if your league scores for holds. This isn't about how the teams' depth charts always reads, so keep that in mind. Sometimes the heir-apparent is an obvious one, but in many cases it is not. We look for things like skill set, contact rates, pitch-command, pitch-mix, how many lefties are in the bullpen, who has worked as a closer before and who has the experience in high-leverage situation among other things.

GREEN will be those with strong talent, abundant opportunities and a high-level of job security. The tier below will be in YELLOW followed by ORANGE and lastly RED to indicate who may have the job right now but could lose it with one bad hiccup. 

UPDATED: 7.8.2021