Fantasy Baseball Bullpen Report: The Playoff Carousel

Even though we’re approaching the end of the summer the closer carrousel was spinning in full force this past week. Since our last column three closers have lost their jobs. In addition, Brad Hand, who led the major leagues in saves last season and who the Blue Jays acquired from the Nationals in the week leading up to the trade deadline, was designated for assignment. James Karinchak, who started the season as Cleveland’s co-closer and had a 2.37 ERA as late in the season as June 16th, was sent down to the minor leagues on Saturday. Hand and Karinchak’s plight demonstrate just how precarious the professional life of a closer can be. This week, we’ll identify some of baseball’s newest closers and highlight three relievers who, based on their recent fantasy production, can potentially be used as streaming options in weekly leagues. Please enjoy this week’s Bullpen Report.

Weekly Save Leaders

Astros closer Ryan Pressly and Twins closer Alex Colomé each had three saves a piece last week. 

Pressly has been one of the most reliable closers in the game this season. He entered Wednesday night’s action with 22 saves and a 1.83 ERA.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, Colome has had a rocky season full of ups and downs, but he’s converted his last three save opportunities and should continue to operate as the Twins’ closer with Taylor Rogers on the IL.

Nine other relievers saved two games last week. Two to take note of include Adam Ottavino, who has taken over as the Red Sox’s closer while Matt Barnes figures things out, and Angels closer Raisel Iglesias, who has eight saves and a 0.59 ERA in his last 14 appearances.

Weekly Hold Leaders

Cardinals’ relievers Luis García, and Giovanny Gallegos each had three holds last week. Their teammate T.J. McFarland had two holds last week. The Cardinals’ bullpen is a work in progress right now. With Alex Reyes blowing three save opportunities in his last five appearances, Cardinals manager Mike Shildt indicated that he’d be using a closer by committee approach for now. Gallegos is probably the favorite to get the most save opportunities from among the Cardinals’ relievers, but Garcia and McFarland have been pitching well and have been added to our closer grid.

Eleven other relief pitchers saved two games each last week   including Royals reliever Richard Lovelady and Twins reliever Jorge Alcala. Lovelady hasn’t given up a run in his last eight appearances, and Alcala has 12 strikeouts in his last 9.1 IP, spanning seven appearances.

Potential Relief Pitcher Streaming Options

The following three pitchers each posted a solid ERA and struck out at least six batters each over the past week. We’ve listed each pitcher’s overall season stats, as well as their stats for the past week.

Jake Cousins, Brewers

One Win, Zero Losses, Zero Saves, Five Holds, 0.78 ERA, 0.957 WHIP

Caleb Thielbar, Twins

Six Wins, Zero Losses, Zero Saves, Nine Holds, 3.81 ERA, 1.135 WHIP

Jalin Garcia, Giants

Five Wins, Three Losses, One Save, Eight Holds, 2.48 ERA, 0.810 WHIP

More Bullpen News

Athletics

With Lou Trivino struggling (6 ER in his last three appearances, 23.14 ERA) the A’s have decided to give him “a little break” from pitching in high leverage situations. The team also announced that Trivino has been dealing with a lingering back issue (spasms) and was unavailable to pitch on Wednesday. The A’s will be using the dreaded committee approach when it comes to save opportunities moving forward. Luckily the A’s have a fine group of relief pitchers who collectively have a 3.60 ERA (5th best in baseball). Andrew Chafin and Sergio Romo each saved a game for the A’s this week, and the team also has three other relief pitchers on their staff with at least one save on the season. It’s a nightmare situation for fantasy managers, especially since the A’s have so many excellent relief pitchers but other than Chafin and Romo, Jake Diekman would probably also be in the mix to pick up an occasional save.

Rockies

The Rockies finally made it official and replaced Daniel Bard as their closer with Carlos Estévez. Entering Wednesday nights action Bard had pitched to a 10.66 ERA, in his last 15 games. During that same stretch Estevez didn’t give up a run in his last 12 appearances. Bard is expected to pitch in a setup role moving forward.

Rays

The Rays are looking to coax a little magic from David Robertson’s veteran arm. With rosters expanding to a max of 28 on September 1st, the Rays added Robertson to their bullpen. He was impressive in his brief time with the Rays Triple-A affiliate. Robertson struck out 12 batters in six innings for Triple A-Durham and promptly pitched a scoreless eighth inning against the Red Sox on Wednesday night. He provides the Rays with another pitcher that they can turn to in high leverage situations. 

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: 9.2.2021