Fantasy Baseball Bullpen Report: Last Minute Saves

With the fantasy baseball season winding down, if you’re chasing last minute saves taking a closer’s rest of season schedule into account becomes increasingly important. The Rangers, Giants, Reds and Red Sox’s rest of season opponents have a cumulative winning percentage below .435, providing their relievers with a potentially favorable environment to pick up saves or holds moving forward. In this week’s column we’ll touch upon some individual relievers who have favorable upcoming schedules, point out some under the radar pitchers who may have the opportunity to close out games over the next week, and identify three relievers who can potentially be used as streaming options in weekly leagues. Please enjoy this week’s Bullpen Report.

Weekly Save Leaders

Cardinals closer Giovanny Gallegos and Phillies closer Ian Kennedy both saved three games last week. Gallegos has eight saves in the month of September. Kennedy has 25 saves on the season and a favorable rest of season schedule, including four games against the Pirates and three games against the Marlins. Michael Fulmer, who is likely to be the Tigers’ closer for the rest of the season due to Gregory Soto’s recent injury and potentially sitting on your league’s waiver wire, saved two games last week. He plays four games against the White Sox who’ve already clinched a playoff spot and three each against the underperforming Twins and Royals.

Weekly Hold Leaders

Cardinals reliever Génesis Cabrera and Blue Jays reliever Trevor Richards each recorded three holds last week. Cabrera hasn’t given up a run in eight September appearances. Richards has a 1.38 ERA and 13Ks in his last 13 IP spanning 13 appearances. 

Potential Relief Pitcher Streaming Options

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.

Tyler Duffey, Twins

3 W, 3 L, 3 Saves, 18 Holds, 3.45 ERA, 1.291 WHIP

Josh Sborz, Rangers

3 W, 3 L, 1 Save, 9 Holds, 3.86 ERA, 1.393 WHIP

JT Chargois, Rays

5 W, 1 L, 4 Saves, 14 Holds, 1.66 ERA, 1.108 WHIP

More Bullpen News To Take Note Of

Rangers

Entering Friday’s action, the Rangers have only won 55 games however their remaining three opponents (Orioles, Angels and Cleveland), have a cumulative .430 win percentage. If you’re absolutely desperate for saves to close out the season Joe Barlow, who has just a 20% consensus roster rate according to Fantasy Pros, might be someone you might want to add to your fantasy baseball team’s roster. The Rangers should be able to squeak out at least a couple of wins before the end of the season and Barlow, whose given up just one earned run in his last eight appearances and saved four games during that time span, will be likely called upon to save those wins.

Nationals

In a previous column we had mentioned that Nationals reliever Kyle Finnegan had settled in as the teams closer and he did pick up his 11th save of the season on Thursday night. However, he surrendered two runs in the process and has now given up eight runs in his last four outings. Keep an eye on Tanner Rainey. Many thought he’d open the season as the Nationals’ closer but poor play, a stint on the IL and a demotion to the minor leagues all contributed to derailing his 2021 season. He’s back in the big leagues and pitching well. In four appearances since September 19th spanning 3.2 IP, he’s struck out eight batters, walked just one, and he’s already registered a save and a hold. 

Diamondbacks

It’s hard to imagine the 48-win Diamondbacks winning too many more games for the rest of the season, especially with three games against the Dodgers and three against the Giants in their future. However, if they do sneak out a win or two don’t be too surprised if J.B. Wendelken is the pitcher that manager Torey Luvollo calls upon to close out the game. Wendelken picked up a save on Thursday night, even though presumed closer Tyler Clippard had only pitched once in the last four days. With the Diamondbacks taking inventory of their players in order to determine who can help them rebuild in 2022 Wendelken could be used in additional high leverage late inning situations before the end of the season. 

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: 9.24.2021