Fantasy baseball’s founders gave us an excellent game full of delights. Unfortunately, the founders were dealing with a limited menu of box-score statistics back in 1980, so they also passed down the terrible burden of saves.
[Join or create a chof360 Fantasy Baseball league for the 2025 MLB season]
In all likelihood, fantasy baseball will force you to devote an outrageous amount of time and mental energy to the pursuit of saves over the next eight months — a regrettable situation for which we apologize in advance.
Much of our content throughout the season will focus on bullpen hierarchies and potential save sources. You will spend a shocking percentage of your FAB resources chasing saves. It’s by far the worst of the 10 standard scoring categories, without question.
Sure, you can attempt to lock up saves at your draft by aggressively collecting closers in the early and mid rounds, but, honestly, every tier of relief pitchers has a trap. Last year, plenty of managers were full of confidence after drafting some combination of Camilo Doval, Evan Phillips, David Bednar, Paul Sewald, Jordan Romano, Craig Kimbrel, Alex Lange, José Alvarado and/or Adbert Alzolay, but each of those relievers busted or broke down (or both).
In recent seasons, initial closers across the league have ultimately delivered approximately 50% of total saves, per data compiled by Jeff Zimmerman (a true hero for taking on the task). Over the past four years, an average of 214.3 different pitchers per season have recorded at least one save.
If these facts make the saves chase seem like a daunting task … well, yeah, it’s a pain.
But we can also regard the widespread in-season availability of saves as good news. If your fantasy bullpen is unfinished entering the year, that’s absolutely fine. Every season produces a fresh batch of new closers, some of whom will finish among the most valuable relievers in our game. Overdrafting relief pitchers is generally a bigger problem than under-drafting them.
We should also mention one of the great cheat codes in rotisserie leagues (H2H points leagues is the new chof360 default setting, we should day), which is the use of elite non-closing middle relievers. It’s a population of players that’s routinely overlooked and widely available, but the best of them are unreasonably good on a per-inning basis. Roto leagues at chof360 have an easily reached IP max, so you can’t afford to burn innings on pitchers with low K-rates.
If you’d kept, say, Jason Adam and Cade Smith in your active lineup over the full 2024 season, you would have received this ludicrous combined stat line:
149.0 IP, 13 W, 5 SV, 184 Ks, 1.93 ERA, 0.88 WHIP
That’s basically Cy Young-worthy production from a pair of unwanted relievers. Consider this approach as a no-cost alternative to hoarding aces in the early rounds.
Proactive picks
Ryan Walker, San Francisco Giants (chof360 ADP 122.6)
Walker is such a screaming value in fantasy drafts. Based purely on quality-of-stuff and last year’s production, he might just deserve to be one of the top three or five relievers off the board. " target="_blank" class="link"> His sinker/slider combo was cartoonishly unhittable; his Savant page is full of red bars. Walker struck out 99 batters over 80.0 innings last season while delivering a WHIP of 0.85 and saving 10 games. He looked suspiciously like a guy who deserves elite-tier fantasy status heading into 2025.
Potential fades
Jeff Hoffman, Toronto Blue Jays (150.2)
Hoffman was terrific last season, delivering a 2.17 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and 12.1 K/9 for the Phillies. He’s also an easy fade in his first year with Toronto, following news (from the reliever himself) that two teams backed away from agreements with him due to medical concerns about his shoulder. Obviously, it’s possible that Hoffman will navigate the season unscathed, but, as a general rule, we should not be aggressively targeting pre-injured or semi-injured pitchers.
Robert Suárez, San Diego Padres (107.3)
Last season, Suarez was a revelation for the Padres and a late-round gem for fantasy managers. He saved 36 games and won nine while delivering acceptable (if somewhat lucky) ratios. He’s been the subject of persistent trade rumors throughout the offseason, however, and he wouldn’t necessarily serve as the closer for a team acquiring his services. San Diego’s bullpen is loaded with potential ninth-inning options — Jason Adam, Jeremiah Estrada, Yuki Matsui — so they are well-positioned to flip the soon-to-be 34-year-old Suárez.
Sleepers
Bryan Abreu, Houston Astros (242.4)
Yeah, OK, so Josh Hader is blocking his path to the ninth, which is no small obstacle. But Abreu is the next man up for the Astros, plus he’s exactly the sort of elite reliever who can help us in a non-closing role. Over the past two seasons, he’s struck out a ridiculous 203 batters in 150.1 innings while delivering a 2.45 ERA. His variety of per-inning production can help swing a roto league, even if saves are few and far between.
Orion Kerkering, Philadelphia Phillies (236.5)
Jordan Romano seems like the favorite for saves in Philadelphia entering spring training, but reportedly nothing is guaranteed. Kerkering has the traditional closer’s velocity along with a disgusting sweeper. He’s coming off a year in which he struck out 74 batters in 63.0 frames, producing a 2.29 ERA and 1.08 WHIP. If he finds his way to the ninth, he will immediately land among the elite relievers.
Top-20 RP draft rankings
1. Emmanuel Clase
2. Josh Hader
3. Devin Williams
4. Edwin Díaz
5. Mason Miller
6. Raisel Iglesias
7. Ryan Helsley
8. Andres Muñoz
9. Félix Bautista
10. Jhoan Durán
11. Ryan Walker
12. Robert Suárez
13. Ben Joyce
14. Ryan Pressly
15. Kirby Yates
16. Pete Fairbanks
17. Alexis Díaz
18. Trevor Megill
19. Jeff Hoffman
20. David Bednar
