2023 Fantasy Baseball Closer Tracker: Josh Hader, Felix Bautista, More (4/14/23)

For as long as I’ve been playing fantasy baseball, I’ve been obsessed with closers. Home runs are cool. Strikeouts are great. But for whatever reason, there’s no better fantasy baseball satisfaction for me than picking up a newly-minted closer on the waiver wire. 

You’re ultimately really only fishing for one category, but it’s an important category you can take advantage of. There are only 30 closers, and you can control a decent amount of trade value if you can corner the market on saves. And if you find the best kind of high-upside closer (one who keeps his ERA/WHIP down and has a strikeout rate of more than 9 K/9), you actually end up with a pickup who helps you in almost all of your pitching categories. 

All that said, it can be tricky to find a closer on your waiver wire. Once they become available, you’re basically stuck fighting your league-mates to add the guy, and the odds of you getting him become quite low. 

All of that preamble finally brings me to my point…

We can’t predict injuries that might force a new closer into the mix, but we can try and grab the most likely middle relievers who might eventually become a closer. That means you’re sometimes rostering a middle reliever, but most of the middle relievers who are next in line to become their team’s closer are good enough to help your fantasy team even if they don’t take over closing duties.

In the space below, I’ve created a Closer Tracker that will hopefully stay ahead of the closer curve. I’m going to update this every Friday for the rest of the season, so please feel free to send feedback if there’s anything you’d like to see.

Peep the latest waiver wire trends to gain an edge over your opponents in your fantasy baseball leagues!

The Closer Tracker is organized in three ways:

1. In the left column, you’ll find my closer power rankings. This order is based on a mix of current statistics weighted (in my mind) with how I think these players will perform over the rest of the season.
2. In the middle column, you’ll see my best attempt at quantifying how stable a closer’s job is. Or said another way, how closely do you have to pay attention to this situation?
3. In the right column, you’ll find the player who looks to be next in line. If you see red in the middle column, you should probably grab this guy on your waiver wire.

Lastly, keep scrolling all the way to the bottom for my top takeaways. I promise this isn’t a marketing trick – I just don’t want to spoil the Closer Tracker.

 

Closer Tracker (last updated 4/14/23)

Closer Power Rankings	Job Stability	Next in line
1. Josh Hader	VERY SECURE	Luis Garcia
2. Felix Bautista	VERY SECURE	Cionel Perez
3. Emmanuel Clase	VERY SECURE	James Karinchak
4. Clay Holmes	VERY SECURE	Michael King
5. Jordan Romano	VERY SECURE	Erik Swanson
6. David Bednar	VERY SECURE	Colin Holderman
7. Ryan Helsey	VERY SECURE	Giovanny Gallegos
8. Devin Williams	VERY SECURE	Matt Bush
9. Ryan Pressly	VERY SECURE	Rafael Montero

10. David Robertson	VERY SECURE	Adam Ottavino
11. AJ Minter	VERY SECURE	Joe Jimenez
12. Pete Fairbanks	SECURE	Jason Adam
13. Evan Phillips	SECURE	Brusder Graterol
14. Camilo Doval	SECURE	Taylor Rogers
15. Paul Sewald	SECURE	Matt Brash
16. Kenley Jansen	SECURE	Chris Martin
17. Michael Fulmer	SECURE	Brad Boxberger
18. Pierce Johnson	SECURE	Brad Hand
19. Jhoan Duran	COMMITTEE-ISH	Jorge Lopez

20. A.J. Puk	SOMEWHAT STABLE	Dylan Floro
21. Alexis Diaz	SOMEWHAT STABLE	Ian Gibaut
22. Jose Alvardo	SOMEWHAT STABLE	Craig Kimbrel
23. Carlos Estevez	SHAKY	Jose Quijada
24. Alex Lange	SHAKY	Jason Foley
25. Jose Leclerc	COMMITTEE	Will Smith
26. Alex Lange	SHAKY	Aroldis Chapman
27. Kyle Finnegan	VERY SHAKY	Hunter Harvey
28. Reynaldo Lopez	COMMITTEE	Kendall Graveman
29. Danny Jimenez	COMMITTEE	Trevor May

30. Scott McGough

VERY SHAKY

Miguel Castro

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Top takeaways:

1. There really aren't that many really good closers right now. Maybe 10 or 11? After that, it's a bit of a grab-bag -- which makes guys like Hader or Bautista or Clase so valuable right now. It also makes guys like Bednar, Minter, and Robertson look like draft day steals. 
2. The Royals closer job isn't that valuable of a job to have, but I'm grabbing Aroldis Chapman where I can. And no, it is not 2015 again.
3. It looks like Pete Fairbanks might be the Rays closer. And if they keep winning every game, that will be a very valuable job to have.
4. Jose Alvardo is a guy you should scoop up if he's available in your league.
5. I know his numbers aren't bad, but I'm worried about Kenley Jansen. And no, this isn't a ringing endorsement for Chris Martin. He's fine, but that's not a valuable role to have with the current state of the Red Sox.

 

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