Fantasy Baseball Week 18 Closer Tracker: Trade deadline fallout
Welcome to the Week 18 Closer Tracker!
With a flurry of trades happening at of the dealine, we've had a LOT of shakeups. And now that we're into August and have four months of data to go on, I've moved a few guys up and down the chart. TL:DR -- the order and names in the chart below have changed a LOT so make sure you take a few minutes to get familiar with what happened.
In the chart 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.
The Closer Tracker is organized in three ways:
- 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.
- In the third 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?
- In the right column, you’ll find the player who looks to be next in line. If you see SHAKY in the third column, you should probably grab the player next in line off the 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.
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Top Week 18 Closer Takeaways:
- This wasn't a trade, but I moved Adbert Azolay up the rankings quite a bit. He's been fantastic lately (as covered in our mid-week waiver article).
- Carlos Hernandez has taken over as the Royals' closer with Scott Barlow and Aroldis Chapman being traded.
- Andres Munoz has taken over as the Mariners closer with Paul Sewald now holding down the job for the Diamondbacks.
- Adam Ottavino looks like he'll be in a committee with Brooks Raley for the Mets. Blah.
- David Robertson looks to have avoided a committee with A.J. Puk for the Marlins.
- Clay Holmes has taken over as the Yankees' sole closer after being having to be part of a committee for the last month or so.
- Gregory Santos has taken over as the White Sox' closer, but I'm not sure there will be many saves to be had there.
- Giovvany Gallegos is the guy in St. Louis now that Jordan Hicks has been traded. That said, Ryan Helsley is supposedly due to start a rehab assignment soon, so I'll keep an eye on that for next week.
- Jordan Hicks, speaking of, is part of a committee with Erik Swanson in Toronto so his value is a bit depressed while Jordan Romano is sidelined.
- Make sure you take a look at all the setup guys if you're looking for hand cuffs. There was a ton of turnover due to the trade deadline and it's always good to know who is next in line.
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