Fantasy Baseball Relief Pitchers: Who to Start and Who to Stream

Relief pitching can be the bane of existence for Major League managers. When the bullpen can shorten the game and build a bridge to the end, it makes everything easier. When the relievers are suspect and inconsistent, though, they ruin great performances by starting pitchers and make for chewed fingernails in the dugout.

I have been going through each position in baseball to identify who is currently seen as a fantasy regular and who is more of a stream-worthy option. It was much easier to identify those lines with the position players, where the options are more limited. With so many pitchers, it can be hard to know where to draw the line between regulars and streamers.

This closer grid from Fantasy Alarm is a great tool and worth checking regularly to keep up on who is in what role for each team. Other tools, like our projections, help with a wider view of what is expected from players heading into the season.

To try to determine where the line currently stands, I used our FantasySP Average Draft Position tool. That's important to remember: Different sites have different rankings, and I am focused only on our current values. I am thinking in terms of a 10-team Roto league with a standard lineup structure.

 

Keepers

This group respresents the cream of the closer crop. Most of the guys here are going to strike out a lot of batters and are locked into the closer role unless there's an injury of massive collapse in performance. They are the relievers valued in the top 100, essentially within the first 10 rounds of your draft.

Rank	Player
1	Devin Williams, MIL
2	Emmanuel Clase, CLE
3	Edwin Diaz, NYM
4	Josh Hader, HOU
5	Camilo Doval, SF
6	Raisel Iglesias, ATL
7	Jordan Romano, TOR
8	Jhoan Duran, MIN
9	David Bednar, PIT
10	Alexis Diaz, CIN
11	Andres Munoz, SEA

The top four generally have the best track record of this group and are expected to perform at the highest level. Diaz is returning from an injury that cost him all of 2023, but it was a knee injury rather than an issue with his arm, so he should be able to return to something like his old form.

Clase struck out the side on 10 pitches to finish the All-Star game a few years back; that performance announced his status among the best relievers in the game. Hader is going to do his thing and is now on a team that has won as much as anyone else over the last decade or so. Iglesias will get plenty of save opportunities on a winning team.

Somewhere along the line, everyone starts looking about the same. By ESPN's head-to-head points totals in 2023, the top six relievers scored over 350 points, and the next seven were above 310. As you go down the list from there, players are only separated by a few points at the most, which comes down to randomness as far as where players are ranked.

These 11 guys have the best chances to perform like top-five relievers this season, but relief pitching is one of the most volatile aspects of baseball. Between injuries, churning bullpens, and small samples, relievers will change roles and find new opportunities

I'll write a whole article about different strategies for filling your pitching staff, but relievers present the most risk. I'm generally staying away from this whole level of relief pitchers because of where they are being drafted, but if you want to find a guy in the first 10 rounds, this is the place to look.

 

Streamers

Kenley Jansen, BOS; Craig Kimbrel, BAL; Jose Leclerc, TEX; Evan Phillips, LAD; many more

This list could go on with useful pitchers and upside plays. The four listed are more about a type of pitcher than these specific guys, though I wouldn't mind having any of them on my fantasy team. Each is valued in the 13th round or later, so you don't have to spend a high pick or pay big in an auction to see if they produce.

Jansen and Kimbrel are the active leaders in saves. Neither is to the level of their top forms, but they are closers with histories of high-level performance. Kimbrel has been a must-draft player for me: He's not being taken until the 15th round and joined a team that won 101 games last season. He will walk guys but also strike out a lot of batters, and he has top-10 fantasy upside.

Phillips saved 24 games for the Dodgers last season with a 2.05 ERA and struck out more than a batter per inning. Save opportunities are much more likely on good teams, and not many are going to win more than LA. 

Leclerc closed for the Rangers in the playoffs on their run to the World Series, saving four games and averaging more than one strikeout per inning in both the regular season and playoffs. The presence of well-traveled reliever David Robertson has some thinking that Leclerc could have a short leash, but he's being drafted in the 16th round and is undrafted in some leagues. That's a valuable player with your last pick.

There are plenty more guys I could include, but many of the reasons would be the same. Closers generally strike out batters (especially in this era of baseball) and have the chance at saves. Many players are at the same level, and it's about luck as much as anything else to get the right guys.

 

Streaming Advice

Don't splurge on relievers. Again, there will be an entire article about managing pitchers and different strategies, but things are so random with bullpens and injuries to pitchers that it's easier to get burned on a high reliever pick than at other positions.

Finding guys with a string of good matchups is a great strategy, even if you have to make changes every series. We will be regularly updating the best upcoming matchups, so there are resources to help with that venture. Streaming relievers is the best way to find saves and the most valuable players on a given day or week.

There is equivalent value to be found later in the draft. Guys like Hader are going to probably perform the best; I'd also rather have Cody Bellinger, Christian Yelich or Nolan Arenado in the sixth or seventh round. Replacing relievers is much easier than finding equal production later in the draft among position players.

My best advice is to not stress about relievers, trusting things will work out. Tiers will change often throughout the season, and the best way to be successful is staying up to date. That's easier said than done, but that's why there are fabulous tools and resources, like FantasySP, to help you out.