With the fresh fantasy baseball season approaching, it’s time to get you some tiered rankings from my Shuffle Up series. Use these for salary cap drafts, straight drafts, keeper decisions or merely a view of how the position ebbs and flows. Today, we complete the series with a look at relief pitchers.
Chasing saves is a key part of fantasy baseball, even as it’s frustrating at times. We always want to be mindful of both skills and roles. It’s possible for a mediocre reliever who’s trusted in the ninth to accrue more value than a wipeout reliever who doesn’t get the handshakes. It’s up to you to season to taste, considering your needs, league shape and the strategies of competitors.
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In most leagues (especially in a standard mixed league), I think it’s unwise to spend a lot of draft capital (even late draft capital) on speculative relievers and presumed ratio-dominant monsters. There’s a high level of volatility with relief pitchers and I’d rather identify valuable non-closing relievers in-season, after we have some fresh data to work off. I guarantee you a bunch of relievers you know little to nothing about will work their way into your league, and we can usually identify them easily. Wait a few weeks and then do a free-agent search based on walks and strikeouts — consider adding the guy throwing 98 mph who has 17 Ks and just two walks. I promise you, these guys emerge every year and you can acquire them at the minimum cost.
The salaries below are unscientific in nature and meant to reflect where talent clusters and drops off. Assume a 5×5 scoring system, as usual, and away we go.
More Tiered Rankings
The Big Tickets
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The Dodgers have had a checkered closer history during the Dave Roberts era, so they decided to throw resources at the problem this year and get Díaz, one of the automatics at the position. Díaz’s velocity and strikeout rate have dropped slightly since the patellar injury that cost him the 2023 season, but he’s still popping the gun over 97 mph and striking out batters at an elite rate. Into his age-32 season, it’s too early to worry about skills declining.
The Athletics were wise to recognize that a closer is a luxury on a non-contending club, so it made sense to package Miller to the Padres last summer. And Miller’s spike in San Diego also made sense — he no longer had to negotiate the tiny Sacramento Park. Miller’s 0.77 ERA and 0.73 WHIP with the Padres is too good to be true, but there’s no reason why he can’t pitch to his career ratios of 2.81/0.96. The walks are a trifle high, but the zesty strikeout rate keeps the stress down.
Chapman is a tricky call coming off a stunning career year at age 37 (1.17 ERA, 0.70 WHIP). Generally, I think it’s misguided when modern relievers get Cy Young consideration, but Chapman’s seventh-place finish last year felt merited. I’ll take the prudent approach and bid on him based on three-year averages (2.68/1.097), which still makes him a top-of-fold option. The Red Sox should contend for another playoff spot, and the Boston rotation is the deepest it’s been in a while, which is good for Chapman.
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Proactive Picks
Megill sits in the first chair in Milwaukee, with Abner Uribe not far behind. A common theme in this Shuffle Up series is to trust the Brewers, a shrewd small-market franchise that’s won at least 86 games in eight straight seasons (if we logically exclude the truncated 2020 campaign). Milwaukee’s win-loss projection has slipped to 84.5, which feels like an overreaction to the Freddy Peralta trade. When you bet on the Brewers bullpen, you’re betting on the smartest team in baseball.
Pagán has typically battled a standard platoon disadvantage, but last year he found a way to dominate all batters — lefties had a .507 OPS against him, a ridiculous 472-point drop from 2024. All relievers work in small sample sizes and Pagan turns 35 in May, so we have to bake in some regression here. Nonetheless, he has Terry Francona’s trust from Day 1, and the Reds project to be competitive again.
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Some Plausible Upside
O’Brien and Romero will battle for the St. Louis closer gig and given their handedness (Romero is the lefty), it’s possible both make it to 10 saves. Just be mindful that the Cardinals are coming off a losing season and their current win projection is a scary 69.5 wins. Non-contending clubs can support a closer for fantasy purposes, but it needs to be an automatic button. This has committee written all over it.
Beeter probably gets the first shot in Washington and has electric stuff, though he still doesn’t know where it’s going much of the time (31.7% strikeout rate, 17.3% walk rate). There’s a reason we suggest you don’t watch your non-elite closers.
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Bargain Bin
Vest is probably the value pick in the Detroit bullpen, the youngest of the three right-handers and coming off a solid 23-save season (3.01/1.209). Granted, the team recruited over his head at the trade deadline, but that doesn’t mean Vest isn’t a part of the 2026 plans. Kenley Jansen was paid to handle the ninth and he’ll mostly do that, but the team will probably keep him from heavy usage — and Jansen hasn’t even made it to 60 innings the last three years.
Vodnik was surprisingly useful as the Colorado closer in the second half, but it’s extremely rare that any Rockies reliever gives us positive value two years in a row. You can’t bet against gravity.
