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There are plenty of different strategies when drafting relief pitchers for fantasy baseball. One strategy would be to aggressively go after the top projected closers relatively early in drafts. And that strategy is paying off for managers who took Emmanuel Clase or Clay Holmes.
Another strategy is to draft starting pitchers who are eligible at RP and then look for some bargain closers in the later rounds or just punt saves altogether. But having at least one of the top 10 closers in baseball can pay big dividends as these closers are not only a huge help in winning the saves category, but they also usually come with some elite strikeout, ERA, and WHIP numbers, too.
So which closers do we expect to finish in the top 10 come October? Let's start by looking at the current top ten closers as of May 27.
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Current Top 10 Closers for Fantasy Baseball
Here are the top 10 most valuable starting pitchers in 5x5 roto leagues right now according to Yahoo's player rankings.
| Player | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP |
| Emmanuel Clase | 3 | 17 | 26 | 0.33 | 0.62 |
| Robert Suarez | 2 | 15 | 23 | 0.76 | 0.72 |
| Ryan Helsley | 2 | 17 | 25 | 2.25 | 1.08 |
| Craig Kimbrel | 4 | 12 | 29 | 3.15 | 1 |
| Mason Miller | 0 | 10 | 45 | 1.96 | 0.74 |
| Kirby Yates | 3 | 7 | 23 | 0.95 | 0.84 |
| Andres Munoz | 2 | 10 | 30 | 1.61 | 0.99 |
| Kyle Finnegan | 1 | 14 | 18 | 1.8 | 0.9 |
| Clay Holmes | 1 | 15 | 26 | 1.57 | 1.17 |
| Tanner Scott | 4 | 7 | 23 | 1.64 | 1.36 |
Clase is having a start to the season for the ages.
Emmanuel Clase becomes the 1st pitcher in MLB history to achieve all the below stats through a team's first 53 games:
17+ Saves
ERA Under 0.33
2 Walks Allowed or Fewerpic.twitter.com/sX038sRRbA— Cleveland Stats (@CLE_STATS) May 26, 2024
And in a normal year where Clase wasn't setting records, Robert Suarez would probably be leading the way as he's been nearly unhittable for the Padres as their stopper.
Mason Miller's strikeout numbers are insane and there's no question that if he pitched for a better team, he'd be right up there with Clase and Suarez with more saves and elite ratios.
Kyle Finnegan stands out as a guy who is very reliant on saves for his value as he has far fewer strikeouts than other closers. Playing on a bad Washington team certainly doesn't bode well for a large volume of save opportunities going forward either.
Projected Top 10 Closers for Fantasy Baseball
When we factor in the remaining two-thirds of the schedule and adjust for some expected regression, we end up with this list - my prediction for which relief pitchers finish as the top ten closers by the end of the season.
- Emmanuel Clase
- Clay Holmes
- Josh Hader
- Jhoan Duran
- Mason Miller
- Raisel Iglesias
- Camilo Doval
- Ryan Helsley
- Robert Suarez
- Andres Munoz
While we can expect Clase to remain in the top spot as one of the most experienced closers in the game who is pitching for one of the better teams in the American League, we can also anticipate Suarez to fall down the list a bit as the Padres are a .500 team and Suarez appears to be pitching a bit over his head based on his prior history.
Josh Hader's slow start has a lot to do with the Astros being terrible for most of March and April, but if Houston continues to turn it on and ends up winning 85-90 games, then Hader should be up there among the league leaders in saves.
Duran missed the first month of the season with an injury, but already has six saves since returning to his closing duties and has some of the filthiest stuff in the game.
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