Updated Fantasy Baseball Closer Rankings and Relief Pitcher Rankings

Welcome back RotoBallers to more fantasy baseball rankings! With Spring Training rolling and the fantasy baseball draft season in full swing, it's time to look at closers and relief pitchers and see who may or may not be fantasy-relevant and worthy of a draft pick this season.

RotoBaller's lead MLB rankers - JB Branson, Pierre Camus, Ariel Cohen, Nicklaus Gaut, and Nick Mariano - have all updated their 2022 fantasy baseball mixed league roto rankings to help you prepare for draft day. You can also find our other draft rankings for all sorts of league formats, continually updated throughout the preseason, right here in our main fantasy baseball Rankings Wizard tool.

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Updated Fantasy Baseball Relief Pitcher Rankings

In case you missed it, our very own "Big Pick Nick" Mariano was named the #1 overall most accurate industry expert ranker for the 2018 season, and Ariel Cohen was the top ranker in 2019. In addition, ATC Projections by Ariel Cohen have been the #1 most accurate projections system for the past three years. Be sure to follow their updated rankings and projections all season long!

Tier 1

It's Hendriks or Hader here, and if you want to nab an elite closer this season, you're going to need to draft one early. These two are going in the third round of drafts.

I would be fine taking either of them, but I lean towards Hendriks as do our rankings. After posting 38 saves last season, he's primed for another huge year with Chicago. I have nothing against Hader, but the walks really stand out here when you compare them to how incredibly efficient Hendriks was (less than one walk per nine innings).

Personally, I have been punting saves in some of my drafts this year as I have been trying to get some leverage on other owners in my leagues who are paying a premium for closers. If you're not comfortable with that strategy or just don't want to spend a third-round pick on these two, then there are still quality closers to be had in the next few tiers, too.

Tier 2

Raisel Iglesias and Edwin Diaz stand out here to me as the cream of the crop in this tier. Both had over 30 saves last year and the unquestioned closers for their respective teams (good teams, that should win a lot of games).

Iglesias continued to increase his K% while decreasing his BB% for the fourth-straight season - you know what you're getting with him at this point in his career. Diaz saw his ERA puff up to 3.45 last year, but his underlying numbers were just fine. With the elite starting pitching the Mets have put together and the above-average collection of bats, he could find himself in more save situations than he did last season.

UPDATE: Craig Kimbrel has been traded to the Dodgers in exchange for outfielder A.J. Pollack.

That really throws a wrinkle in the rankings and of course, it happened the same day this article was published! That's par for the course with this wacky post-lockout Spring that we have had so far. If you already grabbed Kimbrel in the late rounds, then congratulations on snagging the best value closer. He's going to get a ton of save opportunities for a title contender and Blake Treinen had already gone on record that he preferred working as a setup man. Our rankings have slotted him in fifth overall right between these next arms.

Ryan Pressly and Emmanuel Clase are the next two closers here. Both are solid options coming off 26 and 24 save seasons, respectively. We have Pressly ahead of Clase and that's likely due to the higher K% and pitching for a better team. Both guys had sub-one WHIPs last season and don't mess around with walks.

Tier 3

As we drop down into Tier 3, we are now talking about guys you are taking in rounds 8-12 basically and there's far less certainty here, which explains why the prices for the top handful of elite closers continue to go up.

Kenley Jansen gets dropped to Tier 3 mainly due to the fact that it's likely he splits some save opportunities with lefty Will Smith. He's still at the top of his game and joins a talented Braves team, but it's hard to take him ahead of the rest of these guys who have a stranglehold on the high-leverage situations.

I had a whole section on why to avoid Treinen here, but that's a moot point now with the Kimbrel trade, so let's look at the other relevant relievers instead.

I'd prefer Aroldis Chapman or youngster Jordan Romano ahead of Treinen. Chapman can be a drag on your WHIP with all the walks, but he still saved 30 games last season and the Yankees don't really have anyone else in that bullpen who's a threat to his save situations. I really like Romano in Toronto this year and if the Blue Jays don't beat everyone by 10 runs every night with that elite offense, he's got a great chance at 30 saves with solid ratios.

Giovanny Gallegos is another young closer worth considering here, but he carries some risk too, as it was recently reported that the Cardinals could also use a committee approach to closing out games. Despite his electric stuff, St. Louis has several other really good arms in that pen too that they could choose to use in save situations. My buddy Eric Samulski sums it up well with this tweet.

My Gallegos shares don't love this, but I think they expected it https://t.co/TWjNpFLH3a

— Eric Samulski (@SamskiNYC) April 1, 2022

Hicks is a phenom and going to be used in plenty of high leverage situations, too. They're both excellent young arms and Gallegos certainly won't hurt you if your league counts holds as well as saves with his solid ratios.

Tier 4

This tier is loaded with guys who are either splitting the closing duties, who play for below-average teams where they won't get as many save situations, or lack the elite strikeout upside that we see from the upper-tier closers (see Melancon, Mark).

Rather than talk about any of them, I'd much rather implore you to draft Michael Kopech here. After pitching out of the pen last season (and looking incredible), he's slated to move to the rotation this year and I love the idea of getting a starter with RP eligibility. Kopech's stuff is downright filthy and while he probably will have pitch counts and inning limitations, he could pile up strikeouts and wins as a starter with good ratios too.

Ranger Suarez is another SP/RP here in this tier, and while he was lights out down the stretch, he relied a lot more on an elite groundball rate than he did on swing-and-miss stuff. I'm fine grabbing him around picks 180-190 and hoping it wasn't a fluke.

Corey Knebel and Taylor Rogers are both $8 auction values and then it drops to $5 closers here with Barlow, Melancon, and Kitteredge. Knebel is my favorite of the bunch and he could rack up saves in bunches if the Phillies have a big year. The Twins made a splash by getting Correa in the offseason and could contend in the AL Central, too.

Tier 5

Could I interest you in another starter or two who are also SP-eligible? Tanner Houck stands out to me here as he had elite strikeout stuff last season while swapping back and forth between the pen and the rotation. He's being drafted as many as 40-60 picks too late, according to our rankings when compared to his ADP.

Cal Quantrill will be starting for the Guardians too, though he doesn't have the same strikeout potential as Houck. He put together an excellent second half last season and was a solid inning-eater with good run prevention if nothing else.

As far as the other closers in this tier go, I know a lot of people are enamored with Lucas Sims, but the Reds might be bad and he's already set to open the season on the injured list. He's not someone you should take ahead of Barlow, Bednar, or Kitteredge despite his upside.

Camilo Doval is pretty clearly the best young arm of the trio of Giants closers, but it still sounds like they'll close by committee. He's worth grabbing at his ADP, however, with the hopes that he ends up with the most save opportunities in San Francisco on a very good Giants team.

Tier 6 And Beyond

If we knew whether or not Robert Suarez or Dinelson Lamet would win the job as Padres' closer, they'd both be a steal compared to where they're being drafted. But it could honestly end up neither of them with Emilio Pagan and others all vying for save situations.

I had to admit, I am intrigued by Nestor Cortes Jr. as a starter this season. He combines a number of different arm angles, wind-ups, and throws a lot of different pitches, and has been pretty effective as hitters have a hard time adjusting. Another starter down here is Drew Rasmussen, who while unproven, is projecting as the #2 starter for the Rays right now and has a chance of having a solid season. We know Tampa has had a lot of success with pitchers.

I'm also pretty enamored with Aaron Ashby and you can read more of my thoughts on him here. He should start the season in long relief or as a sixth starter, but he's going to be good, and at some point, I think he's likely to crack the rotation.

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