Welcome to a new series here at RotoWire. Every Monday and Friday, I'll take a look back at the previous series and wrap up everything you need to know about the rapidly changing closer market.
These articles will contain five parts:
Who Earned Saves This Week/Weekend? A division-by-division look at who picked up saves in the previous series, as well as "true" blown saves and a few quick notes.
Closers I'm Worried About: A breakdown of a handful of closers whose jobs seem the most tenuous, as well as a look at the setup men who could be about to step up.
Bullpen Deep Dive: A closer look at a bullpen where everything is even more up in the air than usual, focusing on key stats and usage trends.
Injury Round-Up: A quick look at any currently injured closers and their progress toward a return to action.
Closer Grid: A snapshot of the RotoWire Closer Grid, which can also be found here.
Who Earned Saves Last Week?
Note: with no Closer Carousel article last Friday, this section covers all the saves and blown saves which occurred last week, rather than just those from the weekend series as usual.
| American League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore | Andrew Kittredge (1) | none | Rico Garcia pitched in the eighth inning prior to Kittredge's save Thursday. |
| Boston | Aroldis Chapman (14) | none | |
| New York | Fernando Cruz (1), David Bednar (14) | none | Cruz's save (which required him to get five outs) came with |
Welcome to a new series here at RotoWire. Every Monday and Friday, I'll take a look back at the previous series and wrap up everything you need to know about the rapidly changing closer market.
These articles will contain five parts:
Who Earned Saves This Week/Weekend? A division-by-division look at who picked up saves in the previous series, as well as "true" blown saves and a few quick notes.
Closers I'm Worried About: A breakdown of a handful of closers whose jobs seem the most tenuous, as well as a look at the setup men who could be about to step up.
Bullpen Deep Dive: A closer look at a bullpen where everything is even more up in the air than usual, focusing on key stats and usage trends.
Injury Round-Up: A quick look at any currently injured closers and their progress toward a return to action.
Closer Grid: A snapshot of the RotoWire Closer Grid, which can also be found here.
Who Earned Saves Last Week?
Note: with no Closer Carousel article last Friday, this section covers all the saves and blown saves which occurred last week, rather than just those from the weekend series as usual.
| American League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore | Andrew Kittredge (1) | none | Rico Garcia pitched in the eighth inning prior to Kittredge's save Thursday. |
| Boston | Aroldis Chapman (14) | none | |
| New York | Fernando Cruz (1), David Bednar (14) | none | Cruz's save (which required him to get five outs) came with Bednar unavailable Tuesday, having pitched on back-to-back days. |
| Tampa Bay | Bryan Baker 2 (18), Garrett Cleavinger (2) | none | Cleavinger's save came with Baker unavailable Wednesday, having pitched on back-to-back days. |
| Toronto | Louis Varland (12) | none |
*A pitcher can earn a blown save if he enters in what is technically a save situation prior to the ninth inning and blows the lead. For fantasy purposes, we don't really care about blown saves where a reliever was clearly being used as a setup man and coughed up the lead. What matters to us is when a reliever was genuinely being given a chance to save the game but blew it. Therefore, for the purposes of this article, I'm only going to report blown saves of that variety.
| American League Central | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago | Bryan Hudson (3), Seranthony Dominguez (12) | none | Dominguez pitched the eighth inning Wednesday prior to Hudson's save. Grant Taylor may have been unavailable, having pitched two innings the day before (though he only threw 21 pitches). Taylor pitched the seventh and eighth innings prior to Dominguez's save Sunday. |
| Cleveland | Cade Smith 2 (23) | none | |
| Detroit | none | none | |
| Kansas City | none | Alex Lange (4) | |
| Minnesota | Yoendrys Gomez 2 (6), Andrew Morris (2) | none | Gomez now has four of the Twins' last six saves. |
| American League West | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athletics | Mason Barnett (1), Elvis Alvarado 2 (2), Hogan Harris (6) | Hogan Harris (2) | Barnett recorded the final six outs for the save Tuesday. |
| Houston | Bryan Abreu 2 (5), Josh Hader (2) | Abreu's save Monday came in the 10th inning after Hader struck out the side in the ninth to keep the score tied. Abreu's save Saturday came with Hader presumably unavailable, having pitched on two of the previous three days. The Astros seemingly want to avoid overtaxing Hader less than two weeks after his return from a stay on the 60-day injured list. | |
| Los Angeles | Ryan Zeferjahn (2) | Kirby Yates (2) | Following Yates' blown save Monday, manager Kurt Suzuki seemingly named him the team's official closer. Zeferjahn then got the save Friday in a game in which Yates should have been available, having not pitched since Tuesday. |
| Seattle | Andres Munoz (10), Nick Davila (1) | Jose Ferrer (2) | Davila's save (which came in the 10th inning) as well as Ferrer's blown save came with Munoz unavailable Tuesday, having pitched on back-to-back days. |
| Texas | Jacob Latz 2 (11) | none |
| National League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | Raisel Iglesias (14) | none | |
| Miami | Pete Fairbanks 2 (9) | none | |
| New York | Devin Williams 2 (10) | none | |
| Philadelphia | Jhoan Duran 3 (18) | Jhoan Duran (1) | Duran was allowed to pitch on three consecutive days, with saves Monday and Wednesday sandwiching Tuesday's blown save. |
| Washington | Gus Varland (5) | Mitchell Parker (5) | Varland and Parker combined to give up five runs without recording a single out in the ninth inning Wednesday. |
| National League Central | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago | none | none | |
| Cincinnati | Zach Maxwell (1), Tony Santillan (3) | Tejay Antone (1) | Maxwell's save came in the 11th inning Tuesday after Antone blew the save in the 10th (though the only run he allowed was the zombie runner). |
| Milwaukee | Chad Patrick (3) | none | Patrick's save came in the 12th inning Monday. Abner Uribe pitched in the 10th and 11th, while Trevor Megill was unavailable due to oblique tightness. (Megill has since returned to action.) |
| Pittsburgh | Gregory Soto 2 (10) | none | |
| St. Louis | none | none |
| National League West | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Paul Sewald 2 (17) | none | |
| Colorado | Eiberson Castellano (1) | Antonio Senzatela (3) | Castellano's save in Sunday's 23-9 win was of the three-inning variety. |
| Los Angeles | Tanner Scott (7) | none | |
| San Diego | Mason Miller (19) | none | |
| San Francisco | none | Keaton Winn (1) |
Closers I'm Worried About
Seranthony Dominguez, White Sox: Dominguez recorded a save this week while his most likely usurper, Grant Taylor, did not, which ought to give some confidence that the veteran righty is still the primary closing option for now. But Dominguez's recent usage pattern certainly doesn't look like that of a true closer.
Dominguez pitched the eighth inning with the score tied Tuesday against Atlanta before Taylor pitched the ninth and 10th to record the win. Dominguez then pitched the eighth again Wednesday with a one-run lead before Hudson recorded the save. Taylor was likely unavailable for that save chance after pitching two innings the day prior. It would have been reasonable to suggest at that point that Dominguez had slipped to a setup role, but it was instead Taylor who pitched the seventh and eighth Sunday against the Dodgers before Dominguez got the save in the ninth.
It seems most accurate to call this a committee at the moment, with Dominguez probably as the leader, though not necessarily for long. The fact that he was announced as the closer over the winter and that he hasn't been bad enough to force the White Sox to remove him from the ninth inning (3.81 ERA, 3.78 SIERA) means he should continue to save games for now, but he's clearly not the best reliever in this bullpen, and as a 2026 playoff run looks increasingly likely for the White Sox, it makes sense for them to get their best reliever into save situations more often.
Worry-o-meter: 4 out of 5
Setup man to stash: Grant Taylor. As long as this remains a committee, Bryan Hudson will continue to earn the odd save chance as the bullpen's top lefty, but his 2.45 ERA comes with a 4.20 SIERA, so he's no real threat to take over as a genuine closer. For now, the White Sox seem content to use Taylor as a high-leverage relief ace, a role which has only resulted in two saves. But with his 2.21 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 35.1 percent strikeout rate and 6.1 percent walk rate, the White Sox should want to see him in the ninth inning on a regular basis if they're looking to return to the playoffs this season.
Riley O'Brien, Cardinals: O'Brien didn't blow any saves last week, but he wasn't good in his lone appearance. He got the ball for the ninth inning Saturday against the Twins despite the fact that the Cardinals had a four-run lead. He eventually got the job done but not before walking the bases loaded and giving up a run.
O'Brien now has a 7:8 K:BB over his last eight games, with a 7.56 ERA and 2.04 WHIP over that stretch. That's a far cry from the hot streak he was on early in the season, when he gave up zero earned runs and just six hits in his first 13.1 innings of work, striking out 15 while walking zero.
Between the good and the bad, O'Brien has a 3.86 ERA and 1.22 WHIP on the season. His 24.8 percent strikeout rate and 7.8 percent walk rate are both better than average, and his 53.2 percent groundball rate is quite strong, leading to a 3.09 SIERA. For an established closer, you'd look at the overall numbers and assume he'd get the chance to ride out a slump like this.
But O'Brien isn't an established closer. He's a 31-year-old who'd only made 10 big-league appearances prior to last season, and he didn't enter the year as the closer but rather emerged from an early crowd to take the job and keep it. If he stops pitching well enough to deserve the closer role, it won't be hard for the Cardinals to move him to a lower-leverage role.
Worry-o-meter: 2 out of 5
Setup man to stash: Probably JoJo Romero, who's second on the team in leverage index and who saved eight games last season. His 3.94 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 23.4 percent strikeout rate and 8.8 percent walk rate fit better in a setup role, but if O'Brien continues to struggle, Romero could become the top option by default. It's worth noting that Romero is a lefty in a bullpen which contains only one other southpaw (Justin Bruihl), so the Cardinals may want to use him earlier in games against tough stretches of left-handed bats. That means George Soriano, who's third on the team in leverage index, could get a shot instead. Soriano has a 2.97 ERA, though his 21.6 percent strikeout rate is unimpressive, and when combined with his 8.0 percent walk rate and 44.8 percent groundball rate, it's only good enough for a 3.77 SIERA.
Bullpen Deep Dive
Minnesota Twins
| 2026 Stats | Saves | ERA | WHIP | SIERA | K% | BB% | K-BB% | Stuff+ | Location+ | gmLI* |
| Yoendrys Gomez | 6 | 4.01 | 1.40 | 4.43 | 22.0% | 11.3% | 10.7% | 114 | 79 | 1.21 |
| Taylor Rogers (L) | 2 | 5.33 | 1.52 | 4.23 | 19.3% | 7.6% | 11.8% | 103 | 99 | 1.45 |
| Travis Adams | 2 | 6.89 | 1.53 | 3.79 | 23.9% | 9.9% | 14.1% | 91 | 92 | 1.19 |
| Andrew Morris | 2 | 4.94 | 1.61 | 3.51 | 23.6% | 7.6% | 16.0% | 109 | 99 | 1.29 |
*gmLI is the average Leverage Index when a pitcher enters the game. 1.0 is average; closers typically sit north of 1.50.
Do the Twins finally have a closer? Judging by their recent usage patterns, the answer is…maybe? Sort of? 11 different Twins have at least one save this season. I've only included the pitchers with at least two on the above table and have excluded Luis Garcia and Justin Topa, who are no longer with the team.
Until recently, no one in this bullpen had more than two saves, but Gomez now has four of the last six. He was likely unavailable for one of the two saves in that stretch which went to someone else (Travis Adams on June 5), as he'd pitched on three of the previous four days, though for the other one (Andrew Morris on June 12), he was available and pitched in the eighth inning.
Judging by the numbers on the above table, it's not clear that Gomez deserves to be all that far ahead of the rest of the members of this committee, but it's worth pointing out that Gomez's stats on the above table include both his 16.1 innings for the Twins and his 17.1 frames for the Rays. Zooming in on just his time with Minnesota, he has a 1.65 ERA, 1.10 WHIP and 3.22 SIERA, striking out 29.4 percent of opposing batters while walking 10.3 percent. The Twins have also made a notable change to his pitch mix, shifting from a more balanced three-fastball approach to a strong focus on his four-seamer while adding more sliders:
| Team | Four-Seam% | Cutter% | Sinker% | Slider% | Changeup% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rays | 36.8 | 19.0 | 23.4 | 18.6 | 2.2 |
| Twins | 51.1 | 9.3 | 6.1 | 28.9 | 4.6 |
If those pitch-mix changes have indeed reliably leveled-up Gomez's bat-missing ability, he might be enough better than the rest of the Twins' options that we'll be calling him a true closer before too long. We're still talking about less than a 20-inning sample for the new-and-improved Gomez, however, so even a brief slump could have him right back in the mix as an interchangeable piece of the Twins' massive closer committee.
Injury Round-Up
Ben Joyce, Angels: Joyce has been out for over a year while recovering from shoulder surgery. He began a rehab assignment in late April but paused it after just four outings due to a setback. He resumed mound work Friday, throwing 10 pitches, but he still has a while to go before he's ready to return to big-league action. Ryan Zeferjahn and Kirby Yates have received save chances in his absence.
Edwin Diaz, Dodgers: Diaz has been out since late April after surgery to remove loose bodies from his right elbow. He resumed throwing in late May but is not expected to return until sometime after the All-Star break. Tanner Scott is the primary option for saves in his absence.
Andres Munoz, Mariners: Munoz exited Sunday's game against the Nationals due to lower-back tightness. For now, he's merely considered day-to-day, but it's possible he'll need a stint on the injured list. Setup man Matt Brash is facing an extended absence due to a lat strain, so if Munoz hits the IL as well, Jose Ferrer would likely step into the closer role.
Ryan Helsley, Orioles: Helsley is nearly ready to return from the elbow inflammation which has kept him out since the start of May. He's made a pair of rehab appearances, striking out five while walking none and allowing just one hit and no runs. His exact return date isn't clear, but it looks like it should be a matter of days.
Emilio Pagan, Reds: Pagan has been out since early May with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, an issue which was expected to keep him out for 4-to-8 weeks. He's well past the short end of that timeline but is making progress, throwing a bullpen session Saturday and another Monday. A return before the end of June seems possible.
Carlos Estevez, Royals: Estevez has been throwing since late May as he works his way back from a rotator cuff strain and is reportedly increasing his intensity and volume, but he's still throwing from flat ground, so his eventual return to big-league action is still some time away. Alex Lange recently took over closing duties from Lucas Erceg in Estevez's absence.
Closer Grid
This article will be published every Monday and Friday this season, taking a look back at the previous series' top closer news. For more closer updates, check out the RotoWire Closer Grid, which changes daily.
Here's how the whole thing looks as of Monday afternoon:
*part of a committee
Questions about any of the closers covered above or any relievers you're considering picking up off the waiver wire? Let me know in the comments below.
