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.
Next week's Monday article will be bumped to Tuesday due to Memorial Day.
Who Earned Saves This Week?
| American League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore | none | none | |
| Boston | Aroldis Chapman 2 (12) | none | |
| New York | David Bednar (11), Camilo Doval (1) | none | Bednar was unavailable for Doval's save chance Tuesday, having pitched on back-to-back days. Fernando Cruz was also unavailable for the same reason. |
| Tampa Bay | Bryan Baker (13), Ian Seymour (2) | none | Baker was likely unavailable for Seymour's save chance Wednesday, having |
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.
Next week's Monday article will be bumped to Tuesday due to Memorial Day.
Who Earned Saves This Week?
| American League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore | none | none | |
| Boston | Aroldis Chapman 2 (12) | none | |
| New York | David Bednar (11), Camilo Doval (1) | none | Bednar was unavailable for Doval's save chance Tuesday, having pitched on back-to-back days. Fernando Cruz was also unavailable for the same reason. |
| Tampa Bay | Bryan Baker (13), Ian Seymour (2) | none | Baker was likely unavailable for Seymour's save chance Wednesday, having pitched on three of the previous four days. |
| Toronto | Louis Varland (6), Jeff Hoffman (4) | none | Varland was likely unavailable for Hoffman's save Thursday, having pitched on back-to-back days. |
*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 | Grant Taylor (1) | none | See "Closers I'm Worried About" below. |
| Cleveland | Cade Smith 2 (16), Hunter Gaddis (1) | none | Smith was unavailable for Gaddis' save Thursday, having pitched on back-to-back days. Erik Sabrowski was unavailable for the same reason. |
| Detroit | none | Will Vest (2) | Kenley Jansen pitched the eighth inning Wednesday prior to Vest's blown save. |
| Kansas City | none | none | |
| Minnesota | Taylor Rogers (1), Andrew Morris (1) | none | Nine different Twins have now recorded a save this season. No Twins reliever has more than two saves. |
| American League West | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athletics | Hogan Harris (4), Mark Leiter Jr. (4) | none | Harris' save Wednesday came in the 10th inning. Leiter's save Thursday came in the 10th inning. |
| Houston | Bryan Abreu (3) | none | Abreu got just one out to pick up the save Tuesday after Bryan King allowed a pair of two-out baserunners. Abreu now has the Astros' last two saves and is riding a run of six straight scoreless appearances. He could be worth a pickup, though Josh Hader should be ready to return from the injured list soon. |
| Los Angeles | none | Kirby Yates (1) | Ryan Zeferjahn pitched in the seventh inning Wednesday prior to Yates' save chance. |
| Seattle | Jose Ferrer (3) | Andres Munoz (3) | Munoz was unavailable for Ferrer's save Wednesday, having pitched on back-to-back days. Ferrer had also pitched on back-to-back days but had only thrown four pitches Tuesday. |
| Texas | none | none |
| National League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | none | none | |
| Miami | none | none | |
| New York | Devin Williams (7) | none | |
| Philadelphia | Jhoan Duran (8) | none | |
| Washington | Richard Lovelady (3), Andrew Alvarez (1) | none | See "Bullpen Deep Dive" below. Alvarez's save was of the three-inning variety, or, in this case, the four-inning variety. |
| National League Central | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago | none | none | |
| Cincinnati | Tony Santillan (2) | none | |
| Milwaukee | Abner Uribe (5) | none | |
| Pittsburgh | none | none | |
| St. Louis | none | Riley O'Brien (4) | See "Closers I'm Worried About" below. |
| National League West | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Paul Sewald (11) | none | |
| Colorado | Juan Mejia (3) | Juan Mejia (1) | Victor Vodnik entered in the eighth inning with a four-run lead prior to Mejia's save Monday, giving up three runs while failing to record an out. Brennan Bernardino finished the frame before turning the ball over to Mejia for the ninth. |
| Los Angeles | Will Klein (1) | none | Tanner Scott recorded the last out of the seventh inning and all three outs in the eighth prior to Klein's save Tuesday. Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen both pitched earlier in the game. |
| San Diego | Mason Miller (15) | none | |
| San Francisco | none | Matt Gage (1) | Caleb Kilian had the chance to get a five-out save Tuesday but was pulled with two outs in the ninth with a pair of runners on base. Gage entered the game and immediately gave up a walkoff homer to Ketel Marte. |
Closers I'm Worried About
Seranthony Dominguez, White Sox: When the White Sox scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning Tuesday against the Mariners to take the lead and create a save chance, it was Grant Taylor, not Dominguez, who got the ball. There may have been a simple explanation for that: while Dominguez hadn't pitched Monday, he did throw 32 pitches while blowing a save Sunday, so he may simply have been unavailable.
There's another explanation which would be quite worrisome for Dominguez's fantasy managers, however: he's not as good of a pitcher as Taylor, and it's not particularly close. Dominguez has a 4.82 ERA on the year, and while his 3.80 SIERA is a good deal better than that, it's not a closer's mark. (It's also right in line with the 3.67 SIERA that accompanied his 3.16 ERA last season). His 26.5 percent strikeout rate is good but not great, and his 13.3 percent walk rate is poor. Meanwhile, Taylor's 1.78 ERA, 2.16 SIERA, 36.2 percent strikeout rate and 7.6 percent walk rate all very much belong in the ninth inning.
The only reason Dominguez doesn't rate even higher on the worry-o-meter is that the White Sox made it clear what their plans for both him and Taylor were heading into the season. The White Sox confirmed that Dominguez would be their closer back in mid-February, presumably with the intention of building up his trade value to flip him at the deadline. Meanwhile, they intend to transition Taylor back into a starting role in 2027, so they want to build him up to around 100 innings this year in a multi-inning role.
That was the plan back in spring training, though. With the White Sox currently occupying a wild-card spot in a wide-open American League playoff race, could they pivot to a new plan for the rest of the season? If 2026 suddenly becomes just as important as 2027, wouldn't it make sense to use the team's best reliever in the ninth inning? If the White Sox aren't already thinking in such terms, another few weeks of the team looking competitive could push them down that path.
Worry-o-meter: 3 out of 5
Setup man to stash: Grant Taylor. As discussed above, his numbers very much look like they'd belong in the ninth inning, and he's easily the team's best reliever right now. In fact, he's been so dominant that he's likely worth rostering in most formats even if he fails to earn another save the rest of the season. A reliever with his ratios and strikeout prowess is better than the last starter in your lineup in most leagues, so add him now wherever he's available and hope that his save this week is the first of many, knowing that he'll be worth it even if it was just a one-off.
Riley O'Brien, Cardinals: For roughly the first month of the season, O'Brien looked like not only one of the best value picks at closer, he looked like one of the best closers in the league, period. While it was Ryne Stanek who got the Cardinals' first save chance, he pitched his way out of the ninth inning almost immediately, with O'Brien picking up his first save of the year March 31. Through April 21, O'Brien had given up a solitary unearned run in 13.1 innings of work, allowing just six hits and zero walks while striking out 15 batters.
Over the last month, though, O'Brien hasn't been nearly as dominant. He's allowed eight runs on 14 hits in 9.2 innings, and while he still has a very strong 6.4 percent walk rate over that stretch, he owns a sub-par 21.3 percent strikeout rate. His blown save Tuesday against the Pirates, which saw him allow five baserunners (two singles, a walk and two hit batsmen), was his third of that stretch and his fourth on the year.
O'Brien's season-long numbers remain very good, and there haven't been rumors of an imminent change to the Cardinals' ninth-inning plans, but it's fair to wonder how long O'Brien can keep pitching like this before the team considers making a change. He isn't some proven closer who's earned the right to ride out the occasional cold streak, as he had just six career saves heading into the year, and the Cardinals seemingly didn't enter the season with him as their dedicated ninth-inning arm. If his slump continues, it might not be long before someone else starts picking up saves.
Worry-o-meter: 2 out of 5
Setup man to stash: Probably JoJo Romero. He's been easily the Cardinals second-most trusted reliever by leverage index this season, and he saved eight games for the team last season. He's hardly been dominant this season, however, as his 3.04 ERA comes with a 3.75 ERA, and neither his 21.6 percent strikeout rate nor his 9.3 percent walk rate are particularly impressive. He's also a lefty, so the Cardinals may prefer to keep him free to match up against opposing left-handed batters. Nobody else has made much of a case to supplant O'Brien, however, as preseason candidates Stanek (6.30 ERA, 4.31 SIERA) and Matt Svanson (9.12 ERA, 4.29 SIERA) have been nowhere close to closer-like thus far.
Bullpen Deep Dive
Washington Nationals
| 2026 Stats | Saves | ERA | WHIP | SIERA | K% | BB% | K-BB% | Stuff+ | Location+ | gmLI* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gus Varland | 4 | 3.86 | 1.45 | 3.77 | 22.0% | 8.5% | 13.4% | 101 | 102 | 1.91 |
| Richard Lovelady (L) | 3 | 2.61 | 1.65 | 4.54 | 21.5% | 15.1% | 6.5% | 98 | 100 | 1.53** |
| Clayton Beeter | 2 | 3.18 | 1.24 | 4.92 | 22.0% | 18.0% | 4.0% | 100 | 96 | 1.95 |
| PJ Poulin (L) | 2 | 2.91 | 1.48 | 5.25 | 16.7% | 14.6% | 2.1% | 94 | 96 | 1.55 |
| Orlando Ribalta | 1 | 1.80 | 0.80 | 3.14 | 23.7% | 5.3% | 18.4% | 106 | 107 | 1.55 |
| Paxton Schultz | 1 | 5.50 | 1.44 | 3.24 | 24.4% | 6.1% | 18.3% | 92 | 108 | 0.76 |
| Andrew Alvarez (L) | 1 | 3.18 | 0.97 | 1.84 | 34.9% | 4.7% | 30.2% | 102 | 98 | 1.08 |
*gmLI is the average Leverage Index when a pitcher enters the game. 1.0 is average; closers typically sit north of 1.50.
**Lovelady has made six appearances for the Mets and 13 for the Nationals this season. The rest of his statline in the table above includes his time with both teams, but the leverage index displayed here is only from his time with Washington.
The Nationals' closer picture has been unclear all season, and with Clayton Beeter recently returning from right forearm soreness, it's worth taking another look at the Washington bullpen. The Nationals somewhat surprisingly sit just one game below .500, and they're tied for ninth in saves as a team, so if anyone were to take the closer job and run with it, it would be a fairly valuable role for fantasy purposes.
Beeter began the year with the team's first two saves, but he had none of the next three before he landed on the injured list, so it's not clear that the team ever thought of him as the dedicated closer. Gus Varland then looked as though he was becoming the preferred option, with four of the team's seven saves from April 12 to May 7, but since then it's been two saves for PJ Poulin followed by two for Richard Lovelady and one for Andrew Alvarez (the latter being a four-inning save rather than a traditional save opportunity).
That largely looks like a team that prefers a committee approach to a true closer, but the fact that four different relievers have earned consecutive saves at various points this year hints that perhaps one of these relievers could claim the job for good if they could just pitch well enough to keep it.
Whether anyone is talented enough to do that remains to be seen. Each of the Nationals who have multiple saves this season has a SIERA of 3.77 or worse, with Beeter, Poulin and Lovelady all sitting north of 4.50. All but Varland have had significant walk issues, and none of the quartet have a Stuff+ north of 101. Despite some decent ERAs, they look like middle relievers at best.
Orlando Ribalta has promising numbers, including a 3.14 SIERA, and he pairs the best Stuff+ on the above table with the second-best Location+, but it's not clear that he's anywhere close to getting the chance to be a true closer. He wasn't on the Opening Day roster, and his lone save came in the 10th inning, after which he was optioned the next day. He's since returned to the majors, but he's seemingly more of an up-and-down guy than a high-leverage option. Paxton Schultz makes the above table by virtue of his one save, but that came in the 10th inning as well, and despite a solid K-BB% and SIERA, his Stuff+ is nowhere near good enough for a high-leverage role, as his leverage index indicates.
The wild card here might be Alvarez. He hasn't been used in a high-leverage role yet, as his lone save came over four innings Wednesday against the Mets. He was a starter during his brief MLB debut last year and a starter in the minors this season, and all three of his big-league outings this season have lasted at least three innings. His dominant strikeout and walk numbers (15:2 K:BB in 11.1 innings) suggest he deserves a chance in the ninth inning, though it's unclear whether he'll get an opportunity any time soon.
Injury Round-Up
Ben Joyce, Angels: Joyce underwent shoulder surgery last May, and while he began a rehab assignment in late April, that was put on pause in mid-May. An MRI came back clean, but there's been no word of his rehab assignment resuming any time soon. There's a chance he eventually steps into the closer role in a wide-open Angels bullpen, but there's also a chance his long injury track record keeps getting longer and we don't see him for quite some time.
Josh Hader, Astros: Hader is working his way back from biceps tendinitis, an injury which popped up in February as he worked his way back from the shoulder strain which ended his 2025 campaign prematurely in August. Astros manager Joe Espada said Saturday that Hader would need five more rehab appearances, and he's made two more since then. That puts his likely return date sometime near the end of next week. Bryan Abreu has the Astros' last two saves after an awful start to the season but will cede the closer role to Hader once the lefty is ready to return.
Edwin Diaz, Dodgers: Diaz will be back sometime in the second half after undergoing surgery to remove loose bodies from his elbow in late April. Tanner Scott had the Dodgers' first four saves after Diaz hit the IL, but the last one went to Will Klein.
Ryan Helsley, Orioles: Helsley hit the injured list with elbow inflammation at the start of May and resumed throwing one week ago. Previous reports indicated that he hoped to return in late May, but that seems unlikely at this point, as there's been no word that he's about to embark on a rehab assignment. Rico Garcia has been the primary option for saves in his absence, but he hasn't been used exclusively in a closer role, once pitching in the eighth inning to set up an Anthony Nunez save.
Emilio Pagan, Reds: Pagan hit the injured list in early May with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, an injury which was expected to keep him out 4-to-8 weeks. He recently resumed throwing, but only from his knees in an effort to reduce the stress on his hamstring, so his return still appears to be some way off. Graham Ashcraft, Pierce Johnson, Tejay Antone and, most recently, Tony Santillan have all seen save chances in his absence.
Victor Vodnik, Rockies: Vodnik hit the injured list Wednesday with ulnar nerve inflammation. He'd already lost his grip as the leader of the Rockies' closer committee, with Zach Agnos, Antonio Senzatela and Juan Mejia (two) splitting Colorado's last four saves.
Carlos Estevez, Royals: Estevez was diagnosed with a rotator cuff strain in early May while working back from a bruised foot. He's yet to resume throwing, so Lucas Erceg, who's been the dedicated closer in his absence, shouldn't face any threats to his job any time soon.
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 things look as of Friday evening:
*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.
