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 This Weekend?
Note: since this week's Monday article was bumped to Tuesday, this section also includes saves from Monday's games.
| American League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore | none | none | |
| Boston | none | none | |
| New York | none | none | |
| Tampa Bay | Bryan Baker 2 (16) | none | |
| Toronto | Braydon Fisher (1) | Connor Seabold (1) | Louis Varland, Jeff Hoffman and Tyler Rogers were all unavailable for Fisher's save Friday, having all pitched on back-to-back days. Rogers pitched the seventh inning Saturday while |
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 This Weekend?
Note: since this week's Monday article was bumped to Tuesday, this section also includes saves from Monday's games.
| American League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves* | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore | none | none | |
| Boston | none | none | |
| New York | none | none | |
| Tampa Bay | Bryan Baker 2 (16) | none | |
| Toronto | Braydon Fisher (1) | Connor Seabold (1) | Louis Varland, Jeff Hoffman and Tyler Rogers were all unavailable for Fisher's save Friday, having all pitched on back-to-back days. Rogers pitched the seventh inning Saturday while Varland pitched the eighth, with Hoffman getting the ninth with a four-run lead. He got one out before allowing six straight baserunners. Seabold then entered with a one-run lead and the bases loaded to try to clean up the mess but failed to do so. |
*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 | Tyler Davis (1) | none | Seranthony Dominguez and Grant Taylor were likely both unavailable for Davis' save Sunday. Dominguez had pitched on back-to-back days, while Taylor had thrown 31 pitches Saturday. |
| Cleveland | Cade Smith (20) | none | |
| Detroit | Will Vest (1) | Kyle Finnegan (4), Drew Anderson (2) | With Kenley Jansen injured, Vest pitched in the eighth inning Friday before Finnegan blew the save in the ninth and Anderson blew it again in the 10th. Vest then recorded the final five outs of the game to record the save Monday. |
| Kansas City | none | Lucas Erceg (5) | See "Closers I'm Worried About" below. |
| Minnesota | none | Taylor Rogers (1) |
| American League West | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Athletics | Scott Barlow (2) | none | Barlow now has the A's last two saves. |
| Houston | none | Bryan King (3) | King's blown save came while trying to clean up Bryan Abreu's mess in the eighth inning Friday. He then stuck around to pitch a scoreless ninth inning, but it's unclear if he was being given a true, five-out save chance. Josh Hader (biceps) returned from the 60-day injured list Tuesday. |
| Los Angeles | none | none | Kirby Yates pitched the eighth inning with the score tied Monday and took the loss. |
| Seattle | none | Andres Munoz (4) | |
| Texas | Jacob Latz 2 (8) | none |
| National League East | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | Raisel Iglesias (10) | none | |
| Miami | none | none | |
| New York | David Peterson (1) | none | Peterson's save was of the three-inning variety, or, in this case, the four-inning variety. |
| Philadelphia | Jarren Duran (12) | none | |
| Washington | Clayton Beeter 2 (4) | none |
| National League Central | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
| Chicago | none | none | |
| Cincinnati | Sam Moll (1) | none | Tony Santillan was given the save opportunity Sunday but ran into trouble, allowing three baserunners and one run. He was pulled with one out remaining, with Moll finishing the save. |
| Milwaukee | Trevor Megill 2 (8) | none | See "Closers I'm Worried About" below. |
| Pittsburgh | Gregory Soto (7) | none | |
| St. Louis | Riley O'Brien (14), Hunter Dobbins (1) | none | Dobbins' save Sunday was of the three-inning variety, or 3.2 innings in this case. |
| National League West | Saves | "True" Blown Saves | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Paul Sewald (15) | none | |
| Colorado | none | Antonio Senzatela (1) | Senzatela blew the save in the eighth inning Monday but stuck around to record the win in the ninth after the Rockies went back ahead. |
| Los Angeles | Tanner Scott (5) | none | See "Bullpen Deep Dive" below. |
| San Diego | Mason Miller (17) | none | |
| San Francisco | none | Caleb Kilian (1) |
Closers I'm Worried About
Abner Uribe, Brewers: Uribe hasn't pitched all that poorly this season, but it looks as though he's officially lost the closer role he held for just over a month and is back to being a setup man. Uribe stepped into the closer job after Megill allowed eight runs with a 5:4 K:BB in his first six outings of the season and held onto the lead spot through mid-May, but he now has just one of the last seven Brewers saves, with two unconventional saves going to Chad Patrick and four going to Trevor Megill.
Uribe hasn't been dominant this season, with his ERA rising from 1.67 to 3.80 and his strikeout rate falling from 30.2 percent to 25.8 percent. He also has a career-low (albeit still above average) groundball rate of 48.2 percent, down from 53.2 percent last season. His Stuff+ has dropped as well, falling from 115 to 110.
An important thing to note with Uribe falling back into a setup role is that he hasn't pitched poorly lately. He hasn't given up a run in his last five appearances, with a 6:3 K:BB and just three hits allowed over that stretch. It would be one thing if an awful run from Uribe caused the Brewers to make a change, but the fact that they're moving Megill back into the ninth inning in the absence of a slump from Uribe makes it clear that the plan for his season is to have Megill be the team's closer as long as he pitches well enough to deserve it.
Worry-o-meter: 5 out of 5
Setup man to stash: Trevor Megill, though you're unlikely to find him still on the wire in many leagues. He was drafted early enough that his managers held onto him in most spots even after his demotion to a setup role, especially since he still got the occasional save chance even during that period. He's allowed just two earned runs in his last 16 appearances, with a 22:2 K:BB over that stretch, so it doesn't look as though he'll be displaced from the ninth inning any time soon. It's worth noting that Megill's fastball velocity remains down from last season (from 99.2 mph to 97.5), a concerning development when paired with the elbow strain he suffered last September. That probably makes Uribe worth holding onto in many leagues even after his return to a setup role, as a return of elbow problems for Megill would push Uribe right back into the ninth inning. For now, though, Megill seems to have figured out how to pitch with reduced velocity and is back to pitching like a closer.
Lucas Erceg, Royals: It's unclear how seriously the Royals are considering making a change in the ninth inning, but it's become increasingly clear that a change is needed. Erceg has 11 of the Royals' 14 saves this season while deputizing for Carlos Estevez, who was out first with a bruised foot and now with a rotator cuff strain, but his performances have been nowhere near closer level. Erceg owns a 6.33 ERA and 1.92 WHIP on the year, striking out just 18.4 percent of batters while walking 13.3 percent.
To be fair to Erceg and the Royals, the 31-year-old righty was holding his own until fairly recently. Through May 8, he had a 3.31 ERA, though it came with poor underlying numbers (14:12 K:BB, 4.62 xFIP) which indicated a cliff could be coming. That cliff has indeed arrived, as Erceg has now allowed at least one run in five of his last six outings, including eight runs across his last three appearances.
The Royals shouldn't give Erceg a very long leash to figure this out — and indeed, I'm surprised he's been given this long already — because he doesn't have an extensive track record of pitching at a closer level. While he did save 14 games back in 2024 with a 3.36 ERA and 1.05 backed by a strong 28.5 percent strikeout rate, his strikeout rate plummeted to 19.3 percent last year, and even though he managed a 2.64 ERA, his 3.95 xFIP suggested things could have been much worse. Now that he's lost his command while also not getting back any of his strikeout stuff, he's nowhere near the level needed to pitch the ninth inning, and he hasn't been for some time.
Worry-o-meter: 4 out of 5
Setup man to stash: Probably Daniel Lynch IV, though Matt Strahm's return from the injured list Sunday does complicate things somewhat. Strahm slightly edges Lynch for the second-highest leverage index among healthy Royals pitchers (behind Erceg), and Strahm has more experience in the ninth inning, with 15 career saves to Lynch's three. Lynch has outpitched Strahm across multiple metrics this season, though, including ERA (1.93 to 3.86), WHIP (0.99 to 1.29), K-BB% (19.8 percent to 14.1 percent) and SIERA (2.96 to 3.83). Strahm's return might arguably make it easier for the Royals to move Lynch into the ninth inning, as the presence of another trustworthy lefty may free manager Matt Quattaro to use Lynch as a closer, with Strahm handling the tough lefties in other innings.
Bullpen Deep Dive
Los Angeles Dodgers
| 2026 Stats | Saves | ERA | WHIP | SIERA | K% | BB% | K-BB% | Stuff+ | Location+ | gmLI* |
| Tanner Scott (L) | 5 | 2.19 | 0.69 | 2.25 | 31.1% | 3.3% | 27.8% | 119 | 105 | 1.12 |
| Alex Vesia (L) | 2 | 2.21 | 0.93 | 2.92 | 35.0% | 12.5% | 22.5% | 112 | 93 | 1.34 |
| Kyle Hurt | 1 | 1.00 | 0.78 | 2.32 | 31.3% | 6.0% | 25.4% | 95 | 108 | 0.58 |
| Will Klein | 1 | 1.88 | 1.04 | 3.03 | 26.0% | 7.3% | 18.7% | 99 | 108 | 1.24 |
| Blake Treinen | 1 | 3.06 | 1.25 | 3.28 | 24.0% | 8.0% | 16.0% | 108 | 110 | 1.27 |
*gmLI is the average Leverage Index when a pitcher enters the game. 1.0 is average; closers typically sit north of 1.50.
Just how much of a closer has Tanner Scott been in the absence of Edwin Diaz, and how much of a closer is he likely to be going forward? It was Alex Vesia who recorded the first two saves while Diaz was first battling with an unspecified elbow issue, then it was Scott who recorded the first four after Diaz officially hit the injured list and underwent surgery to remove loose bodies.
It looked like Scott had become the true (temporary) closer, but then the next three saves all went to other pitchers: Will Klein, Blake Treinen and Kyle Hurt. Scott was unavailable for one of those saves, but he pitched prior to the ninth inning in the other two. Scott clearly hasn't been removed from ninth-inning consideration, however, as he picked up the save Friday against the Phillies.
Judging by the above table, Scott wouldn't look at all out of place as a true closer, and he's been the Dodgers' best reliever by several key metrics, including SIERA, K-BB% and Stuff+. He isn't that far ahead of the rest of the pack, though, with Vesia and Hurt in particular not far behind him. That means that when manager Dave Roberts wants to use Scott as a high-leverage weapon against tough pockets of the opposing lineup earlier in games, he can do so knowing that he'll still have an elite high-leverage arm available for the save.
With that in mind, I'd expect the Dodgers to continue their current setup for the foreseeable future, with Scott getting the plurality of the saves but probably not much more than half of them. That means Scott should still be rosterable in all formats, as a half-closer who produces great ratios on a team which will generate a ton of save chances is viable even in a shallower format. He's unlikely to be a top-ten closer while he's used in this way, though, so for many fantasy teams, he'll be merely the third-best option and should potentially be traded. The other four relievers are all potentially startable in deeper leagues (especially Vesia and Hurt), but it would be a surprise if any of them overtook Scott to become something more than that.
Injury Round-Up
Ben Joyce, Angels: Joyce has been out since last May while recovering from shoulder surgery. He began a rehab assignment in late April but paused it after four appearances due to a setback. He's resumed throwing again for about a week, but a new timeline for him to resume his rehab assignment has not yet emerged. Kirby Yates and Ryan Zeferjahn are the only Angels on the active roster with a save.
Edwin Diaz, Dodgers: Diaz underwent surgery in late April to remove loose bodies from his right elbow. He resumed throwing last week but will be out until sometime after the All-Star break, with a more specific timeline not yet announced. As discussed above, Tanner Scott is the primary option for saves at the moment but doesn't have a true closer role.
Ryan Helsley, Orioles: Helsley has been out for just over a month due to elbow inflammation. He resumed throwing in mid-May and recently began throwing bullpen sessions, but he needs a few more before he's cleared to embark on a rehab assignment. Rico Garcia and Anthony Nunez are the top options for saves in his absence.
Emilio Pagan, Reds: Pagan has been out since early May with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, but an MRI he underwent Friday showed positive results. He's been cleared to run on an anti-gravity treadmill but is still several steps away from beginning a rehab assignment. With Pierce Johnson (elbow) and Graham Ashcraft (elbow) also both sidelined, Tony Santillan looks like the top option for saves in Cincinnati at the moment, though he's been unconvincing this year (5.56 ERA, 1.50 WHIP).
Victor Vodnik, Rockies: Vodnik has been out for two weeks with ulnar nerve inflammation. He threw a bullpen session Saturday and will throw one more this week before being cleared to face hitters. His velocity in that first bullpen session was reportedly only 95 mph, well below his season average of 98.8. Juan Mejia and Antonio Senzatela are the top options for saves in his absence.
Carlos Estevez, Royals: Estevez resumed throwing last Wednesday after shutting down a rehab assignment (initially due to a bruised foot) after he was diagnosed with a rotator cuff strain. While he's making progress, he's still several steps from his return. As discussed above, Lucas Erceg has done a poor job deputizing for him in his absence, which could make Daniel Lynch IV worth a speculative pickup.
Kenley Jansen, Tigers: Jansen left Wednesday's due to what was originally called groin tightness and was placed on the injured list the next day due to pelvic inflammation. While the fact that he's seemingly avoided a strain is a positive, he's yet to resume throwing, so his return date remains unclear. Will Vest and Kyle Finnegan are the top candidates for saves in his 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 Tuesday 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.
