Fantasy Baseball Relief Pitcher Rankings – 4/3/24 Depth Chart

Welcome back to the latest edition of our Reliever Ranks series! This will bring you up-to-date bullpen depth charts every morning for the day’s games and makes for an excellent tool for those looking to stream saves or wins. This series runs seven days a week, so check in every morning to get your daily bullpen fix!

 

Notes

 

Transaction and Schedule Notes

 

• The Pirates and Nationals enjoyed a scheduled day off but all other 28 teams were in action on this first Tuesday of the season. All 30 teams will be on tap tomorrow but note the Reds and Phillies have been bumped from 1 to 4 pm due to weather concerns.
• Shane Baz’s rehab process has been delayed as he needs re-evaluation on his oblique.  He first felt the issue during a sim game last week and was shut down.  News from the upcoming tests should come out in the next couple of days.
• The Dodgers moved Brusdar Graterol to the 60-day IL, making room on their 40-man roster for new acquisition Nick Ramirez, acquired from the Yankees for cash considerations.  Ramirez’s role is as yet unclear but the Dodgers’ pen has a cumulative ERA of 5.23 as yet this season, so could use some stability.
• Dallas Keuchel signed with the Mariners to a Minor League deal and will report to AAA Tacoma.

 

 

LAA 3 – MIA 1

W: Tyler Anderson (1-0)

HD: Matt Moore (2)

SV: Luis Garcia (1)

• The Marlins’ season of woe continues as they’ve gotten broom’ed in a 4-game series with the Pirates and dropped two with the Angels, not exactly two powerhouses. AJ Puk will try to put his ugly first outing behind him and hopefully can grip the ball better, as he cited humidity as the issue for his 6-walk outing last week.
• Miami didn’t score until the 9th in this one, as Tyler Anderson threw 7 scoreless for the Halos with 5 K’s.  Matt Moore got his second hold in as many days with a perfect 8th, building off a stellar 2023 where he went 5-1 with a 2.56 ERA.
• Luis Garcia got the call in the 9th this time, spotted to a 3-run lead.  He gave up a home run to Bryan De La Cruz but that was the only real damage.  Garcia still has a 36.0 ERA and a 5.00 WHIP on the season after getting tagged in his last outing.

 

CLE 5 – SEA 2

HD: Scott Barlow(2), Tyler Beede (1)

SV: Emmanuel Clase (2)

• The Guardians rode another dominant outing by Shane Bieber—who might be a top-10 SP again—to an easy victory.  Eli Morgan coughed up a pair of runs in the 7th but that would be the only trouble all night.
• Clase needed 17 pitches to earn his second Save of the season, 14 of which were strikes.  He touched 100 on the gun with his cutter and struck out two.

 

KCR 4 – BAL 1

W: Alec Marsh (1-0)

HD: John Schreiber (2)

SV: Will Smith (1)

• April weather might have had more to do with the low offensive output than the pitching in this one, as a cold drizzle permeated the night and zero runs were scored after the 4th inning.
• Still, Alec March acquitted himself extremely well, holding the O’s to only 3 hits over 7 innings.  He only needed 76 pitches and threw strikes 71% of the time.  This was Marsh’s first-ever win as a starting pitcher.
• John Schreiber came on in the 8th for his second hold, not allowing a run so far in any of his 3 appearances.
• Will Smith has apparently come back from the dead and worked a perfect 9th in 11 pitches, getting his first save as a Royal.  He wil get his name called more often than not at this point, but what he does with it is anybody’s guess.
• Cole Irvin earned the Loss as Baltimore’s 5th starter, a temporary role until either Kyle Bradish and/or John Means return from injury.  But Irvin pitched adequately and should get a few more opportunities to start in April.

 

CHW 3 – ATL 2

W: Garrett Crochet (1-1)

HD: John Brebbia (1)

SV: Michael Kopech (1)

• Another bad-weather game—Marcell Ozuna provided the only offense of the night for Atlanta with two solo homers, and Garrett Crochet continued his impressive start to the season.  He should be started in any game against any opponent and owned in every league, as the stuff is electric.
• For leagues that count Quality Starts, Reynaldo López earned one for the Braves, only giving up a run in the 6th, striking out 5 and walking two. AJ Minter earned the loss after giving up a deciding long ball to the pinch-hitting Paul DeJong.
• Michael Kopech (remember him?) is finding some new life in the Sox’s bullpen.  After John Brebbia walked 2 batters in the 8th, Kopech promptly walked another but wiggled out of the jam.  He came back on in the 9th for the 5-out save, hanging on after Ozuna’s second homer made it interesting.  It’s early, but Kopech might be inching into the closer role…

 

CIN 4 – PHI 9

W: Scott Turnbull (1-0)

SV: Ricardo Pinto (1)

• This game quickly turned into the Bryce Harper show as the future HOF’er shrugged off a slow opening week to mash 3 homers off the Redlegs, including a grand slam in the 7th.  The score was 8-1 at that point and the game was over.
• Turnbull might be the 5th starter for the Phillies right now, but he got the job done with 7 K’s in 5 IP and no earned runs.  Pinto took over in the 6th and got the rare 4-inning save on 73 pitches.  He got tagged around a bit in the 8th and 9th but the game was well in hand so the rest of the ‘pen got a breather.

 

TOR 2 – HOU 1

W: Chad Green (1-0)

HD: Ryan Pressly

L, BS: Josh Hader (0-2)

• 2024 is quickly turning into a season to forget for Josh Hader, who really never should have been drafted as a top closer.  With a 1-run lead, Hader immediately got in trouble with a Vlad Jr. single, but bailed himself out with a double play courtesy of Bo Bichette.  But then Hader walked the next batter (Justin Turner) and Davis Schneider took a hanging slider nearly to the train tracks.
• The Astros loss spoils 7 innings of no-run ball from Framber Valdez, the second starter in a row to keep Toronto off balance.
• Toronto’s closer situation remains in flux until Jordan Romano returns.  Yimi García was the first reliever to come on after Berrios and Green came on late in the 8th after Tim Mayza found some trouble.
• Speaking of Romano, he threw a side session today in Florida, his first off the mound since his elbow issue cropped up.  The timetable is still unclear but still a couple of weeks away at least.

 

LAD 5 – SFG 4

W: Ryan Yarbrough (1-0)

HD: Alex Vesia (1), Michael Grove (1)

SV: Evan Phillips (3)

• The Dodgers went with a bullpen game in this one, using Yarbrough as the bulk reliever.  He threw 4+ innings and earned the win but didn’t do much else for you (four earned runs and only one K)—a fairly typical stat line for him.
• Bullpen games will probably become a regular thing for the Dodgers, who will want to give their starters extra rest.  This could dink the value of highly-drafted commodities like Bobby Miller and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who will rarely if ever get the coveted 2-start week.
• Phillips has looked great after earning a 4-out save, and with Graterol out for an extended period, has no real competition for the job.  He could be a top-5 closer at the end.

 

The best of the rest…

 

• Pete Fairbanks owners missed out on a Save as the Rays had a 4-run lead in the 9th.  The Tampa closer gave up a run on a few scattered hits but the game was never in danger.
• Javier Assad proved an excellent streamer for a stretch last year, and proved it again with a QS against Rocky Road, punching out five and giving up zero runs.
• Mason Miller had a significantly better outing for the A’s, throwing two scoreless to preserve a tie game.  He got 11 swinging strikes and had the Boston hitters shaking their heads.  Unfortunately, Oakland couldn’t score in the bottom frames to give him a Win but if anyone dropped him after his first appearance grab him while you can.  The Saves will be few and far between but he was hitting 102 on the gun.
• Ryan Helsley needed only 13 pitches to earn his first Save of the season, working through the bottom of the Padres order.  The game was close until Yuki Matsui came on in the 8th and gave up 2 runs without recording any outs, which should give Robert Suarez a firmer grip on the closer role for San Diego.