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Fantasy Baseball Relief Pitcher Rankings – 5/17/24 Depth Chart

Breakdowns of key bullpen usage from yesterday's slate of games.

Josh Mockensturm
Fantasy 5/17/2024

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

 

  • There were only 12 teams in action on Thursday, but only 1 day game.
  • Brock Burke of the Rangers was sent on a rehab assignment.
  • The Guardians activated Sam Hentges from the Paternity list, so dad powers incoming.
  • Los Angeles recalled Nick Ramirez to add to their bullpen mix but ended up a little bit of oil to the Dodgers water.

 

Yesterday’s Performances

 

NYY 5 – MIN 0 

HD: None

SV: None

  • Clarke Schmidt spun an eight-inning gem, leaving the low-leverage ninth to Victor González, who didn’t allow a baserunner. Sometimes it’s as simple as that.
  • Minnesota had to use four different relievers in this one to try, but eventually fail, to avoid the sweep. They turned to Caleb Thielbar first to get out of the sixth inning, although he would go on to allow his sole inherited runner to score, further muddying Joe Ryan’s pitching line. Cole Sands didn’t help things, giving up a run of his own in the seventh before Steven Okert and Jay Jackson threw perfect eighth and ninth innings respectively. On the plus side, the Twins top -two bullpen arms are well rested for the weekend!

 

NYM 6 – PHI 5 (11)

HD: Adam Ottavino (7)

SV: Jake Diekman (1)

  • The Mets and Phillies had a back-and-forth affair that eventually led to extra innings, and as a result there were several blown saves. Reed Garrett got the ball first out of the pen, and also earned the first(!) blown save of the night (and the top bun for the blown save/hold sandwich) for the Mets, allowing one run on two hits and a walk in 1.2 innings (oh, and allowing his two inherited runners to score). It was his second blown save of the season. Adam Ottavino earned his seventh hold of the season in the eighth, bridging the gap to Edwin Díaz … who blew the save (his third blown save of the season) and completed the sorry sandwich. With this game now going to extra innings, Jorge López got the call in the 10th and threw a scoreless frame, allowing only a walk. This work would eventually net López his first win of the season after Jake Diekman closed the door on the Phils in the 11th. Well, he had a little trouble closing it … a couple guys kind of got their foot in so to speak and one even got inside before he was able to eventually shove the thing closed … a save is a save I guess, and it was Diekman’s first of the season.
  • The Phillies, not content to let the Mets have all the fun, notched a blown save of their own when Jeff Hoffman allowed two unearned runs thanks to a throwing error, a walk, and a deflected ball. This was Hoffman’s third blown save of the season, despite his sparkling 0.95 ERA. Every other Phillies reliever kept things scoreless, Matt Strahm for 1.2 innings, Orion Kerkering in the sixth, Gregory Soto in the seventh, and then José Ruiz for two innings after Hoffman, before José Alvarado took the loss in the 11th, allowing two runs (one earned because of a wild pitch which … c’mon, how is that not earned?!) on two hits including the first batter immediately knocking in a run.

 

PIT 5 – CHC 4

HD: Aroldis Chapman (9), Colin Holderman (4)

SV: David Bednar (9)

  • Aroldis Chapman took the seventh inning here, throwing up a line of old with a scoreless, baserunner-less inning and two strikeouts. Colin Holderman came on for the eighth and managed to allow one unearned run thanks to a hit by pitch, a throwing error on a strikeout, and a sac fly (so not exactly his fault here). David Bednar locked down the ninth with a perfect one-K inning. Nothing fancy, a little weirdness in the eighth, and they get the job done.
  • All the damage against the Cubs came with Justin Steele on the mound. Newly-returned-to-the-bullpen Hayden Wesneski threw 1.1 scoreless innings, striking out three and recently acquired Tyson Miller threw two perfect innings for the second time in his second appearance for the team.

 

TBR 7 – BOS 5

HD: Jason Adam (9)

SV: Erasmo Ramírez (1)

  • Another game, another longtime arm randomly earning their first save of the season. This time it was Erasmo Ramírez for the Rays who got the job done, forcing a groundout against his only batter faced for the easy one out save after Jason Adam ran into traffic ahead of him (Update: Adam was lifted after a lengthy delay because the Rays fan afoul of the rule limiting the number of mound visits!). Adam still earned a hold for his 0.2 innings of work. Pete Fairbanks was unavailable since he had pitched in back-to-back games (and having recently been skipped due to a cut on his finger). Garrett Cleavinger pitched a scoreless seventh, but didn’t earn a hold since Kevin Kelly allowed the tying run in the inning before, and a blown save for his effort. Manuel Rodríguez earned the eventual win with his scoreless eighth.
  • Former Rays opener Cooper Criswell fell into his old ways, only managing 3.2 innings of work and allowing five runs (three earned) before succumbing to the call to the bullpen. The Red Sox mixed and matched five relievers from there with four of them (Brennan Bernardino, Zack Kelly, Justin Slaten, and Chris Martin) keeping the score at zero, although Zack Kelly somehow managed the feat of walking four batters in one inning of work without allowing a run thanks to a caught stealing. Kenley Jansen came on for the ninth in a tie game and untied it four batters later. Kenley was bit singled out and small balled here, so nothing to read too deep into yet.

 

HOU 8 – OAK 1

HD: None

SV: Shawn Dubin (1)

  • Three inning save alert! With an eight-run lead and six stellar innings from Cristian Javier, the Astros let Shawn Dubin handle the final nine outs for his first save of the season. Always a good thing to let the rest of the bullpen get a break, especially with the way things have been going for the Astros pen this year.
  • 3.1 inning scoreless relief appearance alert! I guess that’s not really a thing, but Hogan Harris did some bullpen resting work of his own throwing 3.1 innings, allowing zero runs and walking two while striking out three. Harris did allow an inherited runner to score to finish out the fourth but otherwise kept it clean. Tyler Ferguson pitched a scoreless ninth after Harris.

 

CIN 7 – LAD 2

HD: None

SV: None

  • We had ourselves a bullpen game after Nick Lodolo went on the IL. Brent Suter was the opener and he … didn’t even go a full inning, getting two outs and walking a batter before Emilio Pagán took over and stranded Suter’s lone baserunner. Pagán didn’t finish the second, giving way to Justin Wilson for the three-pitch hold, his fifth of the season. Nick Martinez was the bulk reliever and he went starter length, going five strong scoreless innings for the win. But that wasn’t it! The Red used seven pitchers total here, including Lucas Sims for the eighth and Sam Moll got the start of the ninth, but got pulled after he allowed two baserunners. Buck Farmer was the final Reds pitcher, and he allowed both of Moll’s baserunners to score by the end of the inning but kept his own in check.
  • Newly activated Nick Ramirez got thrown right into the fire, having the face Elly De La Cruz as his first batter. Elly got a single, but he was caught stealing to get Ramirez out of the jam. His next inning of work went pretty smoothly, getting a line out, a fly out, and then a ground out. His final inning of work is where he ran into trouble allowing four hits and three runs before eventually getting out of the jam. Alex Vesia pitched a clean 1.2 innings ahead of Ramirez.

 

 

Bullpen Depth Charts

 

Also, if you’re looking for a detailed list or ranking of RPs, check out Rick Graham’s weekly pieces:

The Hold Up: Ranking the Top 100 Relievers for Holds Every Thursday

Closing Time: Ranking the Top 30 Closers

Top 100 Relievers for Save+Hold Leagues

Josh Mockensturm

Josh is an Ohio Born, North Carolina residing Boston Red Sox fan thanks to his mom (and her love of Wade Boggs). If he's not watching or reading about baseball, he's probably watching a movie, reading a book, or making a dumb spreadsheet about Baseball, movies, or books.

One response to “Fantasy Baseball Relief Pitcher Rankings – 5/17/24 Depth Chart”

  1. Zachary says:
    May 17, 2024 at 5:28 PM

    That Alvarado unearned run was due to the ghost runner, not the wild pitch. The wild pitch run was earned.

    Reply

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