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Fantasy Baseball Relief Pitcher Rankings – 5/31/24 Depth Chart

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

Josh Mockensturm
Fantasy 5/31/2024

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

 

  • Business as usual on Thursday with only 8 games played.
  • A.J. Minter was placed on the 15-day injured list with hip inflammation. Jimmy Herget was recalled to fill Minter’s spot and provided some solid innings immediately.
  • After a lot of drama that I won’t go into here (but which is covered very well in our MLB Morning News article), Jorge López was DFA’d by the Mets.
  • Evan Phillips is expected to be activated by the Dodgers today.

 

Yesterday’s Performances

 

HOU 4 – SEA 0

HD: None

SV: None

  • The Pasta Pirate, Spencer Arrighetti, spun six scoreless innings to pace the Astros to victory and the bullpen held (figuratively only, unfortunately) onto the win with three scoreless innings. Rafael Montero took the seventh, Ryan Pressly the eighth, and Josh Hader the ninth, despite it not being a save situation. Appears to be a situation of the Astros really wanting to ensure they kept their winning ways alive as they claw their way back into contention after a difficult start. This does mean that most, if not all, of this hierarchy will not be available for today after back-to-back appearances for Hader and Pressly.
  • Kirby Snead threw three scoreless innings of relief in a losing effort, allowing only one hit, but striking nobody out. But this does mean that the top arms in Seattle’s pen should be good to go as needed going into the weekend.

 

MIL 6 – CHC 4

HD: Joel Payamps (6)

SV: Elvis Peguero (1)

  • With Trevor Megill still out, Elvis Peguero got the save opportunity for the Brewers. Bryan Hudson ended up with the win, but only after allowing three runs. Two of the runs were charged to himself, and one was charged to Joel Payamps who got a hold for his inning of work. Hudson also was saddled with his first blown save of the season. With the way the Brewers pen has been deployed all year, it’s hard to predict who will get save chances until Megill is back, but luckily it sounds like Megill will only be out a few days.
  • Chicago fell behind early but managed to claw their way back to a tie before the bullpen gave it back in the eighth on the backs of Luke Little and Tyson Miller. Little was charged with the loss. Mark Leiter Jr. also made an appearance in the seventh but didn’t help hold things down, allowing a run before giving way to Hayden Wesneski to finish the inning. They weren’t particularly hard-hit balls against Leiter, just a little bad luck (and a wild pitch to enhance the damage).

 

MIN 7 – KCR 6

HD: Jorge Alcala (4), Griffin Jax (10)

SV: Jhoan Duran (9)

  • In a tight divisional game, Minnesota deployed all of their top arms to make sure they came away with the win. Mission accomplished. Caleb Thielbar got the win for finishing off the sixth inning, and then Jorge Alcala and Griffin Jax held things down with scoreless innings before giving way to Jhoan Duran in the ninth. Duran got a quick out to start things out, but then the next two batters reached on a walk and an error. Maikel Garcia grounded into a force out and then made his way to second on defensive indifference before Bobby Witt Jr. knocked in both runs. So not the cleanest save for Duran, but both runs were unearned since the inning probably should have ended with the Garcia ground out.
  • Chris Stratton was the one to open the floodgates here, allowing four runs in 0.2 innings of work to take the loss and blown save. After that it was zeroes for the rest of the bullpen arms of John Schreiber, Sam Long, and Nick Anderson to keep the game within reach.

 

TBR 6 – OAK 5 (12)

HD: Michael Kelly (4), Scott Alexander (2), Austin Adams (13)

SV: None

  • Is there any team more synonymous with an opener than Tampa Bay? Shawn Armstrong opened with two scoreless innings ahead of Tyler Alexander and … maybe Armstrong should have stayed in a little longer? T-Lex allowed four runs in 4.2 innings on seven hits, but he did strike out seven. Pete Fairbanks had a chance at a save in the 10th inning but immediately allowed a single that scored the ghost runner. He then got into further trouble by allowing a double, before intentionally walking the next batter to set up the double play (which they successfully turned) and strikeout to end the inning and limit the damage. This is back-to-back days for Fairbanks, so expect Jason Adam to get the save chance today should one arise.
  • Feels like just last week I was writing about Mason Miller blowing a save. Except I guess last week he didn’t technically blow a save. But Thursday? Yep. He did it. Mason Miller officially blew his first save of the season. Of course, between those two bad outings were two scoreless appearances, so Miller should be just fine. I mean, he struck out every other hitter he faced in the ninth but Jose Siri, who hit the game-tying HR. Austin Adams earned his 13th hold ahead of Miller, while Scott Alexander earned his second hold. Tyler Ferguson was saddled with the loss despite it being T.J. McFarland who actually allowed the winning run to score, which is kind of rude if you ask me.

 

NYM 3 – ARI 2

HD: Justin Martinez (2), Joe Mantiply (4)

SV: Reed Garrett (3)

  • The Mets turned to Reed Garrett in the ninth to lock down the save, and he pitched around a walk to earn his third of the season and second since Edwin Diaz was removed from the role. Danny Young, fresh from AAA, earned the win with a two-strikeout scoreless eighth.
  • Starter Zac Gallen had to leave this game early without recording an out, so Arizona had to roll with a de facto bullpen game, deploying six pitchers across the nine innings. Justin Martinez ended up with the lion’s share of innings, going three scoreless for his second hold of the season. Joe Mantiply and Ryan Thompson were charged a run apiece, with Thompson allowing both to score and being charged with the loss and blown save. Kevin Ginkel also appeared, needing some work.

 

WSN 3 – ATL 1

HD: Dylan Floro (7), Robert Garcia (7), Hunter Harvey (17)

SV: Kyle Finnegan (15)

  • Hunter Harvey has 17 holds, which is only one off the league-leading 18 that JoJo Romero has. Washington has found plenty of hold and save opportunities this year, and Harvey has delivered in his set up role. Kyle Finnegan has also excelled, securing his 15th save in this contest. Dylan Floro and Robert Garcia also both earned holds with scoreless innings.
  • Atlanta decided to roll with Ray Kerr on Thursday to give their starting pitchers a little extra rest. Unfortunately, Kerr only managed 3.2 innings and so the bullpen didn’t get as much rest as they may have needed. The ageless Jesse Chavez threw 2.1 innings in relief, only allowing one hit while striking out two to improve his ERA to a sparking 1.52. Joe Jiménez followed up with a scoreless inning of his own, and recently called up Kevin Herget took the final two innings, keeping things scoreless as well. In the end, Washington still prevailed despite the solid bullpen work from Atlanta.

 

DET 5 – BOS 0

HD: Alex Faedo (5)

SV: None

  • After Jack Flaherty delivered another gem, Alex Faedo and Tyler Holton combined for 2.1 scoreless innings to finish off the Red Sox. Faedo managed to snag a hold before the Tigers extended their lead and robbed Holton of a hold of his own.
  • Chris Martin bore the brunt of the Tigers offense in this one, allowing three runs on four hits in one inning of work. Prior to this, Martin hadn’t allowed a run in just over a month. Every other Red Sox reliever around Martin kept the game scoreless.

 

NYY 8 – LAA 3

HD: Caleb Ferguson (8)

SV: None

  • The first out of the pen for the Yankees was Ian Hamilton, who got both of his outs on Ks. After Hamilton, and with the offense taking a sizeable lead, the Yanks turned to their B-squad to get some outs and they all delivered.  Caleb Ferguson got his eighth hold and Tommy Kahnle and Michael Tonkin threw scoreless innings as well.
  • Adam Cimber got torched for five earned runs in only 0.1 innings of work, and that was essentially the difference maker in this one. Though, of those five runs, three were inherited and allowed to score by José Suarez (who also allowed a run of his own).

 

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.

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