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Fantasy Baseball Relief Pitcher Rankings – All Star Edition

An All-Star version of the reliever breakdown.

Scott McDermott
Fantasy 7/17/2024

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

 

Transactions and Schedule

 

  • It’s the All-Star break! All teams are off until resuming the season on Friday.
  • The Toronto Blue Jays are expected to recall Yimi García to the squad on Friday, after optioning Brandon Eisert on Monday.
  • Commissioner Rob Manfred opened the door slightly to an automated strike zone in 2026, but insisted the decision is far from being made.

 

Yesterday’s Performances

The 94th Annual MLB All Star Game

National League 3 – American League 5

W: Mason Miller

L: Hunter Greene

SV: Emmanuel Clase

HD: Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Kirby Yates

 

First Inning

  • Corbin Burnes took the ball to start things off for the American League.  With Ketel Marte leading off for the other side, Burnes kept the ball down to elicit a grounder on a middle-out change.  Shohei Ohtani batted second and Burnes danced around the edges, clearly not wanting to make an early mistake.  He’d nibble a little too much and walk Ohtani on a full count.
  • Trea Turner swung at the first pitch in his at-bat, an inside cutter that ran hard, and the result was a lazy fly ball to center.  Bryce Harper would have better results, though, lining an 0-2 cutter to left for a double.  Ohtani was stopped at third, however.
  • William Contreras has been slumping of late, and that continued with two runners in scoring position.  He rallied from an 0-2 count to make it full, but Burnes went cutter once again and Contreras could only manage a weak comebacker to the mound to keep it scoreless.  Burnes ended his inning with nineteen pitches, eleven strikes.
  • Paul Skenes has electrified the Majors all season, making a historic leap from last year’s draft to starting the All Star Game.  He looked unfazed by it all, going about his business against the world’s best.  He’d kick things off with four straight strikes to Steven Kwan, which ended up in an infield fly.
  • Skenes might have been dialing it down a bit, hitting closer to 98 on the gun than 102, but showed great command throwing only one non-strike to anyone not named Juan Soto (who would walk).  The Pirates Rookie would end his night with a first pitch ground-out by Aaron Judge.

Second Inning

  • Tarik Skubal might have a lock on the AL Cy Young.  He only needed ten pitches to finish off the bottom half of the NL Starters in order, from Christian Yelich to Alec Bohm to Teoscar Hernández.  Skubal went 40% slider but ended up without any strikeouts.
  • It was then Max Fried’s turn, and he would uncharacteristically walk the leadoff hitter in Yordan Alvarez on five pitches, most of them low fastballs that didn’t get a bite.  Fried would get the next three in order, though, pitching to weak contact as well as anyone since Greg Maddux.  He’d also need just ten pitches.

Third Inning

  • A lightning-fast game where pitching dominated would slow down in the third, as Tanner Houck faced immediate trouble.  Jurickson Profar lined a ball to right that could have gone extra bases but Juan Soto cut it off in the corner.  Ketel Marte would fire a grounder off Marcus Semien’s foot that was initially ruled an error (later changed to a single) and there were two on, no out.
  • That would bring back Ohtani, and he wouldn’t settle for a walk this time.  Ohtani caught a middle-in sinker right on the barrel and parked it to right-center for the first runs of the night.
  • Trea Turner singled immediately after and Houck looked in real danger of not finishing the inning, but Bryce Harper grounded into a double play and William Contreras struck out swinging.  Still, it was 3-0 NL.
  • The American League would come right back, though, getting aggressive on Logan Webb.  Webb looked inconsistent and threw only fifteen strikes on thirty-one pitches, and was immediately in trouble like Houck.  Marcus Semien, single.  Steven Kwan, walk.  Then Juan Soto doubled to score two and David Fry (the first batting sub of the game, hitting for Alvarez) singled to score Soto.
  • Webb struck out José Ramírez to end a rough inning but the game was suddenly tied, 3-3.

Fourth Inning

  • It was Garrett Crochet’s turn as the second Rookie pitcher to make his All Star debut.  Crochet dotted a 97 mph fastball on the outside corner with his first pitch, announcing his arrival with a dart.  He’d coax a weak grounder from Yelich to get the first out, but then Alec Bohm lined one up the middle for a single.
  • Unfazed, Crochet went right after Teoscar and got him swinging on a fastball to the letters.  Jurickson Profar would then ground out to short for the third out.
  • The bottom half brought on another Rookie in Shota Imanaga.  Imanaga was unhittable the first couple months of the season and though he’s been tagged a little bit of late, he had his best stuff tonight.  He’d go 1-2-3 and strike out Adley Rutschman on a nasty sweeper in the dirt.

Fifth Inning

  • Finally, a reliever!  And Mason Miller brought the heat, immediately lighting up the gun at 101 against Ketel Marte.  Marte was able to get wood on it at least but flied out to right.
  • The next two batters wouldn’t be so lucky, as Miller made Shohei Ohtani look human and struck him out in four pitches (in a night of amazing BvP matchups, this might have been the most enjoyable to watch).  Miller then faced Trea Turner and dialed up the fastball even more, touching 103 twice and striking him out on 102.4 mph up-and-away.  It just wasn’t fair.
  • Hunter Greene came on for the NL, and though he got the first two batters they were hard outs, one of them a Corey Seager fly ball that died on the track.  Greene’s luck would suffer after as Anthony Santander singled next and then Jarren Duran hit a bomb on a splitter that didn’t split.  This made it 5-3 AL.

Sixth Inning

  • Now with the lead, the AL went back to the starters and called on Cole Ragans.  The NL kept Bryce Harper on for another at bat but he—like Seager in the last inning—came a few feet short of leaving the yard.  Will Smith (the catcher) came on for the NL and continued his recent hot streak with a single, but teammate Freddie Freeman hit a ground ball to Josh Naylor that kicked off a 3-6-3 double play.
  • Christopher Sanchez was brought in for the National League and he would be the efficiency king of the night, throwing all of two pitches to get two outs.  He’d get yanked mid-inning in favor of Reynaldo López, who struck out Salvador Perez in all of four pitches.  All in all, sixteen pitches were thrown in the entire inning.

Seventh Inning

  • Seth Lugo has been a revelation with the Royals this year, but would have to work around trouble after giving up a leadoff frozen-rope single to Elly De La Cruz.  Elly didn’t get much chance to run, though, and down two probably didn’t have the green light.  Bryan Reynolds hit a one-out single to move Elly to second, but both runners would get stranded once Lugo struck out Ryan McMahon and coerced a ground out to short from Marcell Ozuna.  Lugo might not be able to maintain his gaudy numbers in the second half, but he won’t crumble either.
  • With such a plethora of arms, the National League continued to use two pitchers per inning.  Robert Suarez, the electric closer for the Padres, was topping 100 mph in striking out Riley Greene and Jordan Westburg, then was yanked for Matt Strahm.
  • Strahm capped the perfect inning by striking out Bobby Witt Jr. in five pitches.  The Phillies seem to be moving on from Jose Alvaredo as their closer so it will be interesting to see if Strahm or Jeff Hoffman (who also appeared in this game) gets the bulk of the chances going forward—so far it’s been Hoffman.

Eighth Inning

  • Hometown closer Kirby Yates was next up in Arlington.  He seemed buoyed by the crowd and struck out CJ Abrams on three pitches in a perfect sequence (middle-low fastball, down-and-in fastball, splitter in the dirt).  Then Heliot Ramos suffered the same fate, though he lasted four pitches.  Will Smith would ground out to third to end another spotless frame.
  • Trotting out two more pitchers, the NL started with Tanner Scott, possibly (definitely) the most underrated closer in all of baseball.  Scott would gather outs from both Anthony Santander and Jarren Duran, then turn it over to Jeff Hoffman to get the last out (which came on a Willi Castro squibber).

Ninth Inning

  • So that would bring on Emmanuel Clase to close things out, which only seems fitting after the season he’s had.  Simply put, Clase has been the best closer in the game this year with a 0.81 ERA, 0.68 WHIP, and an MLB-leading 29 Saves.
  • And true to form, Clase would finish things off with ease.  His only blemish was a two-out Jackson Merrill swinging bunt that should have gone foul but Clase picked the ball up to try to end it.  Clase shook this minor mistake off and immediately went after Bryan Reynolds and struck him out with three 100 mph cutters.

All in all, an entertaining All-Star Game where despite the score pitching dominated in an unprecedented showcase of velocity.  Of the twenty total pitchers used, only three gave up runs.  The National League got twice as many hits as their counterparts but Ohtani’s homer would be their only runs as they lost their tenth straight.

 

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

Scott McDermott

Scott lives in Virginia Beach with his wife, two daughters, and a couple of furballs. When he’s not dissecting box scores and pondering over the optimal starting lineup for the Cincinnati Reds, he covers fantasy baseball for Pitcher List. He’s also the author of the award-winning book series 'Election 2064', available on Amazon.

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