It’s finally here, happy Opening Day y’all! This list will take a little while to stabilize as we learn about bullpen roles and pecking orders, but for now, let’s chase some of the higher upside relief options. While we wait to see how things play out across bullpens around the league, we can at least look at relievers who can help stabilize ratios and boost strikeouts in the early going.
Notes
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Whether the closer role goes to A.J. Puk or Justin Martinez, the two are basically interchangeable in the hold and closer ranks. We should get a sense over the weekend as to who Torey Lovullo is leaning to use as his closer, but both need to be rostered everywhere for the time being.
- Mason Montgomery might be a surprise this high but he appears to be locked into a high-leverage role already and he may have the highest upside of anyone on this list. Over his past 17 innings (MLB and Spring Training), Montgomery has allowed just 9 hits and 5 walks while striking out 26. The lefty has a fastball that sits in the upper 90s with over 18″ of induced vertical break (IVB) to go with a slider that held a 32.6% swinging-strike rate last year.
- Tier 3 features a bunch of lefties as well as some future closers. Keegan Akin and Dylan Lee are coming off fantastic seasons and should be a bigger part of their bullpen’s late-inning plans this year. José Alvarado is coming off a down year, but he has shown his old velocity this spring, leading to a dominant 20 strikeouts and zero earned runs over nine spring innings.
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If Mason Montgomery isn’t the best rookie reliever in the AL this season, it could very well be his teammate Hunter Bigge. Bigge wound up making the Opening Day roster and should work his way into a set-up role eventually. Bigge’s fastball is similar to Montgomery’s, just from the right side, and his slider is just as good.
- Tier 5 features a bunch of starters turned relievers with Garrett Whitlock making his return to the bullpen where he’s thrived in the past. He should be in line for holds as well as some wins here and there as the Sox multi-inning fireman. Max Kranick has looked amazing in short stints this spring, and he might have found his role in New York. Graham Ashcraft could be the long-term closer in Cincinnati, but we will probably see him in a similar role as Whitlock for now. Louis Varland’s and Ben Casparius’ roles are TBD, but their stuff plays way up out of the bullpen.
