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The Hold Up 8/15: Ranking the Top 100 Relievers for Holds Every Thursday

Ranking baseball's top setup options for the 2024 season.

We lost a few reliever to the IL this week but we also gained two prominent 2024 breakouts in Bryan Hudson, and Reed Garrett who both returned from the IL. Hudson returns to a Brewers bullpen that is just Trevor Megill away from being at full strength, but I’d still expect to see Hudson get plenty of holds chances (Megill as well). Garrett struck out hte side in order in his first game back, looking like his early season self and he too should slot right back into a high leverage role as the Mets bullpen tries to nail down their late inning bridge to Edwin Diaz.

 

 

Notes

 

  • Jeremiah Estrada has been a little more volatile since the Padres acquired Jason Adam and Tanner Scott, with a 7.71 ERA and 2.29 WHIP over his past 7 IP and while he’s still racking up strikeouts (17 over those 7 IP) the lack of holds and quality ratios push him down the list this week. He also has a 1.97 xFIP over this span, so there’s definitely bad luck involved but the walk rate (15.4%) needs to be better to earn more hold chances.

 

  • Aroldis Chapman has been pitching great, pretty much since the start of June where he holds a 26% K-BB rate, 1.03 WHIP and 2.63 SIERA. The big difference here is that walk rate being at 10.6%, which while still high, it’s a number Chapman can live with given the swing and miss ability. He’s certainly the teams top setup option at the moment and could be closing out games full time soon with how poorly David Bednar has pitched.

 

  • I think James McArthur is much better than his ERA, WHIP and K rate say, and perhaps we may get another great end of season run from him starting with his previous two outings where he struck out 4 batters and allowed just one baserunner. It’s a bit baffling how he has just an 18% K rate while having a 31.5% CSW and 5.32 PLV.

 

  • I’m afraid the Rays have done it again, this time creating an elite reliever in Edwin Uceta. Now it’s only been 16 games and 26.1 IP but Uceta has posted phenomenal numbers across the board, with a 29.5% K-BB, 32.1% CSW and 2.30 SIERA. He only has 3 holds on the season, but two came earlier this month, so his high leverage usage appears to be on the rise.

 

If you would like more daily reliever updates, please check out our Reliever Ranks series.

 

SP Eligible Relievers

 

Rank Pitcher Change
1Tanner ScottT1-
2Griffin Jax-
3Bryan Abreu-
4Jeff Hoffman-
5Evan Phillips-
6A.J. Puk
T2
+2
7Yimi García-1
8Jason Adam+1
9Michael Kopech+9
10Cade Smith+5
11Hunter Gaddis
T3
+5
12Yennier Cano-1
13Matt Strahm-
14Jeremiah Estrada-7
15Joe Jiménez-5
16Bryan Hudson+UR
17Luke Weaver-
18Kevin Ginkel+6
19Aroldis Chapman+15
20Orion Kerkering+1
21Ryan Pressly
T4
+1
22David Robertson+1
23Andrew Kittredge+3
24Alex Vesia+7
25Nick Mears+7
26Reed Garrett+UR
27Jorge Alcala-2
28Tommy Kahnle+1
29Julian Merryweather-2
30Paul Sewald+6
31Andrew Nardi+2
32Chris Martin+5
33Mark Leiter Jr.-3
34JoJo Romero+5
35Craig Kimbrel+UR
36James McArthur
T5
+9
37Phil Maton+5
38Fernando Cruz+5
39Porter Hodge+9
40Jake Cousins+9
41Edwin Uceta+27
42Adrian Morejon-1
43Tyler Holton+4
44José Alvarado-4
45Tyler Rogers+11
46Scott Barlow-2
47Taylor Rogers+4
48Manuel Rodríguez+19
49Anthony Bender-14
50Jason Foley+UR
51Ryan Thompson
T6
+UR
52Drew Rasmussen-14
53Tayler Scott+1
54Joel Payamps+3
55Austin Adams+4
56Pierce Johnson-10
57Huascar Brazoban+13
58Anthony Banda+3
59Garrett Cleavinger+4
60Joe Kelly-10
61Adam Ottavino-9
62Ryne Stanek-9
63Colin Poche-8
64Yuki Matsui-6
65Andrew Chafin-1
66Dylan Lee-1
67Robert Garcia+2
68Nate Pearson+4
69Kyle Nicolas+16
70Tyler Ferguson+27
71Joe Mantiply+UR
72José Buttó
T7
+3
73Emilio Pagán+UR
74Lucas Sims-14
75Erik Miller-2
76Tim Herrin+1
77Tyson Miller-1
78Sean Hjelle-
79José Leclerc-17
80Nick Sandlin-1
81Elvis Peguero+3
82Tony Santillan+UR
83Kaleb Ort+UR
84José Quijada-1
85Collin Snider+2
86Kris Bubic+UR
87Aaron Bummer-6
88Cionel Pérez+11
89Gregory Soto+9
90Danny Young-4
91Tanner Banks-3
92Austin Voth-
93Brendon Little-
94Burch Smith+2
95Hans Crouse-
96Cole Sands-2
97Roansy Contreras+UR
98Sam Moll+UR
99Génesis Cabrera+UR
100Jordan Hicks+UR

Rick Graham

Rick resides in the Boston area and has experience as a player and coach at the collegiate level. He has been covering relievers for Pitcher List since 2017.

2 responses to “The Hold Up 8/15: Ranking the Top 100 Relievers for Holds Every Thursday”

  1. --J says:

    Michael Kopech is no longer in Chicago… need to update

  2. dennis says:

    Where did Justin Martinez of Arizona go to?

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