Emmanuel Clase, Carlos Estévez, Mark Leiter Jr., Andrés Muñoz and Robert Stephenson led all relievers with 3 SV+HLD’s this past week. Estévez has bounced back since an ugly beginning to August, and has strung together four consecutive scoreless outings to go along with three saves. He also doesn’t have much competition left in that bullpen now, so he should be fairly safe to finish the year as the Angels closer. Leiter Jr. on the other hand continues to have a career year, and like Adbert Alzolay, has been taking advantage of the Cubs second half run leading all relievers with 13 holds since the All-Star break (second most since the break: teammate Julian Merryweather with 10).
Notes
- Kenley Jansen entered June 6th with a a 3.66 ERA (5.31 xFIP), 1.61 WHIP and 11.6% K-BB rate but has been pretty much lights out ever since that early June date, with a 1.88 ERA (2.67 SIERA) and 0.87 WHIP to pair with 29.2% K-BB and 33% CSW rates over his past 24 innings (17 saves, no blown saves). The Red Sox may be out of playoff contention but assuming Jansen is healthy enough, expect him to act as the teams closer throughout September.
- The Guardians wound up claiming three of the Angels waived players, adding three pitchers in Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López and Matt Moore. It’s a tough landing spot for Lopez, and Moore as well, but Lopez had been looking like a candidate to take over the Angels closer role up until earlier this week. That obviously wont happen in Cleveleand, who know has a pretty stacked bullpen behind Emmanuel Clase and Trevor Stephan, so I’d expect holds here to be spread out between multiple relievers over the rest of the season.
- Robert Suarez has begun serving his “sticky stuff” suspension, meaning he will miss 10 of the teams remaining 28 games, which makes him pretty much droppable at this point. With Steven Wilson hitting the IL as well, it looks like Scott Barlow will get a chance to act in a setup role again, and while he’s pitched better as of late, I wouldn’t get too carried away here, as he is only worth a look in deep leagues.
- Amongst current playoff contenders, perhaps no bullpen is more of a questionmark at the moment than the Texas Rangers (this felt inevitable) but they may be able to get key contributions in September from someone like Chris Stratton. Stratton has been great for them since coming over with Jordan Montgomery, tossing 18 innings in August with a 2.00 ERA and 0.61 WHIP. He’s not a part of that three headed closer committee yet, but he just may be the teams most trust worthy reliever at the moment.
And if you want more daily reliever updates, please check out our Reliever Ranks series.
| PITCHER | TIER | INJURY (SURGERY DATE). NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| Félix Bautista | 1 | UCL. Likely out for the season, but hasn’t been ruled out yet. |
| Edwin Diaz | 1-2 | Knee. Making great progress and wants to pitch this season. |
| Erik Swanson | 2 | Back. Expected to miss 15 days only, so could be back in a week or two. |
| Ryan Helsley | 2-3 | Forearm. Scheduled to return today, but role is still unknown. |
| Blake Treinen | 3/4 | Shoulder. Started rehab assignment but it doesn’t sound like he will return this season. |
| Brock Stewart | 3/4 | Elbow. Had a setback in his side session, back to playing bullpen work now. ETA is mid-September now. |
| Joe Kelly | 4/5 | Forearm. Already scheduled to throw a bullpen, and could return in a few weeks. |
| Steven Wilson | 4/5 | Hip. No timetable for return as of now. |