Saves + Holds rankings: The Top 75 relief pitchers for fantasy baseball 2023
As baseball continues evolving, especially teams’ handling of high-leverage innings, some fantasy leagues prefer valuing their relievers differently. Most of the focus remains centered around identifying who will accrue the most saves on a team during the upcoming season in standard rotisserie or head-to-head leagues. However, other leagues play SOLDS (save plus holds) or use separate categories for saves and holds. In these formats, targeting skilled relievers on good teams remains paramount for success.
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SOLDS does not focus solely on saves, rather, it rewards the highest-leverage relievers (HLR) who face the toughest pockets of opposing lineups, producing sparkling ratios with elite strikeouts minus walks (K-BB) percentages. From a fantasy standpoint, it can level the playing field, though it’s still an imperfect category. This post will highlight relievers from a SOLDS standpoint, along with holds as a category, encompassing how fantasy managers can be successful in either ecosystem.
Starting with SOLDS, here’s a breakdown by number accrued by relievers over the past two seasons:
It’s obvious more relievers gain value in this format, with the elite pushing 40 or more. As a comparison, last year, 10 “closers” recorded at least 30 saves, with only 17 securing at least 20. SOLDS allows fantasy managers more options, with better skills atop the bullpen hierarchies. Here’s the breakdown of the top relievers in the category last year:
Notes of Interest
- Devin Williams, MIL — Graduated from being his team’s HLR into the closer after the Josh Hader trade, resuming this role in 2023.
- A.J. Minter, ATL — Finished fourth overall in SOLDS, and will be a primary set-up reliever on a team projected for the playoffs with a stable leverage pathway.
- Jason Adam; Colin Poche, TB — Identifying the three main high-leverage options with the Rays yields success in this format, though the candidates often change each season.
A team’s conceptual approach in leverage situations, along with win totals, determine which relievers one should target — last year’s breakdown by saves, holds, sold and wins by each team illustrates this point emphatically:
When breaking down the Top 10 teams in SOLDS, they averaged 90 wins last season. Oakland identifies as the clear outlier in this group, so there’s a chance a team with a low win total, but reliant on a stable leverage ladder, can produce, but trends suggest focusing on playoff contending teams yields more reliable results. For 2023, this means relievers on Atlanta, Houston, either New York team, Toronto, Tampa Bay and St. Louis provide pathways towards success in accumulating SOLDS. Others will emerge, but one can adapt in-season on these relievers.
Plus, this category does not depress how valuable relievers like Jhoan Duran and Andrés Muñoz will be if they’re not the “closer” on their respective teams. Past columns detailed how talented these two relievers will be, so here’s some other high-leverage options of interest for this format.
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SOLDS Gold
SOLDS Sleepers
Holds
Since all leagues do not solely rely on SOLDS, our last portion features holds as a category. When assessing the landscape as a category, they’re not nearly as available in leagues:
Depending on league set-ups, one can stream in the bottom tiers of holds, especially seeing how many relievers recorded at least 15, but the elite set-up relievers like Minter remain scarce, illustrated by the leaders in the category last season:
Imitating the process above, here’s the results by team:
As with SOLDS, the Top 10 teams in the category last year averaged 89 wins, with Oakland and Minnesota being the only two with records below .500. Identifying the top options within the team’s leverage ladder can be difficult — thankfully our subscribers can access them in my weekly posts.
Projected Holds Leaders
Can one identify the trend from the list above? These relievers operate in a bullpen with stable leverage pathways, setting up a defined closer situation. When mining holds as a stand alone category, these types of situations yield the best results for fantasy purposes. With this in mind, take note of the teams with “light” designations as their turbulence descriptor.
Using my own projections for saves and holds, this spreadsheet has tabs displaying skills (without wins or saves included), traditional 5×5 scoring, SOLDS with saves and holds listed separately, plus a bonus points league tab (using CBS standard scoring).
2023 RP Aggregated Projections
SOLDS: Top 75 (Tiered Rankings)
Tier One
1. Josh Hader, SD
2. Emmanuel Clase, CLE
3. Jordan Romano, TOR
4. Devin Williams, MIL
5. Ryan Pressly, HOU
6. Ryan Helsley, STL
7. Félix Bautista, BAL
8. Raisel Iglesias, ATL
Tier Two
9. Kenley Jansen, BOS
10.Camilo Doval, SF
11. David Bednar, PIT
12. Clay Holmes, NYY
13. Alexis Díaz, CIN
14. Pete Fairbanks, TB
15. Andrés Muñoz, SEA
16. Jhoan Duran, MIN
17. Paul Sewald, SEA
18. Jason Adam, TB
19. David Robertson, NYM
20. Evan Phillips, LAD
Tier Three
21. Jorge López, MIN
22. Seranthony Domínguez, PHI
23. A.J. Puk, MIA
24. Daniel Bard, COL
25. Carlos Estévez, LAA
26. Alex Lange, DET
27. Michael Fulmer, CHC
28. José Leclerc, TEX
29. Adam Ottavino, NYM
Tier Four
30. A.J. Minter, ATL
31. Giovanny Gallegos, STL
32. Reynaldo López, CHW
33. Taylor Rogers, SF
34. Scott Barlow, KC
35. Trevor May, OAK
36. Rafael Montero, HOU
37. José Alvarado, PHI
38. Michael King, NYY
39. Kyle Finnegan, WAS
Tier Five
40. Matt Brash, SEA
41. Matt Bush, MIL
42. Andrew Chafin, ARI
43. Will M. Smith, TEX
44. Scott MgGough, ARI
45. Brusdar Graterol, LAD
46. Carl Edwards Jr., WAS
47. Robert Suárez, SD
Tier Six
48. Bryan Abreu, HOU
49. Jonathan Loáisiga, NYY
50. Cionel Pérez, BAL
51. Garrett Cleavinger, TB
52. Aaron Bummer, CCHW
53. Trey Wingenter, DET
54. Dylan Floro, MIA
55. Miguel Castro, ARI
56. Dinelson Lamet, COL
57. Alex Vesia, LAD
58. James Karinchak, CLE
59. Aroldis Chapman, KC
60. Chris Martin, BOS
61. Kendall Graveman, CHW
62. Brad Boxberger, CHC
Tier Seven
63. Erik Swanson, TOR
64. Craig Kimbrel, PHI
65. Jimmy Herget, LAA
66. Matt Moore, LAA
67. Brooks Raley, NYM
68. Matt Barnes, MIA
69. Domingo Acevedo, OAK
70. Yimi García, TOR
71. Tim Mayza, TOR
72. Jonathan Hernández, TEX
73. Griffin Jax, MIN
74. Gregory Soto, PHI
75. Brandon Hughes, CHC
Top 40 Relievers (Roto) (UPDATED 3/21)
1. Josh Hader, SD
2. Emmanuel Clase, CLE
3. Jordan Romano, TOR
4. Devin Williams, MIL
5. Ryan Helsley, STL
6. Ryan Pressly, HOU
7. Félix Bautista, BAL
8. Raisel Iglesias, ATL
9. Kenley Jansen, BOS
10. Andrés Muñoz, SEA
11. Camilo Doval, SF
12. David Bednar, PIT
13. Pete Fairbanks, TB
14. Clay Holmes, NYY
15. Jhoan Duran, MIN
16. Scott Barlow, KC
17. Alexis Díaz, CIN
18. Paul Sewald, SEA
19. José Leclerc, TEX
20. Seranthony Domínguez, PHI
21. Jason Adam, TB
22. Jorge López, MIN
23. Michael Fulmer, CHC
24. Reynaldo López, CHI
25. David Robertson, NYM
26. Carlos Estévez, LAA
27. Evan Phillips, LAD
28. Brusdar Graterol, LAD
29. Daniel Bard, COL
30. Alex Lange, DET
31. Taylor Rogers, SF
32. A.J. Puk, MIA
33. Kyle Finnegan, WAS
34. Craig Kimbrel, PHI
35. Scott McGough, ARI
36. Miguel Castro, ARI
37. Adam Ottavino, NYM
38. Trevor May, OAK
39. A.J. Minter, ATL
40. Will Smith, TEX
(Top photo: John Geliebter-USA TODAY Sports)
