This week we have some new names who are in the mix for saves as well as two old friends who are looking effective. With the trading deadline just two weeks away, we will surely see some bullpens get a makeover as teams look to make a playoff push for the last month of the season. Over the next 10 days it will be important to make some speculative adds to get ahead of the FAAB rush that will come with the trading deadline. Next week’s report will focus more heavily on that.
Doctor, Doctor
Kirby Yates - San Diego
A week after I told readers to watch the situation with Yates, he is experiencing soreness in his elbow. He faced just one batter in the eighth inning against Arizona on Thursday and has been placed on the 10-Day DL with bone chips in his elow. Drew Pomeranz is the priority add if he is available but he has notched four saves already and his ratios (0.00 ERA, 0.52 WHIP) are terrific so he won’t be cheap. I’d be backing up the FAAB truck and unloading it if he is somehow on your waiver wire. I was super high on Emilio Pagan back in the spring but he has struggled thus far so I wouldn’t go wild for any of the ancillary pieces here.
On The Rise
Gregory Soto - Detroit
Soto has been dominant so far with 14 strikeouts across 10 innings. He has yet to allow a run and though the sample size is small, the velocity is real and the slider is a great equalizer:
The 38.9 K% jumps off the page but so does the 5.6 BB% and the 52.6 GB%. Soto has struggled with command so I wouldn’t be throwing caution to the wind if trying to acquire him but he is the best arm in the Detroit bullpen.
Cole Sulser - Baltimore
Two weeks ago, it was hard to imagine recommending a Baltimore bullpen arm but Sulser has five saves so far. The Orioles have been one of the surprise teams through the season’s first two weeks giving Sulser the chance to be a nice source of saves despite an ERA in the mid-4.00 range. He does strikeout a batter per inning but the biggest reason for Sulser’s success so far has been his ability to limit hard contact. He is allowing an exit velocity of just 84.8 mph which ranks in the top-10% of pitchers. If the Orioles think they can make a run at the playoffs they could potentially acquire a closer but in the short term, Sulser is the guy to own.
Trevor Rosenthal - Kansas City
This is our first old friend alert of the article as Rosenthal has been stellar through 10 appearances thus far. He owns a 35.1 K% and is allowing just a .156 xBA with five saves for Mike Matheny. A lot of that is due to a new arm angle that has him releasing the ball 1 ½ inches higher than he did in 2019. This has allowed him to gain movement on his fastball which ultimately helps his secondary stuff. He’s leaned more on his slider and the results have been terrific as he hitters have just a .067 batting average when he throws it. There are still some command issues but overall, this version of Rosenthal looks as good as he did when he saved over 90 games for the Cardinals in two seasons.
Hold Me Closer
Craig Kimbrel - Chicago Cubs
Kimbrel hasn’t got untracked yet though he did pitch reasonably well against Milwaukee on Friday. While Kimbrel is still looking iffy, the Cubs bullpen has stabilized in the last 10 days and Rowan Wick has been a big reason why. Wick could be a cheap source of saves and holds as he notched one of each in the last week. In the short term, he is likely to team with Jeremy Jeffress to close out games and matchups may dictate who gets the ninth. Wick doesn’t wow you with velocity but he doesn’t allow a lot of hard contact and he uses a big breaking ball to keep hitters off balance. If Kimbrel continues to struggle, Wick could be a sneaky source of saves.
Diamonds In The Rough
Tony Watson - San Francisco (3% Owned)
Tony Watson is my speculative add of the week as Trevor Gott has been shelled in his last two appearances and could lose his hold on the closer job. Watson struggled as closer for the Pirates back in 2016 but he’s generally pitched well over his career. Like Cody Sulser, he is inducing a lot of soft contact (average exit velocity of 82.2 mph) and he has just an 11.1 flyball rate. Playing in spacious Oracle Park gives him a boost.
Alex Reyes - St. Louis (1% Owned)
This is old friend alert number two as Reyes made his 2020 debut yesterday and it was something. He struck out the side (including Luis Robert) on fastballs that registered at 100, 98, and 98 respectively. I’ll be adding him where he is available in 12-teamers or more as I love the strikeout strut:
Dennis Santana - Los Angeles Dodgers (1% Owned)
Santana won’t get you any saves but he has some of the best movement on his pitches of anyone in baseball and he is averaging over a strikeout per inning. Since giving up two runs in his 2020 debut, he has allowed just one run over 7.1 innings. The Dodgers are using him liberally throughout the week bumping his value a bit.
Reliever Rankings
This will be the last week I group SPARP's with regular relievers as I will try to format this better to separate the two. There were a lot of changes as I cleaned up a few guys who I was hoping would pop and substituted some more known commodities that have performed well thus far.