It’s fantasy baseball season, which means yet another year of attempting to figure out which relievers are set to pick up the all-important save in games. Granted, there are those who sit among the top of the food chain. But, there are also teams that do have a lack of clarity, with regards to whom will receive most of the save opportunities. Let’s try to help with that, as we take a look at MLB closers for the 2023 fantasy baseball campaign.
Updated September 25, 2023.
MLB Projected Closers for Fantasy
Let’s start off with the closers in the American League in the 2023 season:
American League
| Team | Closer | Next Man Up |
|---|---|---|
| Baltimore Orioles | Yennier Cano | Cionel Pérez |
| Boston Red Sox | Kenley Jansen | Chris Martin |
| Chicago White Sox | Bryan Shaw | Tanner Banks |
| Cleveland Guardians | Emmanuel Clase | Sam Hentges |
| Detroit Tigers | Alex Lange | Jason Foley |
| Houston Astros | Ryan Pressly | Bryan Abreu |
| Kansas City Royals | James McArthur | Taylor Clarke |
| Los Angeles Angels | Carlos Estevez | Jose Soriano |
| Minnesota Twins | Jhoan Duran | Emilio Pagan |
| New York Yankees | Clay Holmes | Tommy Kahnle |
| Oakland Athletics | Trevor May | Lucas Erceg |
| Seattle Mariners | Andrés Muñoz | Matt Brash |
| Tampa Bay Rays | Pete Fairbanks | Colin Poche |
| Texas Rangers | Aroldis Chapman | Jose Leclerc |
| Toronto Blue Jays | Jordan Romano | Jordan Hicks |
Former Phillies prospect James McArthur has emerged as an intriguing vulture save option. Not only have the Royals been winning in September, but the Kansas City righty has thrown 13.1 scoreless innings in the month, struck out 14 along the way, and nabbed three saves.
Meanwhile in Chicago, Gregory Santos‘ absence has made Bryan Shaw a bit more valuable in fantasy. Even though the White Sox have had a forgetful season, Shaw’s pitched to the tune of a 1.23 ERA (14.2) for Chicago in September.
National League
Now, a look at the NL closers:
| Team | Closer | Next Man Up |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona Diamondbacks | Paul Sewald | Kevin Ginkel |
| Atlanta Braves | Raisel Iglesias | Kirby Yates |
| Chicago Cubs | Julian Merryweather | Jose Cuas |
| Cincinnati Reds | Alexis Díaz | Ian Gibaut |
| Colorado Rockies | Tyler Kinley | Justin Lawrence |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Evan Phillips | Brusdar Graterol |
| Miami Marlins | Tanner Scott | David Robertson |
| Milwaukee Brewers | Devin Williams | Joel Payamps |
| New York Mets | Adam Ottavino | Brooks Raley |
| Philadelphia Phillies | José Alvarado | Craig Kimbrel |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | David Bednar | Carmen Mlodzinski |
| San Diego Padres | Josh Hader | Luis Garcia |
| San Francisco Giants | Camilo Doval | Tyler Rogers |
| St. Louis Cardinals | Ryan Helsley | Drew VerHagen |
| Washington Nationals | Kyle Finnegan | Hunter Harvey |
Not much has changed here on the NL side of things. However, one 2023 fantasy baseball closer situation that’s interesting is in Philadelphia.
As we noted on September 24, José Alvarado picked up four saves in the month of September, two more than Craig Kimbrel. Kimbrel has not picked up a save since September 11.
Disclaimer
A couple of things to keep in mind with the list of closers for the 2023 fantasy baseball season.
While this list does consider the individual most likely to get a save as the “closer, ” managers in recent years have opted to use relievers usually reserved for the closer role a bit differently. Rather than save the team’s top reliever for the ninth inning, there have been many situations in which that individual comes in for either the seventh or eighth inning to face the middle of the lineup and the opposing team’s best hitters.
In this day of age, keep that in mind with pitchers that carry the “closer” role.
We should note that this chart is subject to change, due to injuries, role changes, etc. This chart will be updated throughout the year, to reflect changes.