Fantasy Baseball Today - 2024 Relief Pitcher Recap! Top Performers & Early 2025 Rankings! (12/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: December 3, 2024

Let's start with a look at the saves distribution from last season (5:03). ... Emmanuel Clase is the premiere closer in the sport (8:34). ... Kirby Yates still has it (10:20)! ... Ryan Helsley just led all of baseball in saves (14:09). ... Raisel Iglesias is as bankable as relievers come (18:09). ... Ryan Walker had a big breakout season (20:38). ... Ranking Walker over Mason Miller (23:46)?? Robert Suarez had a huge season but took a step back in the second half (28:37). ... Josh Hader's skills are still elite (30:41). ... Tanner Scott is one of the elite relievers in baseball (32:42). ... Mason Miller was awesome as the A's closer (37:04). ... Griffin Jax quietly had a breakout season (39:37). ... News (44:30): Frankie Montas signed with the Mets. ... Let's take a look at Scott and Chris' early 2025 relief pitcher rankings (54:00). ... Who are the top SPARPs in CBS H2H points leagues (1:04:25)? Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there, welcome into Fantasy Baseball today and welcome to December. I am Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we are recapping the top 10 relief pitchers.

from this past season and we'll take an early look at 2025 rankings, the position where the most will change from today, December 3rd, until opening day. But, you know, whatever. Since I put together my rankings, my relief pitcher rankings, like October 23rd, there's already been a big change because an expected closer got DFA'd. Actually, two did.

Yeah, Romano and Kyle Finnegan, yeah, non-tendered from their respective teams. Non-tendered, yes. Yes, not DFA'd, but non-tendered. We also have some smaller signings. Frankie Montas to the Mets, Matthew Boyd to the Cubs. So we'll talk about all that. Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.

Scott, how were the deviled eggs? Didn't eat any devil-degs. Were you anti-deviled eggs? Oh, no, I'm very pro-debted. Okay, okay. See, what you don't understand, Frank, is the things that I defended most passionately are the things my wife and I disagree on. And so I have things.

Thanksgiving with her family usually. So there are no deviled eggs over there, but there was basically everything else I talked about. And my perfect Thanksgiving plate was there. I'm sorry, because I know you were very excited about the deviled eggs when we talked to. I mean, devil dags are great. Yeah.

I mean, you guys could probably guess. Yeah, not a, not a, have you ever had them? I've never had one. I just look at it and it looks gross. Yeah, like there's no way. like you explain it and it's like okay it looks weird but it's hard boiled egg yolk mixed with mayo and mustard and those are yeah it doesn't yeah it doesn't paprika those are those are two things you got to sprinkle some paprika on there those are two things i just do not consume mayonnaise and mustard well

i i will tell you all right then all is greater than the sum of its parts thing i i had to make my turkey this year for the first time and it was kind of a last minute thing and it was a source of great stress, but I will say, it's going to sound weird. I slathered the turkey with mayo before cooking. And it came out so good, you guys. I am, my guy Kenji Lopez Alt, the best in the recipe game, 1.01 in your fantasy cooking articles draft. never steers me wrong

and the the mayo rubbed turkey was a hit I was gonna say what inspired this move because it's a bold choice for your first turkey it just like it just came to you in a vision

I'm gonna slather it with mayo but no you there's a science behind it but we won't get into it but I'm happy to share it with you off the air all right if anyone wants to learn about mayo lathered turkeys you know where to find Chris Towers.

Let's get into our relief pitcher review. When looking at saves, first and foremost, I know there's a lot of saves plus holds and just holds as a category now as well. But focusing on saves, we got two huge totals this season. Ryan Helsley with 49, a manual class A with 47. But we had just eight pitchers with 30 plus saves. The lowest in a single season since 1988.

So, Scott, we'll start with you. How do you currently feel about relief pitchers for fantasy and the ability to acquire saves in fantasy baseball. I mean, I feel good about it. We had, we had, it felt like a real scarcity there for a few years, where teams were going more of the committee route and just saves were kind of unpredictable going into the season, especially.

Every manager was tight-lipped about who his closer was going to be, And there was just so much uncertainty that the, the dozen or so sure closers got pushed way up draft boards. But I think we're beyond that now. Things have really stabilized the past couple years. There was hardly any turnover last year until the trade deadline. And then there was quite a bit of turnover the last couple months. But it was turnover that left us with some pretty clear options, I think, going into 2025. Not that everything is settled, but I would say for.

couple dozen of the 30 teams. I have a pretty good idea who the lead save source should be. That's what I was mad. How many, like I think right around 20-ish, I feel pretty comfortable. That's with some like, like I don't really know about Michael Copac with the Dodgers.

Like I think so, but I'm not really sure. Yeah, I'm not sure about him. I said a couple dozen. You're probably right. It's closer to 20. There are some,

there are some pretty high, for a high profile free agents at relief pitcher. Of course, we mentioned Kyle Finnegan and Jordan Romano. They might get looks as closers on the open market, or they may not. Carlos Estevez is another. Craig Kimbril, maybe a team gives him another run. Jeff Hoffman could get a look as a closer or a starter. That's kind of the interesting thing is there are a couple of high-end relievers that we'll talk about, I'm sure, throughout the show,

who might get moved into the rotation, which we kind of need because we had a very good spark class last year and a pretty bad one this year, which makes sense. You know, when guys lose their spark eligibility, that that's a knock. A lot of those guys emerge in season to. Oh, RB8s. I didn't mention the biggest free agent closer of all.

Tanner Scott, right? I don't know if we mentioned Tanner Scott either. Tanner Scott's possibly. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know, I don't remember offhand, but it feels like there are more high-profile relievers this year than there were last year.

So there are things that could still change in the closer market. Again, it's very early on in the process here. And I do feel like we were a little bit spoiled heading into last season because coming off 20-23, we had 12 relievers with 30-plus saves. And as I mentioned, we just had eight with 30-plus, which isn't a huge difference, but it helps when we just have those shore fire closers for fantasy and we just, we don't really have to play the guessing game anywhere. Let's get into the top 10 relievers from this past season,

and this is based on Roto slash category leagues using the Fangraph's player raider. And no surprise, the number one relief pitcher was a manual Class A, who is the premier closer in the sport, despite his postseason struggles. 42 plus saves three years in a row. His velocity jumped back up. His ratios were just insane this year. The one downside, he doesn't provide elite strikeouts. Frankly, they're kind of bad.

I mean, it's less than a strikeout per inning. But I think Chris, very clearly, the number one closer heading into 2025, right? Absolutely. There should be zero question about it. He's led the American League in saves three straight years. He's led the majors, two at the last three, came up too shy of leading the majors for a third straight year. Yeah, like, even like, oh, he doesn't get that many strikeouts. The difference between him and a normal closer in terms of strikeouts is probably 20 over the course of the season.

and I just don't care. There are some closers who will go 40, 50 beyond him and strikeouts. And like he clearly needs to rank number one, but a lot of it is just the security you get with a manual class A. Like there is a cap to his upside because, you know, he's had 64, 66 strikeouts the last two years. But over the four years, he's been the guard. audience closer. He had one year with the 322 ERA.

His second highest ERA over that four year span is 136. Insane. Yeah. And two of those years, he led the majors and saves. This past year, he was second in saves with a career high and saves. And, yeah, Class A, you know exactly what you're getting. And it's, you know, he's going to be a big help. The number two reliever is a free agent.

That is Kirby Yates, the old man. he still has it, man. He took hold of the Rangers closer role early on in the season, and he ran with it. Just put up insane numbers, a 117 ERA, 0.83 whip, had 33 saves,

12.4K per 9 for Kirby Yates, and now he's a free agent, as I mentioned. So, Scott, we don't know where he's going to wind up, but I have to imagine wherever he goes, with the exception of like a handful of teams, but I think more likely than not

Kirby Yates will be a closer next season. Yeah, he obviously should be, it stands to reason that the teams that are going to pay out the most for free agent relievers are contenders. And it doesn't matter if they have a closer or not. They're going to pay, they're the most likely to pay big for a free agent reliever that they can trust to come through in high leverage situations. So I think there is a chance he gets signed as a set of man somewhere. there's a chance for all of those free agent relievers we mentioned. But he deserves to close. He's been, I mean, this past year in the 2019 season were historically dominant years for a closer.

And then he had Tommy John surgery in 2020. Is it 2020 or 2021? At some point in between 2019 and 2024. And then he had some trouble coming back from that. But we saw him get that crazy splitter back last year for the Rangers. And Kirby Yates was just flat out dominant. it. So I hope he gets the chance to close again. All right, before we hit our first break, just a reminder to listen to Fantasy Baseball today on Spotify.

If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan the QR code that will take you right to the FBT Spotify feed. And I know those Spotify wrapped screenshots are going to be popping up. So send those in. If you want to tweet at us, Blue Sky, whatever's going on, you want to email those in, bosses like that kind of stuff. Let's take our first break, when we return back into the top 10 right after this. Welcome back in and we are continuing on with our relief picture recap. Chris, what just happened with your camera? I realized that was a little too high or a little too low on the screen, so I moved my camera down. But then I had to, I just didn't get it done on time. I'm sorry, that was unprofessional. It's all good. The number three reliever this season was Ryan Helsey who had a massive year as the Cardinals closer from beginning to end.

49 saves led baseball. He actually picked up a save in 59% of the Cardinals wins this season. For context, if a manual class A had did that, he would have had 54 saves this year. So just a huge number of the Cardinals wins actually turned into saves for Ryan Helsley. Chris, this is another name that could be on the move this offseason. Sounds like he could be traded. We know that the Cardinals want to cut back on payroll heading into next year. But like Yates, I think whatever team has to pony up to get Helsley, they're likely going to be using him as a closer. You would think so.

And look, he's got extremely, extremely good news. numbers over the past three seasons. ERA below 2.5, three straight years, really since he became kind of one of the preeminent fireballers in baseball. I think he's not quite as much of it. Like there's a reason why, even though Emanuel Class A doesn't get the strikeouts that Helsley does or some of the other guys, there's a reason that Helsley and Yates, I think, will be a little lower in the rankings.

And it's because in Helsie's case, I think the cases against Helsie and Yeats are a little different, but in Helsie's case, it's just he has struggled a little bit to stay on the field over the past couple of years, specifically in 2020. He was limited to 36 and two-thirds innings. But he also has maxed out at 66 and a third innings. Class A has gotten over 70, I think three straight years, maybe four straight years. So, you know, there's just a little bit of a difference there.

He's not quite as bankably dominant as some of the other guys, but he's still clearly very, very good when he's on the mound. and there's not really much to knock against him. It's just what are the chances he doesn't end up a closer? It's not zero. Yeah. Did you happen to look up 49 saves that was the most since win for any closer in baseball? Because I feel like it's been a long time.

And I wouldn't have predicted that for Hellsley. That's kind of the difficulty of this. Especially if you told us the Cardinals would win 83 games. Yeah, they win 83 games. He'd stay healthy. And that they would go to him so consistent. consistently because that was not necessarily the MO for their manager heading into last year. And we've seen several managers veer from their traditional closer usage in recent years.

I feel like Kevin Cash of the raise has been more consistent with his late-inning selections than he used to be. We saw Rocco Baldelli go that route in 2023. with Yohan Duran, but then he kind of went back to being less consistent in his ninth inning usage last year. But I would never have guessed Helsley would be that guy who got on the verge of 50 saves for the first time since Winfranc. That is the first time since 2018 when Edwin Diaz had 57. Yeah, class A also the most since Edwin D.S. Yeah, yeah. Not as long as I thought, but I think, I think he...

I think Diaz himself kind of stood alone there. Yeah. Well, anyway, Helzley, he had a good year. And even if he's back with the Cardinals, I think we can trust him to have a good year again. 51 Cs for Yuri's Familia in 2016. There's a name for you. Yeah, it is fun for like Mark Malanson had 51 the year before.

It's fun to go back like. Didn't Jim Johnson have a 50 safe year? Yeah, you're right. He did. Looking at like, it's fun to like, you look at the home run leaders, like seven years ago and it's like, oh yeah, that guy, obviously. You go to saves and it's like, I have no recollection of

jury's familiarious 51 save season. Jim Johnson had two 50 saves seasons in a row. Yeah. Insane. That's, bring that to your trivia night. Number four reliever this past season was Ryssel Iglesias, who had a career year.

And he's actually been one of the most reliable closers for nearly a decade at this point. He has 218 saves since 2017. That is second behind only Kenley Jansen. Now, Reisel Eglacius's strikeout rate did drop quite a bit this year, but the velocity, the swinging strike rate, are still really strong. So I would expect the strikeout rate overall and the strikeouts to bounce back up a little bit,

barring injury in 2025. Scott, your thoughts on your closer, Braves closer, Reisle Clesias. Yeah, I feel good about them. The Braves are very consistent with their late-inning bullpen choices, they're paying him like a true closer and they use him like a true closer. So usage concerns just don't exist for him. He is 34 and you do wonder about that drop and strikeout rate if it's signs of decline. But as you point out, you don't see any obvious signs of decline otherwise.

It's not like the velocity was dropping in a way that was concerning. And I think a lot of it you can just chalk up to the small, sample weirdness that's inherent to this role. Like even a full-time reliever who stays healthy for a full season is only getting 60 to 70 innings. And that's just not that many. So weird things can happen with strikeout rate or otherwise. Yeah, like the thing to keep in mind about any reliever when we're talking about changes

that happened to their production over one season to the next is like, wow, a whole season sounds like a lot and it's right so glacial how many how many things do you throw like 65 last year i can pull that up for you 60s 1 yeah almost 70 but the point remain Sean mania from august 1st to the end of the season through 68 and a two-thirds and we're we're very much rightly saying we have no idea how much of Sean minaya's late season resurgence will carry over. And so that's the thing to keep in mind is we're dealing with small sample sizes on small sample sizes when it comes to relief pitchers. If you do want, if you do want the reassurance, though, Iglesias did have 10K per nine after the All Star break. The number five reliever was someone

who really came out of nowhere. Ryan Walker. This is shocking. Oh, 10 wins. 10 wins. Yep. 10 wins. We'll get it done. Ryan Walker with the Giants followed up a solid 2023 with a big break out a 191 ERA, 0.85 win, 10 wins, 10 saves, and he took over as the Giants Closer in the second half, and he was awesome in that role. You know, Chris, the ADP right now for Ryan Walker, he's right around 125 early NFBC ADP, a cluster of him, Erseg, and Kirby Yates, they're all in the same spot. Ryan Walker feels like a name that could move a lot between now and March, because if the Giants don't sign someone, I think he will become a top 100 pick because we'll have confidence he's the closer. And if they do bring some in bring some competition and maybe he

drops like 50, 60, 70 picks. So he feels like a name that could move a lot before March. And it depends what the nature of the competition is because this is a Giants team that has been wanting to make a splash and free agents for a long time. I would be surprised if the big splash they made was a relief pitcher. But if they signed Kirby Yates, I wouldn't be stunned. And that might just make Ryan Walker completely irrelevant, at least on draft day. So, you know, I this is another one where we're dealing with an extremely small sample size of really high level production, legitimately elite reliever production, but I just, I don't really know, right? Like he was a good reliever in the minors, but this is also a 28 year old who had a better strikeout rate last season than he did in the minors.

It's a super volatile profile. I think there's a lot to like about him, but I would need to be extremely, extremely certain that he's the closer to be willing to pay a, you know, what is that? Well, 10th round price. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of offseason moves to happen, obviously. But by the time we're actually drafting for real, these should. I think we'll be certain.

And part of what I like about Ryan Walker. why I rank them so much higher than consensus. Of course, I can adjust down if they do sign a Kirby Yates or something like that. But I'm ranking Ryan Walker more or less like a stud next year. And part of what I like about him is that when they demoted Camillo DeVall, they made no secret about who was going to take his place. Like Bob Melvin was like, yeah, Ryan Walker's the guy. And he was the guy.

And he was great as the guy. and he has that weird arm angle, almost a sidearm delivery that I think makes him especially difficult to hit. His whip was 0.85. And I think he's going to be great. He already was great for the little bit he was in the role, but I think he's going to continue to be. I actually prefer Ryan Walker to Mike. I'm sorry, got the wrong name here. I actually prefer Ryan Walker to Mason Miller.

blanking on his first name. I actually prefer him to Mason Miller, presuming everybody stays where they are. Man, if Mason Miller gets traded to the Yankees or something, I might have to rethink that. All right, that's a little crazy, but we'll get to that later on. No way.

Is that? Yeah, I think of me. I mean, how Mason Miller stays. I'm pretty limited in this line. I just think Mason Miller is a significantly better pitcher. I am much more confident in Mason Miller's skill set than I am Ryan Walker's. Okay. I think there's a huge.

huge gap in stuff. Like that, that's legitimately one where like, I would expect Mason Miller strike out 100 batters. Mason Miller swinging strike rate was 19.6%. And you mentioned the word stuff there, Chris. His stuff plus was 144. Ryan Walker's was 104.

Ryan Walker struck out 99 batters. Right. In the 80. He's not going to throw 80 innings again if he's the closer. That's not going to happen. They're not going to use. Okay. Mason Miller got 28 saves.

Mm-hmm. Right. For being the closer all year. And I'm not saying they couldn't give him more saves than that, but it's a liability. It's a major liability for a closer to be on a team that we're expecting to be real bad. I just think that the bigger difference is, Ryan Walker could save 35 games.

He could say 40 games. He could say four games. I'm just not as confident that he's good. Yeah. It's kind of that. I had a Mason Miller despite being a closer for just two months. He got 10 wins because he was being used in multi-any role earlier. A journeyman reliever versus a top prospect turn closer who throws 100 miles per hour with 14K per 9.

I just think the difference is, well, let's just do it. I think Mason Miller is maybe the best reliever in baseball already. He might. I just, I think he's that good. I think there's no question he's the closer. I don't think there's any world in which the A's bring someone. in certainly. And so I just,

I think he's closer to the elite. The only gap is can he get to 40 saves? That's really hard unless the A's like win 80. If they win 80. 30 before he can get to 40. Right.

But like, how big of a win difference do we expect there to be between the Giants and A's next year? I felt like Oakland, well, we can't even say Oakland anymore. The athletics were, Sacramento, call them what they are. This like, we're not.

No, you're the Sacramento Athletics, and you're going to live with that. You sit with what you did. The Sacramento Athletics, I felt like they were, they were very cautious with Mason Miller's usage this year, and, you know, they were trying to keep him healthy.

They haven't really been able to see him, you know, maintain health throughout his major league career. So, you know, there were like a lot of back-to-backs where he didn't work and stuff like that. I just wonder if maybe they kind of, let the kid gloves off a little bit more as we go into his careers.

I mean, I get, I get, I get why people like Mason Miller so much, but like, obviously I care more about the stats than the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, people even share baseball highlights as jiffs anymore than the, than the pitching ninja videos. Because, like, this is the position more than any other where the pitcher skill is secondary. Mm-hmm. What you need more than anything is the role. The role, and I understand they're both full-time closers, at least we're expecting them to be.

But you need to get those save chances because that's ultimately what matters most. How many more saves did the Giants have than the A's last year? As a team, we can find us out. I've already looked it up. So I, I mean, Deval had a lot of blown saves, but it was one. Okay. They've all blew a lot of safe chances to be they won 11 more games like I think it would be fair to say that you expect the Giants as a team to save five more games than the A's. They're not all going to go to the same guy either way.

So I'll take the guy that I just am very, very confident is very, very good. If you if you tell me nothing else, but you got two closers, they're going to keep the job. job all year. One team's going to have a 500 winning percentage. One team's going to have a 350 winning percentage. I'll take the 500 winning percentage every time. Was Oakland really that bad? Oakland, a 426 winning

percentage. Yeah, right, but I think they're going to be worse next year, okay? They're bad. I don't see how they they're bad. That pitching staff is going to get destroyed in that stadium. I don't know. We'll see. We've got to move on. The number six reliever

this season was Robert Suarez, and there were some questions, as to who would close for the Padres entering this year, but Suarez answered that question emphatically. A 277 ERA, a 105 whip, 36 saves. He throws his fastball 72%

of the time, but it's 99 miles per hour, and clearly it works for him. He did take a step back in the second half. Chris, how much does that concern you? Given that he's not an elite strikeout pitcher, given that he had a pretty mediocre 2023 season with the same approach,

I think you have to be concerned. I guess his approach was not the same. He threw his fastball much more often in 2024 than he did in 2023. Clearly it worked out for him. It was a great change. But the fact that hitters seemed to catch up to it in the second half of the season, yeah, man cannot live on forcing fastballs alone. He was throwing, I mean, at times, like 95% of his pitches were either four seamers or sinkers.

And it doesn't matter how good your four seamer is. It's just really hard to do that against major leaguers over and over. So I have a decent amount of concern with Robert Suarez to the point where I've already moved him down from, I think, the rankings that I sent you, Frank. I think I had him. Spoiler alert. I've moved him down since we started talking. just eyeballing things, another spot. Because I was just like, you know what?

I like this guy more than him too. So yeah, I'm, I'm wary of Robert Suarez. He will probably not be one of the closers I'm drafting in 2024, 2025 very often. And they still have a good amount of serviceable options behind him too. They lost Tanner Scott to free agency, and I guess they could still bring him back. But they still have Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada backing up Robert Swarrow.

is. So some competition, if things were to go awry. The number seven reliever was Josh Hater, and like Iglesias, he's been one of the most reliable closers. Over the past five years, Hater has 187 saves, and that is the most in baseball. His ERA was inflated this year at 380 due to a higher home run rate, but the strikeouts, velocity, underlying numbers, still remain intact and amazing for Josh Hater. You know, Scott, he kind of has a weird, even odd year in terms of like ERA inconsistency. I don't know that there's anything to it for Josh Hater outside of randomness. So I think he's still treated as like a top three closer.

Yeah, I mean, he's still had the highest swinging strike rate among relievers. So I think it's just small sample weirdness there with the ERA for Josh Hater. And my top three closers heading into next year, my top. foreclosers, certainly, I think they're the same top foreclosers as headed into last year. So the consistency at the top of this position, at least in terms of how I expect them to perform, is pretty. It rivals any other position. One thing that I do think was interesting about how Hater was used last year, is he remember when he came up, he would regularly throw multiple innings. The three seasons prior to last year, he didn't throw, I don't think he had a single outing where he recorded more than three outs from 21 to 23. Last year, I think he had seven. And so that's where you look and say, oh, 105 strikeouts, 71 innings.

That was a big, big change. And that certainly helps, even though his save number wasn't quite as high as you'd like to see. and his ERA was a little inflated, but I think that the extra volume more than makes up for that. All right, the number eight reliever this past season was Tanner Scott. Also a free agent has been one of the most elite relievers in baseball over the past two years. You always worry about command and the walks with Tanner Scott. It's 4.9 walks per nine for his career,

but he's proven that he can succeed in multiple relief roles. He's 30 years old this offseason. You know, Scott, let's hope. that some team throws big money at Tanner Scott to be their closer because the more set closures we have, the better it is for fantasy. Yeah, I mean, the left-handedness is working against him because unless a team already has a high leverage left, either probably going to want to keep Tanner Scott's role more versatile. And I think people are still, even if he signs to be a closer somewhere, people are still going to be nervous. about Tanner Scott. I mean, you remember what happened this past spring.

He was walking everybody, and his stock just plummeted heading into the season. And the Marlins kind of messed around with who they used in the ninth inning early on. It took a while for Tanner Scott to kind of stabilize there, and then he got treated to the Padres. And his control was actually better with the Padres. We're dealing with small samples still. But it ended up being a non-issue, is the point. And is it does that mean we can trust him to walk around five batters per nine? And it'll remain a non-issue?

I don't know. That's still pretty worrisome to me. And for what it's worth, 2023, Tanner Scott 2.8 walks per nine. So that was kind of the outlier for his career. But normally he's up closer to like five walks per nine. And that's you got to be really dominant with your strikes for that to work. Yeah. It's walking a tightrope there for Tanner Scott.

If you put guys on via the walk, you got to really maximize strikeouts in order to get out of it. I will just say this. He's not the guy you want closing for your team. It is not a fun experience watching Tanner Scott be the closer for your favorite team. That is all I will say. I think he's fine. He is best viewed from a distance.

Hopefully team GMs are not listening to this podcast, Chris, because we want them to be a closer for fantasy. I hope they're trying him. Just do the Billy Bean thing and go to the locker, the weight room in the ninth inning and don't actually watch the game. All right. Let's take our final break.

When we return, we have two more relievers in the top 10, and we'll do that right after this. Welcome back in, recapping the top eight so far at Relief Pitcher from this past season. We had Emmanuel Class A, Kirby Yates, Ryan Helsley, Reisel, Reiselle Iglesias, Ryan Walker, Robert Suarez, Josh Hater, and Tanner,

Got number nine was Mason Miller, who is one of the most electric arms in baseball, and he thrived as a full-time closer. 28 saves, 14.4K per 9, great ratios. He averaged 100.9 miles per hour on his fastball. And Chris, the early indications this offseason is that Miller will not be moved to the rotation. There were kind of some murmurs about that. He will remain the athletics closer. It never made sense to move him back to the rotation. and he's never shown the ability to stay healthy.

He's got a violent delivery. He throws way too hard. It's just usually if a guy can be a starter, I want him to be a starter because it's just more valuable. But in this case, I just don't think Mason Miller can stand up starting. And that means there's a chance he can't stand up to pitching, right? Like it might just be inevitable that he blows out his elbow.

I think if you throw 102 miles an hour as regular as he does, it probably is inevitable. So I think it's a, there's volatility there. I think there's very little volatility in terms of the production. And maybe that's just like, oh, small sample size, small sample size until we get to the guy that I thought would be an elite closer and then became an elite closer. And then now I'm willing to throw out the small sample size. But I genuinely do think what we saw from Mason Miller last year was legitimate.

I think he's, yeah. No, my only concern with him is how many saves he'll get. I think on the athletics, his upper limit is about 30, and I want a higher upper limit than that from a closer that I'm investing in heavily as Mason Miller. You know, he's got so much name value, so much sex appeal, that he's going to command a hefty investment on draft day. He's back with the athletics. I almost said Oakland.

That's going to be an issue for me. And you bring up a good point with the durability question. I think we were all holding our breath with him last year, expecting something bad to happen to his arm. And it didn't. He had a fractured finger at one point. It didn't cost him more than a couple weeks. But his arm stayed intact.

And you mentioned there is going to be a big price tag for Mason Miller. Well, based on early NFBC ADP, there already is. He is the fifth closer off the board at an ADP of 53. So if you're playing in a 12-team league, A fifth round pick if you want Mason Miller on your fantasy team. The number 10 reliever, and this one, a bit of a surprise, but he was really good. Griffin Jacks, a breakout season. He filled in as closer for the twins before Yohan Duran returned from that oblique injury.

He had a 203 ERA, a 0.87 whip. Big jump in strikeouts as well. There is some talk that the twins could try Griffin Jacks out as a starter in spring training. He was a starter in the minors. He came up as a starter back in 2021, but his career as a starter has been much, much worse than it has as a reliever. So, Scott, this is a name to watch because we've seen relievers, transition starters succeed and do very well the past couple of years. And maybe Griffin Jacks could be the next one. Yeah, honestly, I feel like it succeeds more often than not when we see this tried.

AJ Puck is an example to the contrary. but AJ Puck kind of changed his delivery to reincorporate his change up in his arsenal to get that downward drop, to get it to raised his arm slot. Yeah, he had to raise his arm slot so that he wasn't tipping the pitch while giving it the drop it needed to give. And so we kind of just had to change who he was and it didn't work out. But it was unusual circumstances is what I'm getting at. well, Griffin Jacks, even in relief, he used three different pitches, so he has a deep enough arsenal. And I would like to see it.

I would rather Griffin Jacks try to start than continue to be sort of a 20% of the time closer for the twins, which is what he was this past year. And plus, removing him from the bullpen, hopefully would give Yon Duran a little clear of a... It would help clear things up for him, I think. It would tempt Rocco Baldelli less to go away from him in the ninth, which is a big reason why Yohan Duran didn't live up to expectations this past year. And I think the key thing to watch, if they do make that change in spring training, will be the velocity because he averaged 92.6 mile per hour. When he was exclusively a starter at the maximum level, he was up to 97.1.

in 2024. Now, conventional wisdom is you lose a couple of ticks of velocity moving from the bullpen to the rotation. That's natural. But if he can maintain something in the 95 range, I think the overall approach in Arsenal kind of looks like Michael King, really good sweeper. Jacks is a little more force seamer heavy, whereas King mixed in both fastballs a little more. But it's a legitimate starters arsenal. You know, Sarah's had a really good piece on the athletic looking at. at like pitchers who can make the transition from the bullpen to the rotation. And it was like looking at you have to have at least three plus pitches and good location. And that's what Griffin Jacks has. So there are a handful of guys who it looks like

they might make this transition. And Griffin Jacks, I don't think he's at the top of the list of most interesting ones. Are we going to talk a little more about some of the other guys? I'm going to mention some of the potential sparks for next season. you can bring them up now. I think Jeff Hoffman would be the most exciting one. If he makes the move to the rotation, he was actually a reason. He was a top 100 prospect,

I believe as a starting pitcher at one point, but he was coming up with the Rockies, if I'm remembering correctly, and that was never going to work out. And then I think maybe he got to the, he went to the Blue Jays and the Troy Tulowiceky trade. Oh, there you go. Okay.

But like he, he's looked really, really good as a, as a long relief or high leverage arm in the bullpen. I think Jacks is pretty interesting, though, if he makes that change. Clay Holmes less so. I don't think the Arsenal is there for him to be a very, very good starter. We'll see there was a report today that teams are looking into Clay Holmes as a starter. Then Chris Bubich is going to be in the Royals rotation per a report from the Athletic today on Monday as well.

So that's another one. He showed some upside at the start of 2023 before an injury, pitched out of the bullpen late last year. I think there's some upside there. So those are the late, late round guys to think about for your head-to-head points leagues. Sorry, I said that Hoffman fact backwards. He came from the Blue Jays in Detroit, Touletsky. It was part of the Rockies return in that trade.

And that's why we were. remember him more with the Rockies. All right. Let's quickly run through some of the news and notes before we talk about some early rankings for next season. The Mets signed Frankie Montas to a two-year $34 million deal. And the overall numbers were pretty rough, but he did improve when he was traded to the Brewers. And, you know, he gets a big park upgrade here coming over to City Field. And the Mets did a great job. Getting Sean Mania, you know, how much did they have to do with that? But, you know, Sean Mania and Louis Severino,

they both got back on track this past season. So, Scott, any interest in Frankie Montas as a late round sleeper with the Mets? I mean, starting pitcher is so deep that in most leagues I don't think he's going to cross my radar. But I'm not totally out on Frankie Montas. I was surprised at the amount of money the Mets gave him. They had good success with a couple veteran reclamation.

projects last year, Luis Severino and Sean Mania and identified Montas as somebody who could make an impact on their pitching staff, pitching staff that needs a lot of help, by the way. And although the overall numbers for Montas last year are pretty bad, he went from 7.5K per 9

and his 19 starts with the Reds to 11K per 9 and does 11 start with the Brewers. Like, that got better. I think it's easy to write him off because he was coming back from laboral repair in his pitching shoulder. And, you know, that's, that's a procedure that can have an unpredictable path.

And so, okay, maybe he's just lost it. But I don't think so because the velocity was fine across the board for Frankie Montauz. I think we saw it before he had the shoulder surgery, inconsistency related to his splitter. It's kind of a finicky pitch and when it's on Montauss can dominate, miss a lot of bats when it's off,

doesn't go as well. So I have him outside my top 100 at starting pitcher, but I think he's somebody, even if he doesn't get drafted in your league, we'll be keeping an eye on him at the start of the year. The thing I want to keep an eye on in spring training, and hopefully the Mets do pitch and play in Florida, so we should get stack has data for him,

is the arm slot and the arm angle, because I think if the Mets are going to work, some of that Sean Mania magic that they did last year. I don't know how much credit they deserve specifically, but they seem to be a pretty smart organization with pitch, uh, pitch development. They need to do an anti-Sharmina.

Shamanaya famously lowered his arm slot. It made his whole arsenal play up. Manaya, you look at his baseball, Sivan has a little arm angle thing now. You mean, you mean Montas. Montas, yes.

His arm, his release. least point was much higher in 2021 when he was really, really good. And that's a big thing. You mentioned it with AJ Puck raised his arm slot to try to make his splitter work better. Montas, I think probably needs that arm slot to get back to where it was. It was a little higher in 2023 or 2024 than the limited time we saw him in 2023, but still lower than it was at his best. If there is a path for him to be, you know, a viable fantasy pitcher. It's probably through raising the arm slot, making the splitter play up.

And I'm sure the Mets have plans for that. The Cubs signed Matthew Boyd to a two-year $29 million deal. And Boyd returned from Tommy John last season. And he made eight starts with the Guardians where he pitched very well. He followed that up with a strong postseason. He's an extreme flyball pitcher who I think should enjoy Wrigley Field, their 21st and home run park factor over the last three. years. Chris, I see some intriguing skills here, but we haven't seen a big workload from Matthew

Boyd since 2019. Yeah, I think he, like, I don't see much difference between him and Frankie Montas in projecting 2025. Maybe you're a little more confident in Montas throwing 150 innings because he did it last year. But I think it's fairly similar. The likelihood of either of these guys mattering much for fantasy outside of a streaming context is pretty low. But let's keep an eye on it. Let's see what happens. That's about all I can say. They've got a good defense.

That's one thing that should help. Obviously, PCA, Pker Armstrong out and center field, will help any fly ball pitcher. So he's on the late round radar. I can't say much more than that. Let's see what the schedule looks like and who his first couple of starts are supposed to be against. All right.

Let's move on to Tommy Edmund, who signed a five-year $74 million extension with the Dodgers. and he, you know, put up some power and speed in the regular season. He followed that up with a great postseason. He won NLCS MVP. I kind of like the skill set. I mean, he's one of those hitters, you know, the 15 home runs, 30 steals is kind of what you're expecting here. He only has outfield eligibility now on CBS.

The only problem, Scott, is that he's probably going to bat towards the bottom of the Dodgers lineup. So that will limit, you know, plate appearances and probably some volume stats too. Yeah, yeah, it will. But I imagine he's going to play a lot. The Dodgers really need him defensively, and I think that's why they committed to him in this way. They've had trouble filling shortstop since Corey Seeger and then Trey Turner left, and have used some real also rands there

and stretched other players beyond their defensive limitations there. And Tommy Edmund really short. things up. He mostly played centerfield, but he played quite a bit of shortstop. I mean, centerfield's obviously a premium defensive position too. He can handle both. And I think the Dodgers steal a lot of value in that. So I're going to play him a lot. I imagine he'll steal a lot of bases. He won't get as many of bats as we want, but with one, two, three in the Dodgers lineup, if Edmonds leading off for them, he'll, he might surprise you with the number of runs he scores. I'm not saying he's going to give you a hundred, but, you know, he may approach

90 and be a pretty solid choice as a versatile steel specialist in the mid to late rounds of fantasy drafts. The early ADP is 207.6 and I kind of like it for Tommy Edmund. Yeah. So I could see myself maybe drafting a decent amount of him next season. We had a bunch of Rangers updates. Corey Seeger is close to being cleared for baseball activities after undergoing sports hernia surgery in September. Adolas Garcia has been clear to begin running after a sprained

Patelotendin in his left knee. Evan Carter has been swinging a bat and is expected to be 100% for the start of spring training. Carter underwent an ablation procedure to remove tissue from his back in October. And the Rangers just signed Kyle Higashioka to a two-year $13.5 million deal with a mutual option for 2027. Higashoka hit a career high 17 home runs in 84 games. you know Chris I don't think this really I don't even think this matters in like deeper two catcher leagues because my guess is haigashioca and jonaheim will split catcher duties and that will probably just take away from both of their values yeah I think you can probably just pretty safely avoid the the Rangers back stops this draft season well what about

Thai friends what if he plays catcher somewhere because apparently he's open to doing it something he has never done in the majors or minors but apparently uh did get some reps in at the Padres alternate site back in 2020. Yeah, I think that would be on an emergency basis. I don't think any team is trying to convert a 30-something into a full-time catcher at the highest level of baseball. Kudos to whoever Thai France's agent is for getting that reported by some national baseball reporter. That's my take on that.

Scott, when you said emergency, I thought you said, well, that's going to be an emergency podcast when Thai France. Yeah, Thai France to catch her. There you go. It'd be nice. It'd be nice. I don't have a lot of faith in Thai France as a hit her anymore, but if he was eligible, a catcher, he'd be interesting at least. I was trying to think, what is the organization that would try something like this? And the Rockies came to mind for some reason.

They already, their pictures don't have enough problems. They already rescind freaking Jacob Stalling. So there's, the Rockies came. Rockies are set at Catcher, baby. Oh, come on. They could have given us some full-time Hunter Goodman, but, you know, can't have fun things. The winter meetings start up this Sunday, December 8th.

So, you know, hopefully we get some fireworks. I don't know. The winter meetings, mostly duds in many years, but, you know, there was that one year with, like, Garrett Cole and Anthony Rendon. So hopefully we get some, you know, Juan Soto news either before then, during the winter meetings, that would be fun.

And despite all the tweets from this past week and everything that's going on. Wonsotto has not signed with the Boston Red Sox. That doesn't mean it won't happen, but just a reminder that don't believe everything you read on the internet until you see it from, I don't know, one of the national reporters like Jeff Pass and Ken Rosenthal, all those kind of guys.

Let's quickly wrap up with some 2025 relief pitcher rankings and we'll take a look at each of your top 12. And for Scott, your top six is Emmanuel Class A, Devin Williams, Josh Hader, Edwin Diaz, Ryan Helsley and Ricelli Glacius. And Chris, for you, you have Emmanuel Class A, Josh Hater, Edwin Diaz, Devin Williams, Mason Miller, and Ryan Helsley. So same top four, slightly different order.

We talked a lot about Mason Miller and a little debate back and forth. One other name that stands out here we haven't talked about is Devin Williams, who returned second half of the season. He looked really good, had that postseason implosion. There is a chance he could be traded this offseason. But, you know, like most of the names we've mentioned, if he gets traded, I assume he will be the closer of another team. Yeah, I presume so, though sometimes we're disappointed by that, as I pointed out earlier in the show with Kirby Yates. Devin Williams has been as reliably dominant as any reliever really since breaking into the majors.

Remember the pandemic shortened 2020 season, he won rookie of the year as a setup man for the Brewers with a 0.33 ERA in his 27 inning. So he's basically he basically hasn't missed in his entire major league career. He did miss a big portion of last season with the back issue, but came back and was as dominant as ever. And that's why I rank him as high as I do second, because I just, I have no concerns with him. Unless he gets traded out of the closer roll, and then I'll have concerns and then I'll adjust down.

But presuming that doesn't happen, And Devin Williams is just totally bankable and dominant. Yeah. If you look at Devin Williams' career numbers 183 ERA 102 whip. Yeah, so about as bankable. One of the top relievers in all of baseball is Devin Williams. For Scott, your 7 through 12 at relief pitcher. You have Felix Bautista, Ryan Walker, Mason Miller, Robert Suarez, Andres Munoz,

and Kirby Yates. And Chris, for you, you have Reisel O'Anl-Glaecious, Yohan, Duran, Robert Suarez, Andres Munoz, Felix Batista, and Kirby Yates. So name we have not talked about yet, Felix Batista, the mountain, returning from Tommy John's surgery to retake his role as the closer for the Baltimore Orioles. Scott, you have him seventh. Chris, you have him 11th. So why are you a little bit lower?

Maybe is it coming back from the surgery? Will the velocity command be there? What are your thoughts? So one, yeah, we just haven't seen him pitch coming back from Tommy John's surgery. And I think it's safe to assume that he should be fine, but we don't know. And it's worth noting. And I personally didn't remember this until I looked it up today. He had a second procedure right before the 2024 season.

It was a debridement, which I think is just clearing up like bone spurs or whatever. He also had an older nerve. I can't remember the technical jargony term, but they moved his nerve. to a different place in his elbow, which is a, there's not a lot of evidence or examples of this that I could find. One notable one was Jacob Grom in 2016, who obviously came back and had some of the best seasons we've ever seen

from a starting pitcher in recent years after that surgery. So it's certainly not a death now, but it's just, it's an awful lot of question marks for, that range of the draft, especially when you're talking about, you know, Scott, I don't know where you have the number seven RP in your rankings,

but like in drafts that are happening right now, the number seven RP is going off the board in like the fourth round or fifth round. Yeah, that's 15 teamers. I mean, that's obviously not the majority of leagues. I can't get on board with that. But even like,

I think closer to 100 is where I would, feel comfortable taking a chance on Felix Patis just because look, he was an all world. He was an all universe. Before I got her last year, he was my number one reliever. Yeah, I think he was the best pitcher in baseball on a per inning basis in 2023. He was 16K per 9, 1.2 ERA, something like that. Like, he was utterly dominant. It's just we don't know, is he going to come back to 100% of that?

Is he going to come back to 90% of that? Is he going to just be a complete disaster? we won't know until after we're drafting, really, because even spring training, what's he going to do? Throw four innings in spring training. Yeah, but I think we'll be able to tell in spring training if he's right or not. I hope so. I'm happy to adjust down if that happens.

I never know what to do with the guy coming back from a full season injury like this. And so I always try to find the spot in the rankings. where okay, he belonged, like if he's totally fine, he belongs higher than this. So I try to find like an in-between tier spot to shoehorn him in. And so I thought there was a, where's my top six? Yeah, I thought there was a clear top six in Class A, Devin Williams, Josh Hader, Edwin Diaz, Ryan Helsley, and Reiselaglacius.

To me, like, there's just, there's not a lot you can argue against with that. group. And so that's why I put Felix Batista next. And then behind him, I got Ryan Walker, Mason Miller, Robert Suarez, Andreas, Andreas, Munez, Kirby Yates, ones who I think are good, but there's there's a higher degree of doubt there. I could be convinced to put him behind all of those guys. It just, it's, it's, it's, it's just like I'm operating in the dark right now. And I think, I think it'll become clear beyond just how he performs in spring games, how he looks, how he looks, how he looks, in side sessions, what his velocity readings are. We're going to get a lot of info, a lot of Beat Rider reports are going to tell us,

is he in the clear here or not? And I also just think how the Orioles approach the rest of the offseason might give us a hint. I mean, the fact that they signed Craig Kimball to this one-year kind of bridge contract just to cover the year Bautista out. I took that as a good sign of the prognosis that that itself. But yeah, your point is a good one. Scott, you read off the rest of your top 12 there. And one name you did not mention was Yohan Duran, who you have 14th and Chris, you have up at eighth in your relief pitcher rankings. And it was a bit of a weird year for Duran. Had the oblique injury, missed a lot of time. He came back, you know, inflated ERA. Just didn't look as sharp as electric as he has in

years past, but now I'm looking at it. It's a 285 FIP, a 270 XERA. It's actually still pretty awesome numbers. Scott, why are you so much lower than Chris on Yohan Duran? I referred to it already in the podcast. I just don't trust Rocco Baldelli to use him like a conventional closer. It was a huge disappointment last year. I wasn't as high as most people on Duran heading into last year. I think he was a consensus top five reliever. And for me, he was more like top 10. But even so, I think everybody was really frustrated by the way things played out for him. And that's kind of Rocco Baldelli's M.O.

The 2023 season where Duran was able to, well, looking at it now, it ended up only being 27 saves. But he was... Did he miss some time? He got almost 60 appearances. I don't know. But certainly it... as that season played out, I mean, maybe it was just a weird year for the twins,

not getting many saves. But like, that was the one year in Rocco Baldelli's tenure where he actually committed to one guy in the world. I remember it. There was a stretch in like late April to like early June where they just had no save offer. It was, it was weird.

They had like, I want to say he had like one save in a 40 game stretcher. It was, it was. It was bonkers. I'm remembering that now looking at the at the game log. And so it's not even just that, Frank. His average fastball velocity, Yon Duran last year was 100.5.

Wow, that's an amazing average fastball velocity, right? But it was down 1.3 miles per hour from the dominant 2023 season, which is significant. Like, it's amazing that he could lose that much velocity and still be one of the hardest throws, throwing pitchers. but it made him more hitable. He gave up a lot more hits.

So I don't know. Mainly it's just I don't trust Rocco Baldelli. But also I don't think Yohan Duran does himself favors necessarily with that, with Baldelli's trust. May 1st through June 16th, the span of 40 games, he had two saves. In 2023. In 2023. Yeah. It was just weird.

Yeah. So, Chris, I mean, I'm guessing by your ranking of Duran top 10, you're expecting at least a bit of a bounce back here. And for him to just be the main guy. I'm expecting a bounce back. I think it's more likely he'll be the main guy, especially if Jacks moves to the rotation, or at least they make that move early on. Remember, he had the oblique injury. Yeah. In spring training last year that derailed the start of his season.

So I think that's a, you know, you see a little bit of an arm slot change for him as well. given, you know, the uniqueness of his approach, how much he relies on that four seamer. He's also like, they've called it a splinker at different times, right? He's got a weird, weird one as well. So I do think, like, hopefully a healthy spring training can get Yon Duran back to being the dominant guy he was pre-2020. All right.

So there you have it. The top 12 relievers for next season for both Scott. Chris did want to quickly wrap up with the top sparps for those who play in CBS head to points leagues starting pitcher as a relief pitcher. It's a cheat code in that format. This crop, man, it's about as bad as I've seen since being here with you guys at CBS, like 20-20. Like this is probably the worst that it's looked.

But some names about in Francis, Drew Rasmussen, Jackson Job, Nick Martinez, Chris Bubich. And then we have some maybes with Jeff Hoffman, Griffin Jacks, and Clay Holmes. Yeah, there are, I think right now, if I was drafting a head-to-head points league, I think the first four should be drafted in a head-to-head points league. I think the next four could be drafted, but it's a pretty iffy use of a roster spot in a shallow format like that. And I still, even as Sparks, I don't think any of Francis, Rasmussen, Job, or Martinez should be like top 150 picks. So, yeah, it's a pretty iffy group, even though certainly Job, like, if Jackson Job goes out and throws a sub three ERA with 10.5K per nine, I wouldn't be surprised. But it's certainly a less interesting group than we had for much of last year.

Although, as Scott pointed out earlier, Sean Maniah didn't really look like a must start even as a spark until midway through the season. And, you know, Nick Martinez emerged late. So, you know, there were, our expectations for Ronaldo Lopez were not super high going into the season. So it's worth keeping in mind that guys will emerge. There are certainly guys we're just forgetting about that'll come out. So, yeah, this more than any, will change quite a bit. I also don't know that we can really count on Drew Rasmussen. to at least at the start of the year.

I imagine there will be, just given the nature of starting pitching and how many starting pitchers teams need over the course of the year, Drew Rasmussen will get some starts. Maybe he'll get a couple dozen starts. But right now, the rays have a starting five without him. Yeah. And Shane McClan, Tage, Bradley, Ryan Pepe,

O, Jeffrey Springs, and Shane Baas. And that's not counting Zach Lattel. I imagine Zach Lattel will be higher in the rotation pecking order than Rasmussen. So I don't even know that he's, as things stand here on December 3rd, 2024, I don't know that Drew Rasmussen is going to be worth drafting in shallower leagues because it seems like it'll be a draft and hold situation. Jackson Job, I mean, right now, kind of the same thing for him,

but he's somebody I could absolutely see being, getting a lot of hype next spring, sort of like Jared Jones did this past spring. It depends how it plays out, right? But if Job is grabbing those kinds of headlines, we're going to see him rocket up draft boards, given his prospect pedigree. Regarding Drew Rasmussen, there was a report from John Marosi

recently that the Rays are fielding offers, or at least being contacted about both Jeffrey Springs and Pete Fairbanks. So, again, that could kind of come into play and maybe help Drew Rasmussen get some more starts. It's also worth noting, you know, a relief pitcher podcast that, you know, if Pete Fairbanks has moved, then obviously we're looking at some new closer candidates for Tampa Bay as well. So, keep those things in mind. That's the one I want to see.

He was really good. I think a super deep sleeper. Hunter Biggie is the name to pay attention to in that bullpen as well. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. and we will be back again on Thursday.

Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.