October 21, 2016

Nick Mariano gives you his very early picks for the top-12 relief pitchers (rp) heading into the 2017 fantasy baseball season.

Welcome back to the series that further proves that the itch of fantasy baseball never goes away. We're gathered here to look at my thoughts on the top players at each position. Assume a standard 5x5 redraft league with the rankings.

We led off with catchers before hitting first, second, and third base before going to shortstop, and after the infield was done we hit up the outfield.

After that, it was time for starting pitchers, and finally we're wrapping up with my top-12 for relief pitchers heading into 2017.

Editor's note: Be sure to also check out our 2017 fantasy baseball rankings dashboard. It's already loaded up with tons of great rankings articles and draft analysis. Aside from our tiered staff rankings for every position, we also go deep on MLB prospect rankings, impact rookies for 2017, and dynasty/keeper rankings as well. Bookmark the page, and win your drafts.

Early 2017 Rankings: Relief Pitchers

1. Aroldis Chapman, CHC* – It really doesn’t matter where he lands this offseason, his incredible heat and slider were joined in 2016 by a modicum of control. His walk rate dropped from 11.9% to 8.1%, which is still pretty high but given how difficult it is to make contact off of him, limiting walks by any real margin is noteworthy. He strikes out 40.5% of batters! He is #1.

2. Zach Britton, BAL – Britton converted all 47 of his save opportunities in 2016 to the tune of an unreal 0.54 ERA and 0.84 WHIP. His insane sinker yielded an 80% groundball rate. He had a 17.2% swinging-strike rate as well, which gave him 74 Ks in 67 innings. He just provided legitimate value all across the board. Much like Mariano Rivera’s cutter, Britton doesn’t really need much else to dominate. Much like Rivera, Britton should be drafted with confidence.

3. Kenley Jansen, LAD* – Jansen also saved 47 games in 2016, but struck out 30 more hitters than Britton in only 1 2/3 additional innings. He continues to be an absolute menace on the mound, and turned in his sixth-straight season of a SIERA below 1.90. That sort of consistent kingship over opponents needs to be respected.

4. Dellin Betances, NYY – Betances’ poor September left a sour taste in most fantasy owners’ mouths, allowing 13 runs (10 earned) in only 9 1/3 innings with a poor (for Dellin) 16:8 strikeout-to-walk ratio. He may have just finally crumbled a bit under the workload, as Joe Girardi hasn’t been afraid of trotting Betances out like he’s a cyborg. September aside, his season-long 42.1% strikeout rate is still the best of his career and was second only to Andrew Miller’s 44.7% mark.

5. Jeurys Familia, NYM – Most will remember his most recent unraveling against the Giants in the Wild Card game this postseason, but before that he did save an MLB-leading 51 games with a snappy 2.55 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. Unfortunately, he couldn’t build off of his masterful 2015 as he gave back all of the control gains that he had made, with his walk rate jumping back up to 9.7% from 6.2%. Location is important so that he can utilize that nasty splitter of his to full effect.

6. Andrew Miller,CLE – That's ALCS MVP Andrew Miller to you. The righty somehow one-upped his amazing 2014 and 2015 campaigns this season thanks to that aforementioned 44.7% strikeout rate that led the MLB and a walk rate that he more than cut in half (3.3%, down from 8.1%). He had a 1.10 SIERA as a result, which was half a run better than the runner-up (Jansen) out of all pitchers with a minimum of 40 innings. You know how crazy that is to have such a wide margin so close to zero?

7. Craig Kimbrel, BOS – Craigy was able to turn in 31 saves despite undergoing left knee surgery on July 11 (thanks to shagging fly balls during BP) and missed about three weeks. It was a freak occurrence and his durability really shouldn’t be brought into question as a result. What does get brought into question is his control, as his walk rate shot up from 9.2% to 13.6%. He’ll need to bring that back down to be one of the elite in 2017.

8. Seung Hwan Oh, STL – “The Final Boss” was able to make his role for St. Louis fit his nickname, as he took over closing duties in July and proceeded to save 19 games the rest of the way. Trevor Rosenthal was no good, very bad, and all Oh did was strike out 103 Major Leaguers while walking only 18 and allowing five homers in his 79 2/3 innings of work to earn manager Mike Matheny’s trust. That’s one way to make a first impression.

9. Edwin Diaz, SEA – Seattle’s 22-year-old righty had the fourth-best SIERA (1.82) and fourth-best strikeout rate (40.6%), which puts him in the company of arms like Miller, Betances, Jansen and Chapman. That is impressive. Whiffs aside, he also had a robust 46.8% ground-ball rate. While his MLB sample size is small, look for the .377 BABIP to come down a bit, leading to a successful 2017.

10. Wade Davis, KC – Kansas City’s closer is apparently drawing lots of trade interest, but for now we’re talking about a 31-year-old righty who was sent to the DL twice with an elbow injury. While it’s great that he came back in the last month to record six saves with 15 strikeouts and only one walk in 9 2/3 innings of work, the long-term worries have to be there somewhere. The talent is there, but so is the risk.

11. Mark Melancon, WAS* - Melancon’s 47 saves tied with Britton and Jansen for second-most in the MLB, but he really made his value on the back of his 1.64 ERA and 0.90 WHIP. He won’t ever strike out more than a batter per inning, but he tends to hover around an 8.00-9.00 K/9 (24%) – a more than serviceable amount. He hasn’t posted a WHIP above 1.00 in each of his last four seasons, and he should be a very bankable asset in 2017.

12. Roberto Osuna, TOR – This 21-year-old is the real deal. He essentially replicated his 2015 ratios while taking modest strides forward in strikeouts (27.7% to 28.5%) and walks (5.9% to 4.9%), and of course he tallied 36 saves with a full year of ninth-inning work.