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Do you play in fantasy baseball points leagues? Us too, and we have you covered with points league analysis all season long. Today we're here with our fantasy baseball closer and relief pitcher rankings for points leagues as of March 23. In general, points leagues and H2H points formats are underserved by the fantasy baseball community and fantasy baseball outlets. Here at RotoBaller, we really take pride in points league formats and have specialized in this area for years. Throughout the preseason and MLB season, we'll publish rankings, tools, and analysis articles all geared for fantasy baseball points leagues.
In this article below, we will be taking a look at our closer and relief pitcher rankings list put together by RotoBaller's lead fantasy baseball points analyst, Nicklaus Gaut. More teams are shying away from using a traditional closer, making it tough for fantasy managers to accumulate saves. Teams either use a closer-by-committee or their top reliever in high-leverage situations. The Rays, for example, logged 44 saves between 11 pitchers, with Jason Adam and Pete Fairbanks tying for a team-high eight saves in 2022. Cleveland Guardians right-hander Emmanuel Clase and Boston Red Sox right-hander Kenley Jansen were the only two relievers to notch over 40 saves last season. New York Mets reliever Edwin Diaz (knee) will undergo surgery on Thursday to fix a right patellar tendon injury and is out for the season, while Atlanta Braves reliever Raisel Iglesias (shoulder) will start the season on the injured list with low-grade right shoulder inflammation, making the closer position even more volatile. Unlike standard roto leagues, fantasy managers can find greater value for relief pitchers in points leagues since they are not trying to chase a category. However, starters with relief pitcher eligibility provide value as they can rack up points in a starting relief spot. Cristian Javier, Nestor Cortes, Jeffrey Springs, Hunter Brown, and Zach Eflin are some vital options that will qualify as both relief and starter. Javier is the only pitcher with relief eligibility that is ranked in the top 50 of RotoBaller's top 300 overall rankings, making it a position that managers can wait on in points formats. We're here to help sort it out with our 2023 fantasy baseball rankings. Let's see where key relief pitchers like Ryan Helsley, Andres Munoz, Jhoan Duran, Hunter Brown, Daniel Bard, and Garrett Whitlock rank, among others.
Our team here at RotoBaller HQ has been hard at work all offseason putting together our 2023 Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit and all sorts of fantasy baseball rankings for different formats. We're also writing fresh daily articles analyzing this year's fantasy baseball sleepers, breakouts, and so much more. You can also find our other draft rankings for all league formats, continually updated throughout the preseason, in our main fantasy baseball Rankings Wizard tool. Also, make use of all our premium resources with our MLB Draft Kit. Most importantly, our brand new free mobile app is a must-have – download it and configure your notifications. We deliver all the top MLB news, injuries, and fantasy analysis 24x7 with our free push notification alerts!
Be sure to check all of our fantasy baseball lineup tools and weekly lineup resources:- Fantasy baseball injury reports
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Fantasy Baseball Closer and Relief Pitcher News and Injuries
- Raisel Iglesias To Land On Injured List To Begin Season
- A.J. Minter Likely To Open Year As Braves Closer
- Brandon Hughes Hoping To Avoid Injured List Stint
- Jimmy Nelson To Open Year On Injured List
- Jhoan Duran To Throw Thursday
- Ryan Yarbrough Continues Making Progress
- Mets Claim Dennis Santana Off Waivers From Twins
- Royals Sign Jake Brentz To Two-Year Deal
- Mets Will Be Reimbursed For Edwin Diaz's Salary
- Matt Strahm To Be Multi-Inning Reliever
- Mark Melancon Will Open Season On Injured List
- Andres Munoz Pitching In B Game Thursday
- David Robertson, Brooks Raley Could Be In The Mix For Saves
- Sergio Romo Signs Minor League Deal With Giants
- Justin Wilson "Progressing Nicely"
- Nick Nelson Shutdown With Hamstring Injury
- Alex Lange Likely The Tigers Closer
- Rays Add Trevor Kelley To 40-Man Roster
Fantasy Baseball Closers and Relief Pitcher Rankings - Points Leagues
These rankings are for points and head-to-head points leagues. You can also see our roto fantasy baseball rankings.
Before we get to the rankings, let's quickly review points leagues and how they differ from other formats. Typically, points leagues have different league settings and scoring formats than other fantasy baseball leagues. Different MLB stats and categories are assigned different point values, which can vary by individual league settings. Those different point buckets are then added up over the course of a scoring period or season.
In many cases, hitters who walk more and strike out less are preferred for points leagues. Also, many league formats tend to give more weight to pitchers than normal, as they can easily accrue points through categories like Innings Pitched. These are the general frameworks that we use for our points league rankings below, and explain why they look different than more standard 5x5 roto fantasy baseball rankings.
Last updated on Thursday 3/23 at 8:00 pm ET:
| RP Tier | RP Ranking | Player Name | Pos | Overall |
| 1 | 1 | Cristian Javier | SP/RP | 46 |
| 1 | 2 | Emmanuel Clase | RP | 80 |
| 1 | 3 | Josh Hader | RP | 99 |
| 1 | 4 | Jordan Romano | RP | 109 |
| 2 | 5 | Nestor Cortes Jr. | SP/RP | 127 |
| 2 | 6 | Devin Williams | RP | 132 |
| 2 | 7 | Ryan Helsley | RP | 146 |
| 2 | 8 | Ryan Pressly | RP | 156 |
| 2 | 9 | Felix Bautista | RP | 167 |
| 2 | 10 | Jeffrey Springs | SP/RP | 173 |
| 3 | 11 | Camilo Doval | RP | 178 |
| 3 | 12 | Kenley Jansen | RP | 189 |
| 3 | 13 | David Bednar | RP | 190 |
| 3 | 14 | David Robertson | RP | 192 |
| 3 | 15 | Clay Holmes | RP | 199 |
| 3 | 16 | Raisel Iglesias | RP | 200 |
| 3 | 17 | Hunter Brown | RP | 215 |
| 3 | 18 | Alexis Diaz | RP | 217 |
| 4 | 19 | Scott Barlow | RP | 225 |
| 4 | 20 | Pete Fairbanks | RP | 228 |
| 4 | 21 | Daniel Bard | RP | 233 |
| 4 | 22 | Garrett Whitlock | SP/RP | 237 |
| 4 | 23 | Zach Eflin | SP/RP | 243 |
| 4 | 24 | Paul Sewald | RP | 248 |
| 4 | 25 | Alex Lange | RP | 251 |
| 5 | 26 | Andres Munoz | RP | 257 |
| 5 | 27 | Jhoan Duran | RP | 272 |
| 5 | 28 | Ross Stripling | SP/RP | 298 |
| 5 | 29 | Steven Matz | SP/RP | 312 |
| 5 | 30 | Kyle Finnegan | RP | 333 |
| 5 | 31 | Nick Martinez | SP/RP | 338 |
| 5 | 32 | Jose Leclerc | RP | 355 |
| 5 | 33 | Clarke Schmidt | SP/RP | 362 |
| 5 | 34 | Yusei Kikuchi | SP/RP | 366 |
| 5 | 35 | Seranthony Dominguez | RP | 367 |
| 5 | 36 | Jorge Lopez | RP | 369 |
| 6 | 37 | Kendall Graveman | RP | 374 |
| 6 | 38 | Jason Adam | RP | 378 |
| 6 | 39 | Evan Phillips | RP | 379 |
| 6 | 40 | Brandon Hughes | RP | 386 |
| 6 | 41 | Christian Bethancourt | RP | 394 |
| 6 | 42 | Craig Kimbrel | RP | 403 |
| 6 | 43 | Carlos Estevez | RP | 405 |
| 6 | 44 | Dylan Floro | RP | 411 |
| 6 | 45 | Giovanny Gallegos | RP | 414 |
| 6 | 46 | Taylor Rogers | RP | 418 |
| 6 | 47 | A.J. Puk | RP | 424 |
| 6 | 48 | Seth Lugo | RP | 433 |
| 6 | 49 | Alex Vesia | RP | 436 |
| 6 | 50 | Trevor Williams | SP/RP | 443 |
| 6 | 51 | Matthew Boyd | RP | 446 |
| 7 | 52 | Trevor May | RP | 448 |
| 7 | 53 | Daniel Hudson | RP | 450 |
| 7 | 54 | A.J. Minter | RP | 454 |
| 7 | 55 | Aaron Ashby | SP/RP | 459 |
| 7 | 56 | Robert Suarez | RP | 461 |
| 7 | 57 | Tyler Wells | RP | 464 |
| 7 | 58 | Dany Jimenez | RP | 465 |
| 7 | 59 | Rafael Montero | RP | 466 |
| 7 | 60 | Jose Alvarado | RP | 468 |
| 7 | 61 | Andrew Chafin | RP | 472 |
| 7 | 62 | James Karinchak | RP | 481 |
| 7 | 63 | Vince Velasquez | SP/RP | 483 |
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