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Updated Fantasy Baseball Closer and Relief Pitcher Rankings - 2023 Points Leagues: Ryan Helsley, Andres Munoz, Jhoan Duran

Jhoan Duran fantasy baseball rankings closers saves draft sleepers

Our 2023 fantasy baseball closer and relief pitcher rankings for points leagues and H2H points scoring as of March 23, 2023. Use our closer and relief pitcher rankings, tiers, and analysis to win your fantasy baseball drafts.

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 23In 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 resources:

 

Fantasy Baseball Closer and Relief Pitcher News and Injuries

 

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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