2015 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Closers

It's a love/hate thing. Closers are essential in most fantasy baseball leagues, yet the best closers in the game can go all post-midnight Cinderella in the blink of an eye, while the junky relievers you'd never think of drafting can go from forgotten waiver wire fodder to saves goldmine overnight. This is the position that makes you pull your hair out. It's the most volatile position in all of fantasy baseball, which also makes it the most difficult to meaningfully rank. But hey, this is a rankings article, so on we rank.  One word of advice: no matter what you might read below, don't draft more than one closer in the first 10 rounds. Just don't. You're welcome.

As with our first base, second base, third base, shortstop, catcher, outfield and starting pitcher fantasy baseball rankings, we've asked our writers to submit their fantasy baseball closer rankings for 2015, and we've calculated composite scores to showcase RotoBaller's site average. Rankings from one person represent just one opinion, so the goal of these composite fantasy baseball rankings is to give you a good sense of how we as a site view these players. This list of closers completes our initial look at all the positional rankings, but we'll be updating them in February before finalizing them in March.  Enjoy!

Editor's Note: Don't forget to check out all of RotoBaller's 2015 fantasy baseball rankings articles & rankings analysis to prepare for your drafts. Let's win some leagues!
 

2015 Fantasy Baseball Closer Rankings

Brad Johnson (Lead MLB Editor)

I'll highlight a pair of relievers: Jake McGee and Brad Boxberger. McGee may begin the season on the disabled list. Meanwhile, ignoring fantasy considerations, Boxberger was a top-five reliever last season. If McGee misses any time, I just don't see him recapturing the closer role from Boxberger. My fellow Brad would jump to number four on the list, if I could be sure he had the job. The rankings are as they are because there remains plenty of uncertainty.

Kyle Braver (MLB Writer)

Of the relief pitchers outside of my top 10, there are few I'm as excited about for 2015 as Brad Boxberger (see above). A righty with dynamite strikeout stuff, Allen posted a 42.1% strikeout rate last season. To put into context just how impressive that is, only two qualified relievers in the game owned better numbers in 2014: Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman. No other reliever even finished above 40%.

Jake McGee's dominance last season and the presence of the veteran closer Grant Balfour are the only reasons Boxberger fell so low in my rankings. From the standpoint of pure stuff, however, he's as good as any pitcher in the game. I'd keep my eye trained very closely on him, especially if trade rumors start to swirl around McGee as the year drags on.

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Jeff Kahntroff (MLB Writer)

Jake McGee is being ranked too high, given that I expect him to miss the first month or more of the season.  Combine that with the always-attendant risks of returning from injury and the presence of a very talented reliever in Boxberger behind him, and you see that McGee’s talent exceeds his ADP.

Betances is also being ranked too highly.  While he has enormous upside, he may not yet be the closer.  If he does move into the role, he still has control risks, as 2014 was really the first full season where we saw him controlling his walks.

For the top picks, I don't see a major difference between Jansen, Kimbrel and Holland, and I placed Jansen first because I think the Dodgers are significantly better than the other two teams.  Chapman’s constant flirtation with losing the strike zone worries me a bit, and it puts him slightly behind the other three for me, but I could also see an argument for him at number one due to his strong strikeout numbers.

Kyle Bishop (MLB Writer and Editor)

Going by fWAR, Dellin Betances was the most valuable reliever in baseball last year… as a rookie. Even though David Robertson had a stranglehold on the Yankees’ closer gig, Betances’s elite ratios and silly K-rate made him plenty valuable in fantasy leagues, too. Now, with Robertson plying his trade for the White Sox, Betances seems poised to take over the ninth. I’ve slotted him just below the Four Horsemen of the Ninth Inning Apocalypse (Kimbrel, Chapman, Holland and Jansen), only because he doesn’t have the track record those guys have. All things in the fullness of time, my friends.

I managed to win all three of my leagues last season, but closers were the bane of my existence. For whatever reason, I could never seem to guess right on who would win the jobs that were in flux. Case in point: I fully expected Fernando Rodney, fresh off a rocky 2013, to lose his job to Danny Farquhar. Never happened, but I’m doubling down here, which explains my bearish rank on Rodney. Please take one of my poorly-Xeroxed “Free Farquhar” pamphlets. Tell your friends!

Harris Yudin (MLB Writer and Editor)

I have always had a tough time trusting closers outside of the elite group. I think there are seven reliable closers that carry little risk alongside them, but beyond that it's hard to know who will succeed in a given year. A lot of people may have lost faith in Trevor Rosenthal in the midst of his regressive 2014, but he remains one of the late-inning relievers for whom I would feel comfortable reserving a roster spot. If you are stuck choosing among three or four guys, you may want to grab the guy with a history of strong strikeout numbers. For owners in very deep leagues, there are a ton of middle relievers to choose from, all of whom can positively impact your team. Wade Davis and Andrew Miller have made cases for being the best of this group.

Josh Leonard (MLB Writer)

If you pay for saves, you're a sucker. This is the riskiest position in all of FBB and I don't recommend investing heavily. The top 4 are the only reliable options and are way too expensive. As for the rest there are no guarantees. For instance, Jim Johnson had 50 saves in 2013 after saving 51 in 2012. Safe pick for 2014, right? Well, no. Jim forgot how to pitch and ended up with just 2 saves and a 7.09 ERA. Just ugly.

The 2014 performances of closers Ernesto Frieri, Chris Perez, John Axford and Grant Balfour should have you second guessing investing anything in the position. You never know what you're going to get.

Alex Roberts (RotoBaller Co-Founder)

Each year, you can bank on over a third of closers straight-up losing their jobs. Some of those cast aside will be top closers with injury issues, while others will be middling or lower-tier relievers who simply don't have the skills or mental toughness to handle the rigors of the ninth-inning shut-down role.

When you know at least 10 of 30 MLB clubs will change closers, you probably shouldn't invest too much draft capital in that position. To put it really simply: don't draft more than one closer before the tenth round. And don't draft more than two before the fifteenth.  If you live by those two golden rules of closer drafting, you will likely end up with a solid second-tier closer, a solid third-tier closer, and either a junky mop-up guy racking up saves or a top-tier middle-reliever filling in as an injury replacement.  And that's really all you need to start out the season, since trades and the waiver wire will fill in any gaps you might have .

For those late closer picks, I like a few guys.  Brad Boxberger was great last year, and he figures to run away with the job if McGee is out for any length of time. If Boxberger is going later than ~140 in your drafts, he's a solid pick. I also like Addison Reed, who was victimized by home runs last year. He won't give up as many this year, and he racks up the strikeouts at a very respectable rate. He will likely come at a very significant discount in 2015.  Neftali Feliz is coming off injuries and figures to have the Texas closer role on lockdown from the start of the 2015 season.  Look for where Rafael Soriano, Francisco Rodriguez and Casey Janssen end up, as they are all solid veteran closers who could be dirt cheap in your drafts.

As you can see, I generally prefer veteran closers, and that's because managers prefer veteran closers who've "been there before" and have "ninth-inning experience."  I'll take me an over-the-hill veteran racking up saves over a young buck setup man mowing down hitters with a 14 K/9 any day of the week.

2015 RotoBaller Fantasy Baseball Closer (RP) Rankings