The last part of our State of the Position series is certainly the least. It's not that relief pitchers aren't important for Fantasy – it's not impossible to win in a Roto league without getting at least a decent number of saves, but you're putting yourself in a real hole if you aren't competing there. The problem is that "competing" in saves doesn't necessarily mean "investing a lot in the position." Of the 11 relievers who were drafted in the top 100 on average in 2026, you could make a very good argument that only Mason Miller, Cade Smith, Jhoan Duran, David Bednar, and Aroldis Chapman really paid off.
Edwin Diaz, Devin Williams, Ryan Helsley, Daniel Palencia, and Jeff Hoffman all either lost their jobs or dealt with injuries (or both in some cases), while Andres Munoz just kind of slogged through the season; 28 saves is okay, but not for the premium you paid for him. And the next few off the board weren't much better – Raisel Iglesias had a typically effective season. Still, Pete Fairbanks, Carlos Estevez, Ryan Walker, and Dennis Santana were all pretty much disasters at a pretty costly price point.
And the thing is: This is pretty typical for relievers. Pitchers are hard enough to predict, given the year-to-year volatility in production and the inherently high injury risk they all carry. But relievers are even worse because you're not just trying to predict performance (based on inherently small sample sizes), but you're also trying to project job security.
Whose manager trusts them to weather the storm of a few bad weeks and whose will jump ship at the first sign of rough seas? That is often what separates the good closers from the bad ones, even more than performance itself. This all makes relievers the most volatile assets in Fantasy.
There is very little year-to-year correlation between rankings here, and one year's breakout success story can very easily be next year's massive disappointment. You can try to counter that by paying up for the few sure things at the position, or you can try to play the volume game with your late-round picks and the waiver wire. You need saves, after all.
But there's just no good way to guarantee them. If you missed the rest of the State of the Position series, hey, it's okay, I know the World Series was distracting you. I don't take it personally.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
