With Opening Day less than a month away, there’s no time like the present to start cramming for your fantasy baseball drafts. And there’s no better resource to help guide you to another championship than our 2019 MLB Draft Guide. This year’s edition is as jam packed as ever with over 1,500 player profiles, customizable projections, rankings, positional tiers and a ton of exclusive columns.
One of those columns is our 2019 Closer Report, which breaks down the current and future closer outlook for every team in the MLB. Here’s a small sampling of what you can get in the full online Draft Guide.
New York Yankees
Aroldis Chapman (L) - Closer
Dellin Betances (R) - Next Up
Adam Ottavino (R) - Setup Man
Zack Britton (L) - Setup Man
Chad Green (R) - Setup Man
Tommy Kahnle (R) - Setup Man
Jonathan Holder (R) - Setup Man
Current Team Overview
2/10/2019 6:06:00 PM: Aroldis Chapman struggled through a left knee issue in the second half of the 2018 season, but he only made one trip to the disabled list and finished with a sharp 2.45 ERA while piling up 93 strikeouts over 51 1/3 innings. He also rattled off three scoreless appearances in the playoffs before the Yankees got bounced by the Red Sox in the ALDS. Chapman’s durability has become a bit of a concern entering the third year of his record-setting five-year, $86 million deal with New York, but when healthy he remains one of the most dominant pitchers in the sport.
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Future Team Overview
2/10/2019 6:06:00 PM: David Robertson earned five saves last year when Chapman needed time off, and Dellin Betances earned four. Robertson walked as a free agent this winter, so Betances should be next in line for the ninth-inning gig heading into the 2019 season, even with the offseason additions of Adam Ottavino and Zack Britton. Betances carries standalone fantasy value, no matter if the save opportunities are few and far between. The hard-throwing right-hander boasts a 2.36 ERA and 619 strikeouts in 381 innings since making his MLB debut in 2011. Ottavino and Britton can probably go unowned in standard leagues.
Pittsburgh Pirates
Felipe Vazquez (L) - Closer
Keone Kela (R) - Next Up
Richard Rodriguez (R) - Setup Man
Kyle Crick (R) - Setup Man
Michael Feliz (R) - Setup Man
Francisco Liriano (L) - Lefty Specialist
Steven Brault (L) - Long Man
Current Team Overview
2/10/2019 6:22:00 PM: Felipe Vazquez had a dreadful outing on Opening Day last year against the Tigers and it basically took the entire month of April for his stat line to normalize, but he ultimately finished the 2018 season with a strong 2.70 ERA and 89/24 K/BB ratio in 70 innings. He also racked up a career-high 37 saves. Acquired from the Nationals in July 2016 for Mark Melancon, the 27-year-old left-hander boasts a 2.35 ERA and 216 strikeouts over 172 2/3 total innings in a Pirates uniform. He should be one of the very best fantasy options at closer in 2019.
Future Team Overview
2/10/2019 6:22:00 PM: Vazquez signed a four-year, $22 million extension with the Pirates last January that also contains relatively inexpensive $10 million club options for 2022 and 2023. There should be no risk of him being traded this summer, and he hasn’t been on the disabled list since his rookie year with Washington in 2015, when he missed about a month due to gastrointestinal bleeding. Keone Kela was acquired from the Rangers last July 31 and has experience working the ninth inning, but the 25-year-old is locked into a setup role as it stands heading into the 2019 season
For the remaining closer reports, and everything else in the Draft Guide, you can purchase here! Take advantage of our package deals and gain access to our MLB Season Pass and MLB DFS Toolkit products as well!
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