Fantasy Baseball Closer Report August 17: Could Aroldis Chapman Return as New York Yankees Closer?

It looks like Clay Holmes' ineffectiveness and injury may force the New York Yankees to utilize a new closer for their save situations. However, their new closer is likely to be their old closer who, ironically, also lost his job due to ineffectiveness and injury. Could Aroldis Chapman became relevent in your fantasy baseball lineups again? We’ll explain it all for you and, as we often do in this column, we’ll identify a couple of under-the-radar MLB relievers to consider as fantasy baseball waiver wire pickups. Sometimes these lesser-known relief pitchers may provide better weekly fantasy baseball production than some ordinary starting pitchers. Don’t forget to utilize our MLB Closer Grid throughout the week. It’s a great resource for identifying closers, setup men, saves handcuffs, and fantasy baseball sleepers in MLB bullpens. Be sure to check out the August fantasy baseball rankings and rest-of-season MLB projections as well. Also, stay on top of the latest MLB injury report as closers and relievers across the league may crop up there. Now let's dive into the latest Fantasy Baseball Closer Report.
(NOTE: The statistics in this article are accurate as of the morning of 8.16.2022)
Fantasy Baseball Weekly MLB Saves Leaders
Liam Hendriks, Chicago White Sox – 4
Hendriks is back to being a reliable workhorse closer who can occasionally pitch on consecutive days. In his last nine appearances, he’s pitched nine total innings while striking out 12 batters and walking just three. The White Sox closer has a 2.00 ERA, one win, and eight saves during that time span. Kendall Graveman saved three games in eight appearances while Hendriks was on the Injured List and is his direct handcuff. With Aaron Bummer on the IL since early June, Joe Kelly has typically pitched the seventh and eighth innings for the White Sox and also notched a save while Hendriks was sidelined. Kelly has recorded 12 holds since his May 9th season debut.
Seranthony Domínguez, Philadelphia Phillies – 3
Dominguez is clearly Phillies manager Rob Thomson’s go-to option when the game is on the line. Thomson went to him four times last week and Dominguez responded with four shutout innings, three saves, and one win. David Robertson picked up an extra-inning save and two holds last week as Dominguez’s setup man. Brad Hand, meanwhile, hasn’t recorded a save since July 8th and his last hold came on July 15th. Hand has frequently been used in the seventh and eighth innings of games and has very minimal (if any) fantasy value at this point of the season.
Emmanuel Clase, Cleveland Guardians – 3
Clase has been one of the most consistent closers on the planet! Dating back to April 27th, he’s only given up three earned runs in his last 46 appearances. Clase is tied for the third-most saves games in baseball this season (27), along with Edwin Díaz and Kenley Jansen. Should Clase become unavailable at all, James Karinchak and Trevor Stephan are likely next in line to close out games for the Guardians. We’ll give Karinchak the slight nod for now since he recorded 11 saves for the Guardians last season.
Kenley Jansen, Atlanta Braves – 3
Jansen is the anchor of the Braves’ bullpen. However, Atlanta have a lot of depth in its bullpen with the newly-acquired Raisel Iglesias (34 saves in 2021) filling the role of setup man and A.J. Minter (who has five saves on the season) ready to pitch the ninth inning should Jansen be unavailable. Minter’s 20 holds are tied for the fourth-most in baseball. Milwaukee Brewers reliever Brad Boxberger and Chicago White Sox setup man Kendall Graveman also have 20 holds on the season.
Fantasy Baseball Weekly MLB Holds Leaders
Trevor Stephan, Cleveland Guardians – 4
As we mentioned earlier, the Guardians regularly use Stephan in high-leverage late-inning situations. He has a 1.61 ERA in 27 games since June 7th and has registered eight holds during that time span.
Steven Okert, Miami Marlins – 3
Okert is tied for having the eighth-most holds (16) in baseball. The Marlins reliever gives up more walks than we’d like to see (3.92 K/9), but he does a good job of missing bats as well with an 11.76 K/9. It will be interesting to see if Okert’s usage will change now that Cole Sulser has been reinstated from the IL.
Dylan Coleman, Kansas City Royals – 3
Coleman is another pitcher with control issues (5.9 BB/9 overall). However, the Royals reliever has 11 holds in his last 29 appearances dating back to June 5th. Coleman has pitched to a 2.03 ERA during that time span and owns 2.87 ERA overall this season.
MLB Bullpens To Take Note Of
New York Yankees
The Yankees have been in a terrible slump of late and so has Clay Holmes. Holmes, who took over as New York's closer when Aroldis Chapman hit the IL, has three blown saves in his last five appearances. He’s given up six hits and four walks in four innings pitched during that time span. Chapman, on the other hand, hasn’t given up a run in his last nine appearances. He’s struck out 10 batters, issued just one walk and he picked up a hold during that time span.
Holmes, who hasn’t pitched since Friday night, admitted that he’s been dealing with back stiffness and that he may be placed on the IL. If that were the case, Chapman might end up closing out games for the Yanks while Holmes is unavailable. Newly-acquired Scott Effross picked up a save for New York on Saturday night and, except for one hiccup against the Cardinals (three earned runs in one inning), he has pitched well for the Bronx Bombers. Effross could be an option for the Yankees in the ninth inning moving forward as well. It’s a situation that needs monitoring.
Middle Relievers Who Should Be On Your Radar in Deep Leagues
With starting pitchers averaging 5.2 innings per start so far this season, in some instances you might get similar, or even better production by using a top middle relief pitcher instead of a mediocre starting pitcher in a given week. The following are examples of two middle relievers who often make multi-inning relief appearances and might have deep league fantasy value based on their recent performance.
Ryan Yarbrough, Tampa Bay Rays
Yarbrough, who has been being used as a long reliever following an opener, pitched 7.1 innings this week. While he gave up three runs, he struck out a whopping 11 batters and walked just one.
Jarlín García, San Francisco Giants
Garcia appeared in four games last week, pitching 5.2 scoreless innings. He struck out eight batters and did not issue a walk.
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Player News
Brice Turang was scratched from Wednesday’s lineup due to illness.
It’ll be rookie Isaac Collins, who connected for his first big-league homer on Tuesday night, taking over at the keystone in his absence. Turang might need a couple days to rest and recover before getting back into Milwaukee’s lineup. Fantasy managers should consider him day-to-day for now.
Mike Trout was removed from Wednesday’s game against the Mariners for precautionary reasons with left knee soreness.
Trout told reporters following Wednesday’s contest that he’s already feeling better and expressed optimism that he’ll be ready for Thursday’s series opener against the Tigers. He also noted that he’s already undergone some preliminary testing, which didn’t reveal anything serious. It’s a significant concern for fantasy managers since Trout missed most of last season with a torn meniscus in his left knee. It sounds like his early exit was out of an abundance of caution and he’s not dealing with anything serious. He should be considered day-to-day for now.
Mookie Betts knocked in four runs with a triple and a single in the Dodgers’ 12-7 defeat of the Marlins on Wednesday.
Jesús Sánchez got turned around in center field on the triple, which really ought to have been an out. Still, the triple did travel 389 feet, which is the second farthest Betts has hit a ball this year. It was Betts’ second extra-base hit in two weeks and eighth of the year. At .250/.339/.407 through 28 games, he’s still looking for his first hot streak this season.
Making his 2025 debut, Tony Gonsolin fanned nine while allowing three runs over six innings Wednesday in a win over the Marlins.
He would have had an even better line if not for some outfield hijinks behind him. Gonsolin’s stellar showing included 17 missed swings and a 43% CSW over 77 pitches. Nine strikeouts stands alone as the second-highest total of his career behind a 10-strikeout game against the Rockies in 2020. Gonsolin probably won’t stay healthy and he definitely won’t get to face Miami every time out, but given that he’s fine physically right now and he actually will take on the Marlins again next week, he should be rostered in mixed leagues.
Cal Quantrill surrendered four runs in 3 2/3 innings Wednesday in a loss to the Dodgers.
This was pretty much the expected line for Quantrill. Pitching for the Rockies last year, he went 0-3 with an 8.31 ERA while totaling 17 1/3 innings in four starts against the Dodgers. The loss leaves him 2-3 with an 8.10 ERA in his six starts this year, and he’s probably going to get stuck facing L.A. again next time out.
Brought in with the Marlins down two in the sixth, Jesus Tinoco gave up three runs and retired just one batter Wednesday against the Dodgers.
Tinoco has two of the Marlins’ last three saves, but he didn’t help the cause today. He entered with a man on first and two outs in the sixth and gave up a walk, a two-run triple (which really should have been caught), a two-run homer and a single before finally finishing the inning. His sloppy performance also got fellow Marlins closing option Anthony Bender charged with a run for the guy he left on first. Tinoco came into the day having pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings in his last six appearances. His bad outing is probably a little bit of good news for those rostering Calvin Faucher. Still, we wouldn’t recommend any Marlins reliever outside of deep leagues.