The Bullpen Report: Three Relievers Who Are Worth Adding…

by Nick Hutcherson

This week has been pretty quiet in the closer world, with the big changes being Jeurys Familia’s likely season-ending injury and Edwin Diaz’ “temporary” demotion. Those things lead to the following names jumping onto fantasy radars:

Three to grab

1) Shallow League- Addison Reed- New York Mets
Reed should already be owned in your league, but he just broke 50% ownership in ESPN leagues (which is crazy). The Mets as a team are down in terms of performance this year, but chances are that he will have a crack at somewhere in the vicinity of 30 saves the rest of the way. His sub-1.00 WHIP and 10+ K/9 rates are fantastic. His ERA is a bit higher than we would like, at 3.49, but this number should fall as evidenced by an xFIP of 2.58. Folks, Addison Reed should not be available in half of all leagues, regardless of size. He is a Top 15 closer the rest of the way and should be on your team today if he is still available.

2) Average League- Nick Vincent- Seattle Mariners
Vincent was on the list a few weeks back, as was Steve Cishek. Now that Diaz is on a ‘break’ from the role, Vincent becomes a high-value addition. I wouldn’t be spending more than 3-5% of my FAAB on him, because I am not convinced that Diaz won’t get back into the mix, but I do believe that Vincent will see the bulk of the save opportunities over the next few weeks and his numbers are helpful.

3) Deep League- Carl Edwards, Jr.-Chicago Cubs
When I play in these deep leagues I understand that saves are very valuable and very tough to come by. I try to identify situations where I can pick up set-up men that post elite ratios and have a realistic shot at creeping into the saves picture. Wade Davis had an injury plagued 2016, and if those issues are to resurface this season Edwards (not Hector Rondon) is the handcuff to have. By the way, you could do much worse than a 1.04/0.75/12.46 slash line. Edwards can help your team even if he isn’t saving games.

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