MLB free agents 2017: Grouping, ranking the best available relief pitchers

Ryan Fagan

MLB free agents 2017: Grouping, ranking the best available relief pitchers image

We’ve all seen the value of dominant bullpens over the past few postseasons. 

The Royals rode theirs to Game 7 of the 2014 World Series, then to the 2015 championship. Cleveland wouldn’t have gotten to the 2016 World Series without Andrew Miller and Cody Allen. You know those examples will shape how front offices view their free-agent priorities this offseason, so we thought that we’d ditch the straight “ranking the relievers” approach this year. 

MORE: Ranking all 155 MLB free agents | 13 best available hitters

Instead, here’s what we’re going to do: We’re going arrange these relief pitchers by category, then rank them within said category. 

Make sense? Cool. 

The elite closers

1. Kenley Jansen
2. Aroldis Chapman
3. Mark Melancon

Need to know: These three are clearly the cream of the closer crop this offseason. Melancon might not get the Jansen/Chapman headlines, but over the past two seasons, he owns a 1.95 ERA and has 98 saves in 104 opportunities. After his trade from Pittsburgh to D.C., the right-hander went 17-for-18 in save chances and had a 1.82 ERA. That’s legit production. At 32 by opening day 2017, he’s a bit older than either Jansen or Chapman (both will be 29 at the start of the season). And, of course, his strikeout numbers (career 8.2 per nine) are much lower than either Jansen (13.9 per nine) or Chapman (15.2 per nine). And those numbers are why Jansen and Chapman will both land deals with significantly bigger numbers than Melancon’s. Jansen comes attached with draft-pick compensation while Chapman doesn’t, but Chapman’s domestic violence incident/suspension could — and probably should — give some teams pause. 

RPs with closing experience 

1. Neftali Feliz
2. Joaquin Benoit
3. Sergio Romo
5. Koji Uehara
6. Santiago Casilla
7. Fernando Rodney

Need to know: Feliz has dealt with injury issues, but his velocity has returned (from the 91-93 mph average in 2014 to 96-97 mph in 2016) and he was back up to double digits in strikeouts per nine innings in his bounce-back season for the Pirates in 2016. He won’t get closer money, but he’s a sneaky closer candidate for teams looking to shore up late innings. … It’ll be odd to see Romo and Casilla pitching for anyone other than the Giants, won’t it? … Benoit and Rodney both had up-and-down seasons, but Rodney’s collapse after his trade to the Marlins tanked any value he might have had. … Uehara will be 42 on April 3, but he still struck out 12.1 per nine for the Red Sox in 2016. 

(Joe Smith)

Set-up candidates

1. Joe Blanton
2. Joe Smith
3. Brandon Morrow

Need to know: Look, everyone is going to talk about Blanton’s mistakes in the playoffs, but the reality is he was an outstanding seventh- and eighth-inning guy in a Dodgers bullpen that desperately needed the stability. He’s 35, so he doesn’t have a long-term deal in the cards, but he’s reinvented himself as a reliable late-inning guy, and there’s value there. … Smith has 29 career saves, spread over the past four seasons (never more than 15 in a year). He was solid after his trade from the Angels to the Cubs (2.51 ERA), but wasn’t on the postseason roster. At 33 in March, he could get a two-year deal. … Morrow is interesting. He looked decent out of the San Diego bullpen (1.69 ERA, though his peripherals weren’t so shiny) after returning from injury, and some teams will be willing to give him a chance to carve out an important role in their bullpen. 

(Mark Rzepczynski)

MORE: 15 worst free-agent signings ever

LOOGYs

1. Jerry Blevins 
2. Boone Logan
3. Marc Rzepczynski
4. Michael Dunn
5. Brett Cecil
6. Javier Lopez
7. J.P. Howell

Need to know: LOOGY, of course, stands for “Lefty One-Out GuY,” the lefties who enter the game for the sole purpose of getting out the other team’s best left-handed hitter. For most of these guys, anything more than one out per appearance is a bonus. Mets fans know what Blevins meant to his team’s bullpen; he appeared in 73 games, produced a 2.79 ERA/3.05 FIP and struck out 11.1 per nine innings. … Early word on the free-agent market is that Logan is attracting quite the crowd of suitors after a solid year in the Colorado air (no easy task). He had a 3.69 ERA in 66 appearances (46 1/3 innings), with 11.1 K/9. … Lopez was a rock for San Francisco for years, but had his worst season (4.05 ERA/5.40 FIP) since 2009, though he did still appear in at least 65 games for the seventh year in a row. … Rzepczynski seems to wind up traded to a playoff-bound team every year, and why not? He had a 2.64 ERA in 70 games for the A’s and Nationals in 2016.

(Junichi Tazawa)

Wherever-you-need-me relievers

1. Travis Wood
2. Matt Belisle
3. Yusmeiro Petit 
4. Dustin McGowan
5. Andrew Bailey
6. David Hernandez
7. Junichi Tazawa
8. Fernando Salas
9. Tommy Hunter
10. Jesse Chavez
11. Peter Moylan

Need to know: For the most part, these are the guys who could be called on for two or three innings, starting in the fourth, or they could wind up facing important batters in the eighth inning, or they could be the guy the manager hands the ball to in extra innings and says, “Take us home.” For some of these guys, though, they just didn’t fit our other arbitrary categories. Travis Wood led the Cubs in appearances this season, posting a 2.95 ERA in 77 games in his first full season as a reliever. Manager Joe Maddon used him for one-batter situations 18 times, but he faced at least four hitters 31 times, which means he doesn’t fit the LOOGY category. … Petit has been hit-or-miss, but he’ll be just 32 this spring and he has a 3.83 ERA/3.54 FIP over the past four seasons, and he’s worth giving a shot at being part of the staff of a contending team. … McGowan and Hernandez each threw more than 65 innings last season, and those innings are valuable. … Belisle had a nifty 1.67 ERA in 46 innings for the Nationals in 2016, thanks in large part to only seven unintentional walks and two homers allowed. 


(Greg Holland)

Bounce-back candidates

1. Greg Holland 
2. Drew Storen
3. Joe Nathan
4. Luke Hochevar
5. Gavin Floyd

Need to know: Holland was once an elite closer, but Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the entire 2016 season. He had a workout for several teams Monday, and his velocity was around the 88-91 mph range for his fastball, which is down from his pre-injury velocity of 94-95 mph. It’ll be interesting to see how his market develops. … Nathan worked his way back last year and pitched for the Cubs and Giants, allowing no runs in 10 combined appearances (6 1/3 innings). But he’s 42 later this month, so we’ll see what the offseason holds for him. … Hochevar and Floyd both ended the season on the disabled list with shoulder issues after productive half-seasons. … Storen’s bounce-back hopes aren’t injury-related. He struggled after being replaced as the Nationals’ closer in the middle of the 2015 season (even though his numbers were excellent) and then was traded to Toronto after the season. He had a 6.21 ERA in 38 games there and was shipped to Seattle. That’s where the hope comes in; he had a 3.44 ERA/2.77 FIP in 19 games, and maybe a full fresh start at a place of his choosing will be what revitalizes his career. He won’t be 30 until next August. 

Ryan Fagan

Ryan Fagan Photo

Ryan Fagan, the national MLB writer for The Sporting News, has been a Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2016. He also dabbles in college hoops and other sports. And, yeah, he has way too many junk wax baseball cards.