Ranking MLB’s Closers, Part V

 Ranking MLB’s Closers, Part V

Now that we have gotten to the top 10 AL closers, Let’s see who we still have:

Andres Munoz

Will Smith

Ryan Pressly

Jhoan Duran

Emmanuel Clase

Felix Bautista

Pete Fairbanks

Jordan Romano

Kenley Jansen

Clay Holmes

Today I will cut five more closers. Just to clarify, every single pitcher I’ve talked about is extremely good, as they are pitching at the major league level. Now then, let’s get to it!

10: Will Smith

Will Smith has been around for a while, and has a career 3.68 ERA. This season, he has 22 saves and a 4.55 ERA. He has not been getting as many saves lately, and Aroildis Chapman and even Jose Leclerc are getting some, but, seeing as how he has the most saves for the Rangers, I will call him the closer. Even though the ERA is high, batters are hitting just .217 with a .629 OPS against him this season. His walk rate is low at only 2.6 batters per 9 this season, but he is striking out slightly less than 9 batters per nine. This number isn’t bad in itself, but many closers have really good K-numbers. He really hasn’t been that bad this season, and has been really good in the past. In 2019, he was an all-star with the Giants, when he had 34 saves and a 2.76 ERA, and in 2021 he had 37 saves and a 3.44 ERA with the Braves. He is a good pitcher, but is cut at number ten.

9: Clay Holmes

This season, Holmes has 21 saves and a 3.00 ERA. Last season, he had 20 saves and a 2.54 ERA. Besides those two seasons, he has 0 saves and a 4.81 ERA in about 150 innings. In his two seasons as closer however, opponents are hitting just .209 against him with an insane 0.8% home run rate and a ground ball rate of over 72%, with the league average being 42.7%! However, his hard hit rate was more than 4% over the MLB average during those years. He has obviously been better these past two seasons, and is probably the right choice as closer for the Yankees.

8: Pete Fairbanks

This season, Fairbanks has 24 saves and a 2.49 ERA with the Rays. He is striking out 13.5 batters per 9 against 3.3 walks. He has good stuff, as hitters only have a .163 batting average against him this season and a .213 average in his career. His hard hit rate is 3% lower than the league average, and his home run rate is 1.7%, with the average being 3.3%. He is definitely a solid pitcher, and though the Rays have used multiple pitchers to close games, Fairbanks has been the best and has the most saves. 

7: Ryan Pressly

Ryan Pressly is already almost 35 years old, and has been the closer of the Astros for the last four seasons. In that time, he has 101 saves and a 3.04 ERA. This season, he has 30 saves and a 3.77 ERA, which is actively higher than Trevor May’s (which has gone down to 3.53). Nonetheless, Pressly is a way better pitcher than Trevor May, as I’m sure that each of you knows. Pressly has a career BAA of .230, and that number is down to .223 this season. Even though he has been around longer, it seems that maybe a younger pitcher like Bryan Abreu may be better to take the role as the closer, but that is a question for another day. Though not the best, Pressly is a good closer, and ranks seven on the list.

6: Andres Munoz

The Mariners had Paul Sewald until the trade deadline, so he comes away with most of the saves. But since they traded him, Andres Munoz has been the closer for them. He has 13 saves and a 2.76 ERA thus far, and has a career 2.81 ERA through his four big-league seasons (two full seasons). Opponents are batting an astonishing .198 against him in his career with an OPS of .573. His career K-rate is roughly 13.5% above the average, and 11.5% above the average this season. He walks just slightly over the league average number of batters, and is walking 4.1 hitters per 9 this season, which seems to be his only weakness. He is just so good, and deserves to rank 6 among the closers of the AL. He is a whole league over guys like Trevor May, Alex Lange, and even Will Smith.

We are now narrowed down to Jhoan Duran, Emmanuel Clase, Felix Bautista, Jordan Romano, and Kenley Jansen. Who is the top closer in the AL? That answer will be in the next post. Thank you for reading.