Early 2025 Fantasy Baseball Reliever Rankings

An All-Star break tradition, here are my mostly-for-fun 2025 player rankings. I’ve done my best to list players where they’ll be 20-game eligible next year, and the free agents-to-be are listed without teams. Players with contract options for next year have an asterisk included with their team names.

Listen to the Rotoworld Baseball Show for the latest player news, waiver claims, roster advice and more from our experts all season long. Click here or download it wherever you get your podcasts.

Click to see other other preliminary 2025 rankings:

Top 300 | SP | RP | OF | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | C | DH

Early 2025 Relief pitcher rankings

• Between the slight chance that he’ll go back to the rotation next year and the greater likelihood that he still might hurt his arm again, I’m dropping Mason Miller to 13th. I’d move him back up some if he were to get traded to a contender that would want him strictly as a long-term closer.

• The Rays being the Rays, I assume they’ll trade either Pete Fairbanks or Jason Adam this winter. Adam would move up if Fairbanks is traded, but I still have him in the 30s here because I imagine he’d be viewed as a setup man if he’s the one who gets moved. I was looking to put a third Rays reliever on the list, but couldn’t decide on one. Kevin Kelly has fine numbers and might do a fair enough job, but guys who throw 89-92 mph rarely get the ninth all to themselves. Given the mess of starting pitching they’ll have with Shane McClanahan, Jeffrey Springs and Drew Rasmussen on the way back, one wonders if Rasmussen, Springs or even Zach Eflin might wind up closing at some point.

• In ranking the free agents, I’m trying to guess the likelihood that they’ll sign as closers. I’d take Jeff Hoffman over Carlos Estévez this winter, but I imagine Estévez is more likely to sign as a ninth-inning guy, even if it’s with a lesser team. David Robertson obviously doesn’t care one way or the other, so he’s lower than he’d otherwise be.

• If Ryan Pressly were a free agent, he’d be in the top 30 here, but his $14 million mutual option vests with just 11 more appearances. Unless he’d much prefer to close elsewhere, he’ll probably be back in Houston next year.

• The newly acquired Hunter Harvey gets a slight edge over incumbent James McArthur in looking at the Royals pen for 2025. I’d still rather roster McArthur for the rest of this season.

• With Kirby Yates, Robertson and José Leclerc all set to become free agents, the reliever list here is free of Rangers. That’s not to say there’s no one in the organization who could emerge as a closer, but they’ll almost surely add veterans again this winter. They do have Marc Church and Rule 5 pick Cameron Coleman as interesting relief prospects, and they might want to take a look at Jack Leiter out of the pen if he still doesn’t seem rotation ready in the first part of next year.