2025 Positional Power Rankings: Bullpen (No. 1-15)

The Twins have two closer-quality arms at the very back of their bullpen. One is a 104-mph unicorn, while the other has one the best combinations of stuff and command in baseball, regardless of role. Jhoan Duran touched 103 a half dozen times last season and, after coasting through the early part of spring training, has been hovering in that range again early this year. That pitch alone would probably make him a higher-leverage guy, but Duran also bends in an 86-ish mph curveball (incredible velocity for a pitch with so much depth), and his mid-90s splinker walked so that Paul Skenes‘ could run. His curveball garnered a plus-plus swinging strike rate in 2024, while the splinker generated an 80% groundball rate (seriously). He is a marvel and one of the most dominant relievers of the decade.

Griffin Jax is this decade’s Liam Hendriks, a relatively generic backend starter prospect whose stuff exploded when he was moved to the bullpen. The 30-year-old former Air Force Academy standout has experienced velo gains each of the last three seasons without sacrificing any of his excellent command. Jax had a 12-to-2 K-to-BB ratio last year and was the second-most valuable reliever in baseball at a whopping 2.6 WAR.

Minnesota’s fireman is Cole Sands. A new cutter moved to the forefront of his repertoire in 2024, and Sands was often (successfully) called upon to work more than an inning at a time. The same is true of Louie Varland, a Concordia alum who buzzes the top of the zone with upper-90s heat and cutters.

Sands, Jax, and Duran gave the Twins three of the most valuable 32 relievers in baseball last year from a WAR standpoint. The group after them consists of what I’d call elevated middle relief types. Brock Stewart, son of longtime scout Jeff Stewart, was once so often injured that he had a four-year gap between big league appearances. He now works with four above-average to plus pitches, though he’ll start the season on the IL after suffering a hamstring strain earlier this spring. Jorge Alcala sits 98 and has as plus slider; he’s playing a role often filled by someone sitting 95.

This group is a little light on lefties. Danny Coulombe, a 35-year-old southpaw, had surgery to remove bone chips in his elbow last year and was limited to 29.2 innings. Anthony Misiewicz has spent most of the last two seasons in the minors. There are some reverse splits fellows in this mix (Scott Blewett, for instance), but readers should keep an eye on prospect Connor Prielipp as a potential mid-to-late season addition. The 22-year-old returned from Tommy John last year and was deployed as a starter across 23.1 total innings, easily a career-high for him due to multiple injuries. He has an incredible slider.

Speaking of multiple injuries, hard-throwing low-slot righty Justin Topa missed most of last season with left patellar tendinitis. He has only had one healthy season with double digit innings pitched.

Our projections have the Twins in a tier on their own, nearly a full win above the next highest-projected bullpen.

“El Montaño” is back. Baseball’s best reliever in 2023, Bautista missed 2024 rehabbing a UCL reconstruction. This spring, Bautista’s velocity is down three to four ticks across his entire repertoire, but he’s newly back from injury, and many pitchers are simply coasting this time of year. Bautista appears to have conditioned well during his rehab, and likely has more in the tank. Even if he “only” sits 96 all year, his fastball’s exploding action will still make it a dominant pitch, though there’ll be more pressure on Bautista to locate it. We’ve only seen the vertical slider/curveball version of Bautista’s breaking ball this spring, not the upper-80s cutter-y version. Again, it might be that Bautista is letting it go at like 85% right now.

Domínguez is a fit second fiddle to Bautista and has closer-quality stuff when he’s on. That has been the case this spring, as Seranthony has been parked in the 96-98 mph range and bending in huge sliders. A healthy Domínguez is this bullpen’s X-factor, the thing that will elevate it to a great group rather than a merely good one.

Yennier Cano is a Cuban groundball machine with rare fastball velocity for a side-armer. He wasn’t as efficient from a strike-throwing standpoint in 2024 as he was during his All-Star turn in 2023, but he still generated a career-high 62.9% groundball rate and a 26.1% strikeout rate last year.

Originally a Giant, Albert Suárez spent 2019-23 pitching in Asia, then returned to MLB last year as an Orioles swingman with a new cutter in tow. He is currently projected to break camp as the long reliever.

They’re deep on lefties in Bal’mur. Gregory Soto (who, along with Domínguez, came from Philadelphia via trade last year) was the second-hardest throwing lefty reliever in baseball last year, while Cionel Pérez was sixth. Keegan Akin doesn’t throw as hard, but he’s more consistent, and he only allowed a 79% in-zone contact rate last year, which was fifth best among lefty relievers with at least 50 IP.

Last year’s Phillies bullpen was sixth in strikeout rate and xFIP, the latter an indication that the team’s defense wasn’t great, because the Phils were smack in the middle of the pack in terms of raw ERA. They’ve had turnover at the back of the ‘pen. The hard-throwing duo of Gregory Soto and Seranthony Domínguez was traded to Baltimore at last year’s trade deadline, while Carlos Estévez, the team’s big trade deadline acquisition, has moved on to Kansas City, and setup man Jeff Hoffman is back with Toronto.

Enter Jordan Romano, in on a one-year, $8.5 million deal after he worked just 13.2 innings last year with persistent elbow inflammation. He’s been sitting 94-96 this spring, his first action against real life opposition since last May.

It’s plausible that we see peak Romano again, and that he ends up as the team’s closer at some point this season, but José Alvarado pretty clearly has the best stuff in this bullpen right now; he has been sitting 100-101 so far this spring. His health and consistency (he really struggled last year compared to his superlative 2023) will be key for Philly’s ‘pen to actually finish as a top five unit.

Orion Kerkering has a 97-mph sinker and a plus-plus sweeper with eye-crossing bend. I had him pegged as a third-banana type when he was a prospect, but he’s looking more like a true setup man. Matt Strahm is coming off his second straight 2-WAR season and had a 1.87 ERA last year, though he’s dealing with a shoulder issue. Joe Ross and Taijuan Walker have starter pedigrees and can provide length in relief, though Walker is set to start the season in the rotation.

Lefty Tanner Banks was acquired from the White Sox at least year’s deadline. He has a five-pitch mix, rare for a reliever, and enjoyed a little velo uptick last season.

A name to watch that isn’t on the above list is Moisés Chace, a prospect who could be fast-tracked in relief and dominate with his mid-90s uphill fastball.

This bullpen looks quite a bit different than it did 12 months ago. Newly minted $72-million closer, Tanner Scott, has been baseball’s most valuable reliever by WAR the last two seasons combined, at a whopping 4.5 WAR across 150 innings. Not only did the Dodgers add him, but they took him away from division rival San Diego, who traded prospects to acquire him at last year’s deadline.

The Dodgers also brought in Kirby Yates, another former Padre, who has been one of baseball’s best relievers for the past decade. He ranks in the top 20 in most major stat categories among relievers with at least 400 IP since he debuted in 2014, and he is fifth in K/9. That decade-long K/9 leaderboard goes: Aroldis Chapman, Josh Hader, Edwin Díaz, Craig Kimbrel, then Yates. Last season, he had his best year since before the pandemic and he looks great again this spring.

Another new-ish face is that of Michael Kopech, the former top prospect who enjoyed a three-tick velocity spike last year when the White Sox moved him to the bullpen. He was acquired as part of a massive deadline deal and worked late innings for the Dodgers during their World Series run as others dealt with injury. Now it’s Kopech’s turn, as he continues to deal with forearm inflammation that cropped up late last year; he will start the season on the IL.

Also starting the season on the injured list are Evan Phillips (PRP injection for a rotator cuff injury) and rocket-armed 22-year-old, Edgardo Henriquez (injured foot).

The rest of the fellas here have been Dodgers for a while. Blake Treinen, once non-tendered by the A’s, has one of the best sliders in baseball and has posted a sub-2.00 ERA each of the last three years. Alex Vesia, acquired along with Kyle Hurt from Miami for two years of Dylan Floro, begins his fifth year with the Dodgers as the club’s top lefty. He’s joined by Anthony Banda, who became a fastball/slider guy with LA after spending most of his career as a changeup purveyor. There’s a ton of viable depth in Los Angeles’ upper minors, as their dev machine tends to crank out plenty of guys with mid-90s fastballs and one good secondary pitch.

The headline here is that The Airbender is now in pinstripes, as Devin Williams and his elite, screwball-style changeup were acquired over the winter from Milwaukee. He backs up the cambio with a 93-95 mph fastball and a cutter. Of the relievers who have thrown at least 80 innings combined the last two seasons, Williams in second in the bigs in K/9 IP behind only Aroldis Chapman, at a whopping 14.00.

Third on that list is Fernando Cruz, who in December was acquired from the Reds in exchange for the recently extended Jose Trevino. Cruz has an absurd splitter that generated a 60% miss rate against big league hitters last year.

There are several other righties in this bullpen who have a great offspeed pitch that helps them toast lefties. Luke Weaver was a vulnerable backend starter for parts of eight big league seasons before he moved to the bullpen in 2024 and thrived. He enjoyed a nearly two-tick velo spike in short relief and was able to lean more consistently on his excellent changeup. His fastball velo hasn’t yet been in the same band as last year; it’s down three ticks compared to 2024 as I write this. It’s more something to watch as the season begins rather than an immediate concern.

2024 deadline acquisition Mark Leiter Jr. has a great changeup and has experience as a long reliever, but he hasn’t been used that way in two seasons. Ian Hamilton has the best slider in this bullpen by a mile and looks like a good team’s third-best reliever when he’s healthy, which he’s currently not.

The rash of injuries to the Yankees rotation might have a slight impact on this group, as former Twins lefty Brent Headrick (he’s had a velo spike this spring and has been more comfortably in the low-to-mid-90s) and the optionless Yoendrys Gómez were both minor league starters last year who might need to be stretched out again if it comes to that. You could argue Ryan Yarbrough, who worked just shy of 100 innings last year and was signed this morning, is a candidate for a version of this as well.

If Yarbrough remains purely in relief, then he and Tim Hill are the soft-tossing, lefty relief contingent on the big league roster, with Headrick stashed at Scranton to open the season.

The one name not listed here for Yankees fans to know is Eric Reyzelman. I’ve got more on his unique path to the majors in his writeup for this year’s Yankees list. In short, his prospect story begins with him having a D-I offer before he made his varsity high school team and ends with him developing two plus secondary pitches within just a couple of months after joining the Yankees org. He and Clayton Beeter (currently on the shelf with a shoulder issues) are two rookies who could end up working big innings late in the year.

Last season, the Braves’ curveball-heavy bullpen (as a group, they threw the highest percentage of curveballs in baseball) was second in K/9 and BB/9, and first in xFIP across the league.

We’re officially in “Ageless Wonder” territory with Iglesias, who posted a career-best 1.95 ERA in 2024, and has had a sub-3.00 ERA in eight of the nine years in which he’s been a full-time reliever. He also posted his highest average fastball velocity since joining the Braves at an impressive 95.7 mph. Each of Iglesias’ secondary pitches — an upper-80s changeup and a mid-80s slider — generated a plus-plus swinging strike rate in 2024. Why then was Iglesias’ K/9 a career-low 8.83? He was more often working with his sinker last year, changing arm angles and inducing weak contact more than working like a power pitcher.

Pierce Johnson pitched in Japan in 2019 and came back to the U.S. the following season throwing three ticks harder, and more often pitching off of his excellent curveball. The latter adjustment has become more and more a part of Johnson’s approach, and he threw his breaking ball 72% of the time in 2024.

The incumbent lefties in the bullpen are Aaron Bummer and Dylan Lee. Acquired in a trade with Chicago in November 2023, Bummer is a groundball machine who, since he debuted in 2017, ranks second among relievers (300 IP minimum) in groundball rate (65%) behind only Clay Holmes. Lee is a very consistent strike-throwing lefty with a great slider, which he manipulates in shape and speed across a nearly 10-mph velocity band. Similar to Johnson, Lee has thrown more and more of his slider lately, to the point where it is comfortably his most-used pitch.

Two veteran NRI arms have made the club: pot-stirring splitter merchant Hector Neris and the deceptively young Enyel De Los Santos, who turned 29 in December. Neris appears to be more of a speculative addition, as his fastball is currently three ticks slower than it was last year. That’s not the case with De Los Santos, who was ripping 96-98 mph fastballs past the Phillies last week. On his eighth major league org already, De Los Santos might be the breakout guy in this bullpen. If he’s not, then it’s possible the recently acquired José Suarez can be. After struggling to root himself into a rotation spot in 2021-22, the former Top 100 prospect has mostly pitched out of the Angels’ bullpen (when he’s been healthy) for the last couple of years. Acquired over the weekend in exchange for Ian Anderon, he goes from an org that has a not-so-great dev track record to a club that does.

Craig Kimbrel, who has the eighth highest K% among relievers this century (!), is back where his career began. It’s typical for your lower-leverage middle innings to be staffed by guys who sit about 95 and have a good slider, and you know you bullpen is good when the pitcher playing that role throws 97-98. Such is the case for Daysbel Hernández, whose effectiveness can wane at times due to his lack of control.

This was the best bullpen in the game last year, and it wasn’t close. As a group, the Guardians ‘pen led baseball in opponent batting average (.200), WHIP (1.05), LOB% (78.5%), ERA (2.75), and FIP (3.30), and in a lot of those categories, no other bullpen was within spitting distance.

Emmanuel Clase is one of the nastiest relievers in baseball. In 2024, he posted an 0.61 ERA and his fourth straight season with a walk rate below 6%. Clase doesn’t strike hitters out at an elite rate, but his stuff is almost impossible to square up. Opponents hit .150/.196/.209 against his 100-mph cutter in 2024.

As a rookie last season, Cade Smith (once an undrafted free agent) was the most valuable reliever in baseball by WAR, one of three Guardians in the top 16. He worked 75.1 innings (11th most among big league relievers) and K’d 12.3 per 9 innings (13th), and his fastball lapped the field from a run value standpoint at 23.4 runs prevented above average; the next best relief fastball was at 15.4 runs. Smith was hurt a lot as a prospect but has worked at least 60 innings each of the last three years, and will be a premium late-inning option if he continues to stay healthy.

That other top 20 WAR reliever here was Hunter Gaddis, a former fifth rounder out of Georgia State; Cleveland really does get them from all over the place. Gaddis’ best pitch as a prospect was his changeup, but he’s thrown more and more sliders over the last two years, to the point where it’s now his most-used pitch overall. Like Clase’s cutter, it doesn’t generate elite swing-and-miss, but hitters can’t seem to do much with it, hitting just .163 against it last year.

Recall that just a couple seasons ago, it was Trevor Stephan who was this bullpen’s non-ninth inning fireman and arguably the most valuable guy in the unit even though he wasn’t the closer. He’s retuning from TJ and threw a bullpen earlier this month. Tim Herrin is a lefty breaking ball maestro who accentuated his curveball usage in 2024. Young righty Andrew Walters has a dominant riding fastball with big vertical ride, and his stuff has been polished after he left the University of Miami fairly under-developed. Paul Sewald, in on a one-year, $6 million deal, is sitting 90 mph so far this spring, but locating his slider.

Here we continue our run of bullpens with a singular talent waiting as the final boss at the end of the game. This time, it’s Edwin Díaz. Will we see the 2022 version of him again? That was one of the best relief seasons of all time, during which Díaz K’d nearly two batters per inning. Freshly back from a patellar tendon tear suffered while celebrating a Team Puerto Rico win in the 2023 WBC, Díaz carried a 3.02 FIP and struck out 84 batters in 53.2 innings in 2024. Elite stuff from a uniquely low release makes Díaz unhittable when he’s locating.

Once Detroit’s Rule 5 Draft pick, Reed Garrett spent two seasons in Japan and then a couple with the clubs on either end of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway before landing with the Mets last year. He rode a new cutter and a great splitter to a career season, doubling his big league innings total while setting career marks in most relevant statistical categories. I think he’s the odds-on favorite to be the setup man here.

There are questions behind him. Former Brave A.J. Minter is a new Met with a two-year, $22 million deal. He posted a career-low K/9 and fastball velocity in 2024, but he was dealing with hip pain and discomfort that eventually necessitated surgery. He’s more often working off his cutter now, which he manipulates the shape of. Further context on Minter’s contract; Blake Treinen’s original deal with the Dodgers (when he had been a good A’s reliever recently beset by injury) was for 1-year, $10 million.

If Minter struggles to recapture his peak form, it’ll mean more pressure on fellow lefty Danny Young, who is out of central casting for the “second lefty” archetype, with a great slider and a below-average fastball.

José Buttó transitioned from starer to long reliever to single-inning reliever throughout the 2024 season, and his velocity climbed a tick and a half along the way. He sat 95-96 for the final two months of the year. He’s also moved further and further away from his changeup, and instead has been mixing in two breaking balls, a trend which has continued this spring.

Max Kranick graduated from rookie status in 2021, but injuries and diminished stuff (sometimes he was sitting 90-93 mph) have limited him to five big league innings since then. His stuff is way, way up again this spring, as he’s been averaging 96 mph in Grapefruit League outings. He may be this bullpen’s X-factor.

This bullpen led baseball in K/9 last year and was the only group to strike out 10 per 9 IP. It was, however, also the third-most walk-prone bullpen in the game. Ryne Stanek brings more of that. The big, long-locked righty has three above-average or better pitches (his splitter is one of the best in baseball) but an 11.8% career walk rate.

The Sox appear to have exchanged one future Hall of Fame closer for another, as Kenley Jansen moved on to Anaheim and has been replaced Aroldis Chapman. Chapman is second only to Jansen in reliever WAR since he debuted in 2010. Though his fastball velocity slipped to a career-low 97.9 mph last year, Chapman was still able to strike out an incredible 37% of opposing hitters and carry a 3.05 FIP even though his walk rate was nearly 15%. He looks great again this spring and has been parked in the 97-100 mph range. His pitch usage will be a thing to watch this year, as Chapman threw many more sinkers and splitters in 2024 than in 2023. At age 37, he has the highest K/9 projection in this entire ranking.

Hendriks epitomizes the “generic backend starter becomes elite reliever” career arc. He transitioned to relief in 2015 and spent the better part of the next seven or eight years as one of the best relievers in baseball. In 2023, Hendriks underwent treatment for Stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma and returned briefly before his elbow blew out, which cost him all of 2024. He’s back and working with slightly diminished fastball velocity, but he still has a great breaking ball. His story of perseverance is incredible and he’s going to be a key part of this bullpen, with his role dictated by whether or not his peak velo returns.

Look at these Red Sox Rule 5 Draft selections. Justin Slaten (plucked from Texas) was arguably Boston’s best reliever last year, as he not only struck out a batter per inning and walked a measly 4%, but also topped the group in groundball rate at a stellar 50%. Whitlock (once a Rule 5 pick from the Yankees) has dealt with several different injuries the last couple of years, the most recent of which required internal brace-style Tommy John surgery. He had surgery in late May and is already back.

Greg Weissert led this bullpen in innings in 2024 and is a standard sinker/slider middle reliever. Brennan Bernardino and Justin Wilson are left-handed versions. Bernardino is the incumbent while Wilson, who has spent the better part of the last couple seasons recovering from elbow and lat injuries, is the new face.

Boston ends what the projections view as the “Tier 2” clubs, which are all within a half win of one another behind the Twins. There’s nearly a half-win gap between the Red Sox projection and the…

The recipient of a new five-year extension (with club options running until Phoenix will be uninhabitably hot), Justin Martinez has a shot to mature into a 1-of-1 late-inning reliever if he hasn’t already, as his turbo sinker will peak in the 102-103 mph range. That happened pretty fast, as he was walking a little more than a batter per inning just a couple of years ago. If he has actually progressed into being a 10-12% walk rate guy, then you can make an argument that Martinez is the best reliever in the NL West. In addition to sitting 100, Martinez’s slider and splitter both generated plus-plus swinging strike rates last year.

Arizona’s bullpen has been a bottom five to 10 unit for most of the last three seasons, and at two straight deadlines they have made fairly aggressive trades to support the back of it. Last year, they added A.J. Puk from Miami in exchange for power-hitting prospects Andrew Pintar and Deyvison De Los Santos. Puk has been the 10th-most valuable reliever in baseball by WAR the last two seasons combined, and is fourth among lefties. The D-backs had him throwing more four-seamers last summer after they acquired him, and Puk’s slider had more depth, generating a career-best swinging strike rate.

University of Arizona alum Kevin Ginkel enters his seventh big league season with the Snakes coming off a career-best year as a strike-thrower. The Gink walked just 5.2% of opposing hitters last season; his previous career best was 8.9%. He sits 96 and has a plus-plus gyro-style slider.

With soft-tossers Ryan Thompson and Joe Mantiply capable of providing pretty low-leverage innings, Arizona’s bullpen is going to need a young arm to take a step forward for this unit to finish top 10 across the league. Due to the team’s starting pitching depth, that has meant shifting former starter Ryne Nelson into the bullpen. There have been times during Nelson’s career when he pumping 94-97 past guys, but he has not been able to sustain that as a starter and he’s been sitting below that this spring. He’s a high-variance element of this group right now, as he needs that extra gear of velocity to be effective. If his stuff doesn’t tick up in relief, it’s possible either Yilber Diaz or Drey Jameson (who is touching triple digits again after coming out of TJ rehab) could provide instant, high-leverage impact in this bullpen, which looks primed to level up in the playoffs because of a couple of role shifts like this.

Brewers relievers have big shoes to fill now that the team has traded Devin Williams to the Yankees. He led a group that had the second-lowest bullpen ERA in baseball last year, and the third-lowest opponent batting average and WHIP. First in line is Trevor Megill, who, when healthy, was Milwaukee’s setup man during the Airbender Era. He sits 99 and has a vicious knuckle curveball.

How the dominoes fall after Megill is less certain. Jared Koenig has added six ticks to his fastball since leaving the A’s org, and last year got his first taste of big league ball since 2022. His sinker touches 99, he limits contact quality with his cutter, and he leans on his curveball when he needs a whiff. If he can sustain last year’s stuff again, he’s the favorite to be the set-up man.

Nick Mears (who will begin the season on the IL with an illness) and Abner Uribe have the stuff to play a late-inning role if they can become more consistent. Uribe is still a tad immature on the mound and can spiral when a thing or two doesn’t fall his way, but he’ll rip 100-mph fastballs and plus-plus 89-mph curveballs by good big league hitters. Mears, who sits 97 and has two good breaking balls, had an ERA approaching 6.00 last season, but his peripherals (29.3% K%, 9.4% BB%) were much better than that, including a career-best walk rate.

On the other end of the consistency spectrum is Joel Payamps, who was deployed as a starter with Colorado and Arizona for the first nine years of his pro career before he was moved into the bullpen in 2020. After stints with Toronto, Kansas City and Oakland after that, he finally found an extra gear with Milwaukee in 2023 by shifting to a lower arm slot. He has a career 7% walk rate and is a rock solid third option here.

The lefty situation here will probably evolve throughout the season. Rule 5 Draft selection Connor Thomas, a strike-throwing swingman type of prospect, has made the team, but when D.L. Hall comes off the IL, Hall (and his superior stuff) might usurp him on the big league roster. The 6-foot-8 Bryan Hudson is the lower-leverage southpaw here.

Prospect-wise, the oft-injured Craig Yoho is very likely to play a key role in this bullpen at some point. His plus changeup and slider diverge in opposite directions and both of them move a ton, but his has middling arm strength and below-average control.

Last year’s Rangers bullpen struggled with walks (10.7%, fourth-worst in baseball), so adding Chris Martin, who has the lowest walk rate among all relievers (minimum 300 innings) since he debuted in 2014, including a 1.7% rate (seriously) last year, makes sense. He lacks overt closer stuff, but he’ll be a stabilizing force at the back of this bullpen.

Robert Garcia had a breakout 2024 with Washington and was traded to Texas for Nathaniel Lowe during the offseason. He K’d 11/9 IP last year and had a 2.38 FIP. Again, Garcia doesn’t have dominant, closer-quality stuff, but each of his pitches has gotten a little better each year as he’s entered his late 20s, and he throws a ton of strikes.

Marc Church has more prototypical late-inning stuff, and I have a setup man grade on the rookie, who briefly debuted last year. Church will bump 101 (though his heater plays down due to its plane and lack of movement), and he has a late-moving, upper-80s slider. He showed a good changeup during last year’s Arizona Fall League, too, but that pitch has tended to be less present in his repertoire. Church and Emiliano Teodo (who has been up to 102 in the past, was more sitting 96 during Texas’ Spring Breakout game) are two youngsters with the talent to end the season at the back of the bullpen.

Veterans Jacob Webb (fastball, slider, changeup) and Shawn Armstrong (four-seamer, cutter, sinker) are reliable strike-throwers with average stuff, while Hoby Milner is a classic low-slot lefty journeyman.

Hader leads relievers in WAR since he debuted in 2017, with a 2-WAR output in each of his full seasons from 2018 through 2021. Hader’s 2024 was the first of his five-year, $95 million deal with Houston. He worked 71 innings, and posted a 3.80 ERA, 37.8% K%, and 9% BB% in his fourth-straight 30-save season. His 96 mph two-seamer has big ride and uphill angle, and his slider generated an extra-planetary 32% swinging strike rate last season. It’s been one of the best pitches in baseball since he debuted.

Another guy whose breaking ball has an argument to be an 80-grade pitch is Bryan Abreu. Classified as a “slider,” its shape is often more like a curveball, and as Abreu’s career has progressed, he’s leaned more on this pitch to get strike one. He’s a fitting setup man whose early-career wildness seems to be behind him.

Several of the meaty middle inning guys have undergone substantial mid-career changes to their stuff. Last year, Tayler Scott transitioned from a slider-heavy approach to one that featured four-seamers and splitters. He became a platoon-neutral reliever after he was pounded by righties in prior years. Bryan King, once a minor league Rule 5 pick from the Cubs, changed his approach with his fastball and now has a power-pitcher’s style that allows him to miss bats with his 92-mph fastball above the zone. Kaleb Ort’s placement on the rubber and his arm slot changed throughout 2023 with Boston, then again with Houston last year. He’s now working from the extreme third base side and with a vertical arm slot, a far cry from his early 2023 look. It’s helped his fastball play like a plus pitch. He’ll start the season on the IL with an oblique strain.

Former top prospect Forrest Whitley finally made his big league debut last year and, as a fastball/curveball reliever, will hopefully graduate from rookie status in 2025, nine years after he was drafted. He’ll start the season on the IL with a knee contusion.

The Royals have a contending team’s backend here, with new addition Carlos Estévez signing a two-year, $22 million deal coming off a career-best ERA (2.45) and walk rate (5.7%) in 2024, and two years removed from a career-high strikeout rate (27.8%). He has an upper-90s heater and an upper-80s slider, a pretty standard late-inning mix.

He usurps incumbent closer Lucas Erceg, a two-way college player who was briefly a Top 100 prospect as a hitter in Milwaukee’s system. He moved to the mound in 2021 and was eventually traded to the Athletics for cash in 2023, then to the Royals for a prospect package headlined by Mason Barnett in 2024. Erceg has three pitches, each of which took a step forward from a bat-missing standpoint in 2024. He’ll mix four- and two-seamers in the 96-100 mph range, and both his slider and changeup generated lots of whiffs in 2024.

Veteran Hunter Harvey is the other Royal with prototypical late-inning stuff. After he was injured so often as a prospect that he became the record holder for consecutive appearances on a prospect list, Harvey has been relatively healthy for the last two years, though his 2024 ended due to mid-back tightness. When healthy, he sits 98, has a great splitter, and will occasionally mix in a slider (against righties) and curveball (versus either handedness). The Royals bullpen had the second-lowest strikeout rate in baseball at the trade deadline, but after they acquired Erceg and Harvey, they were middle of the pack the rest of the year.

After those three, the Royals have several average-or-better middle relief types, most of whom are very consistent strike-throwing performers. Lefty Angel Zerpa stared leaning into his sinker in 2024, a pitch that averaged 96.5 mph and generated a 75% groundball rate. He’s back in the 95-98 mph range this spring, but he lacks an impact secondary pitch.

John Schreiber throws strikes with a sinker, four-seamer, sweeper, and cutter. Chris Stratton (who led this bullpen in innings last season) had a rough 2024, especially from a strike-throwing standpoint, after he had been remarkably consistent since moving to the ‘pen in 2019. Sam Long is a typical second lefty with a good slider and slightly below-average fastball.

Andrés Muñoz’s stuff slipped a little bit last year, especially his slider, and was more above-average to plus rather than elite. He’s been throwing changeups this spring (some of them are quite nasty) and may have learned a new trick as a way of adjusting to his semi-slipping velocity (his fastball has dipped nearly two ticks across the last two seasons).

I had a pretty standard middle relief grade on Snider when he was a Royals prospect and he performed as such in their org. Then the Mariners tweaked his fastball (from a sinker to a four-seamer), greatly improving the performance of that pitch.

High-upside arms returning from injury are going to play an immensely important role in this bullpen’s quality, especially later in the season. Gregory Santos was once a Top 100 prospect who was traded after one good relief season with the White Sox. He missed most of last season with lat and biceps injuries. When he’s right, he’s an upper-90s backend guy with a plus slider. The same is true for Matt Brash, who was among baseball’s best relievers in 2023 and then missed all of 2024 recovering from Tommy John. He’s thrown live BP this spring and should be back fairly early in the season.

Trent Thornton is coming off a career-best relief season since he moved to the bullpen in 2021. His fastball velocity was comfortably the best of his career (he averaged 95-96, up nearly two ticks) and he was once again working with his entire starter-era repertoire of pitches.

Taylor “Big Sauce” Saucedo is the bullpen’s lefty specialist. He made 53 appearances last year but only worked 38.2 innings. If the 2023 version of Gabe Speier can return, then he’ll be the top southpaw here. He lost two ticks off his heater during an injury-riddled 2024.