After a long, cold, frustratingly slow offseason, MLB’s regular season begins on Wednesday, March 20, with the Dodgers and Padres squaring off in Seoul (the 28 other teams will get things started on Thursday, March 28). With precious little time to go until Opening Day, now is the time to start cranking up your fantasy baseball drafts — and we’re here to be your one-stop shop for all things draft prep. We just recently unveiled our top 300 overall for redraft leagues in 2024, as well as top prospects to know, full positional previews and sleepers at every position.
Now, however, it’s time for something a little less fun: players to avoid at every position. Next up: relievers, consistently one of — if not the — trickiest position to draft. Partly because so much of what determines a valuable reliever — job security, trade market, etc — and partly because there’s just so much volatility in individual performance year-to-year. Everybody needs saves, but the hunt for them remains as perilous as ever, with landmines aplenty. Here’s who to avoid this season.
Fantasy baseball busts: Relief pitcher
Raisel Iglesias, Atlanta Braves
ADP: 82
Fading the unquestioned closer on quite possibly the best team in baseball? Hear me out first. Iglesias enjoyed a bounce-back 2023 season, but it wasn’t too long ago that we were wondering if he’d entered his decline — and there are still several indicators that back up that assessment. He just turned 34, and we know closers as a group don’t tend to age very well. He also saw his velocity, swinging strike rate and K rate head in the wrong direction. Add it all up, and you have a profile that could be about to implode — with plenty of talented teammates waiting to pick up the slack should he falter at all.
Alexis Diaz, Cincinnati Reds
ADP: 89
The rebuild has borne fruit, and now the Reds are well and truly expecting to contend in 2024. That puts a lot of pressure on Diaz, especially considering the help Cincinnati has brought into the bullpen over the winter. All of which shortens the righty’s leash considerably, which is a troubling thought considering his extreme fly-ball tendencies and extreme hitter’s park. Diaz’s slider is legit, but his fastball is mediocre, and it’s not hard to see a rash of poor homer luck — and a couple conspicuous blown saves — putting his job in jeopardy.
Tanner Scott, Miami Marlins
ADP: 134
Scott is coming off a breakout season in which he was one of the five best relievers in baseball, posting a 2.31 ERA (2.17 FIP) and 12 K/9. He now enters the spring as the favorite to man the ninth inning for a Marlins team that played a ton of close games last year and will likely do so again in 2024 (good pitching staff + mediocre offense is a pretty good formula for nail-biters). So why am I out here? Scott’s 2023 season was a major outlier in one very important area: command. Prior to last year, Scott’s had been truly dire, with a 5.8 BB/9 and a 14.2% walk rate. He shaved those numbers to 2.8 and 7.8%, respectively, last season. Maybe that holds, but I’m skeptical, and there are other candidates for saves in this relatively deep bullpen. Add in the fact that Scott is off to a dreadful start in spring training, and I’m out at this price.