Fantasy Baseball Dynasty Rankings: Top 30 relief pitchers

Relief pitching is inherently volatile, which makes it a terrible investment in Dynasty leagues.

Why even bother, right?

Relief pitcher — particularly in leagues that emphasize saves above all else — is so outrageously volatile that any amount of long-term planning there is a fool's errand. If you think paying for saves in a re-draft league is a bad idea, just imagine giving up long-term assets for them in Dynasty.

I think the individual scores here reflect it. Not a single relief pitcher has a confidence rating higher than 2, even though the scale is 1-5. In fact, no one scores a five in any category, underscoring how low-impact the position is.

(Note that I'm only assessing true relievers here and not starting pitchers with relief pitcher eligibility since we obviously can't count on them retaining that eligibility year after year.)

What do I mean by scoring a five? Well, here are the three factors I weigh most heavily when putting together these rankings:

1. Present value: What a player is expected to be in 2020
   
2. Future value: What his peak looks like and how much peak he has left
   
3. Confidence rating: How confident I am in him meeting his immediate and long-term value
   

Each factor is measured on a 1-to-5 score, with five being the best, and a player's ranking is primarily determined by adding the scores. Ties typically go to the younger player, but personal preference plays a role as well. The distinctions become less evident further down the list, so at some point subjectivity has to reign.

Top 30 dynasty relief pitchers

Rank	Player	Age (on 7/1)	Present	Future	Confidence
1	Josh Hader MIL RP	26	4	4	2
2	Roberto Osuna HOU RP	25	3	4	2
3	Kirby Yates SD RP	33	4	2	2
4	Aroldis Chapman NYY RP	32	4	2	2
5	Brad Hand CLE RP	30	4	3	1
6	Edwin Diaz NYM RP	26	3	4	1
7	Ken Giles TOR RP	29	3	3	2
8	Liam Hendriks OAK RP	31	4	2	1
9	Taylor Rogers MIN RP	29	3	3	1
10	Nick Anderson TB RP	29	3	3	1
11	Giovanny Gallegos STL RP	28	3	3	1
12	Kenley Jansen LAD RP	32	3	2	2
13	Craig Kimbrel CHC RP	32	3	2	2
14	Hector Neris PHI RP	31	3	2	2
15	Raisel Iglesias CIN RP	30	3	2	2
16	Jose Leclerc TEX RP	26	2	3	1
17	Keone Kela PIT RP	27	2	3	1
18	Joe Jimenez DET RP	25	2	3	1
19	Brandon Workman BOS RP	31	3	2	1
20	Hansel Robles LAA RP	29	3	2	1
21	Alex Colome CHW RP	31	3	2	1
22	Corey Knebel MIL RP	28	2	3	1
23	Hunter Harvey BAL RP	25	2	3	1
24	Sean Doolittle WAS RP	33	2	2	1
25	Archie Bradley ARI RP	27	2	2	1
26	Scott Oberg COL RP	30	2	2	1
27	Jordan Hicks STL RP	23	1	3	1
28	James Karinchak CLE RP	24	1	3	1
29	Will Smith ATL RP	30	2	2	1
30	Seth Lugo NYM RP	30	2	2	1

Dynasty Rankings: SP | RP | OF | SS | 1B | 3B | 2B | C