This year, I'll be participating in Tout Wars for the first time. A thank you to my colleague, Jeff Erickson, and others for the invite!
The league I'll be joining is 15-team mixed and includes a couple non-traditional categories, subbing in Innings Pitched for Wins and Saves + Holds for Saves. While they still lag well behind those that feature the standard 5x5 Roto categories, Saves + Holds leagues have grown in popularity in recent years. With that in mind, I thought it might be useful to highlight some relief pitchers who receive a major boost in value in SV+H formats.
Matt Brash, Seattle Mariners 
Brash has one of the best pitches in baseball, a slider which has been a Pitching Ninja staple and which last year registered a 48.5 percent whiff rate, .205 xwOBA and a Run Value of 15, per Baseball Savant. He throws it a lot, too, with its 50.5 percent usage rate easily outdistancing his fastball (33.7 percent). Brash's fastball came in at 98.1 mph on average in 2023 but was surprisingly hittable, as the opposition had a .346 average and .481 slugging percentage against the pitch. A .270 xBA and .399 xSLG suggest he was a bit unlucky there, though, and his 26.3 percent whiff rate was terrific for a four-seamer. Brash also gets a good number of groundballs at 46.1 percent last year and 48.4 percent for his career, according to FanGraphs. His control can get him into trouble at times, but the
This year, I'll be participating in Tout Wars for the first time. A thank you to my colleague, Jeff Erickson, and others for the invite!
The league I'll be joining is 15-team mixed and includes a couple non-traditional categories, subbing in Innings Pitched for Wins and Saves + Holds for Saves. While they still lag well behind those that feature the standard 5x5 Roto categories, Saves + Holds leagues have grown in popularity in recent years. With that in mind, I thought it might be useful to highlight some relief pitchers who receive a major boost in value in SV+H formats.
Matt Brash, Seattle Mariners
Brash has one of the best pitches in baseball, a slider which has been a Pitching Ninja staple and which last year registered a 48.5 percent whiff rate, .205 xwOBA and a Run Value of 15, per Baseball Savant. He throws it a lot, too, with its 50.5 percent usage rate easily outdistancing his fastball (33.7 percent). Brash's fastball came in at 98.1 mph on average in 2023 but was surprisingly hittable, as the opposition had a .346 average and .481 slugging percentage against the pitch. A .270 xBA and .399 xSLG suggest he was a bit unlucky there, though, and his 26.3 percent whiff rate was terrific for a four-seamer. Brash also gets a good number of groundballs at 46.1 percent last year and 48.4 percent for his career, according to FanGraphs. His control can get him into trouble at times, but the 9.4 percent walk rate Brash had in 2023 was plenty good enough for a guy with his swing-and-miss ability. I actually really like Brash as a target in traditional categories leagues, as well, because while Andres Munoz is fantastic, he's a health risk and Mariners manager Scott Servais is not a guy who abides by old-school bullpen roles. In a SV+H format, you could make an argument that Brash should be one of the first handful of relievers off the board.
A.J. Minter, Atlanta Braves 
Minter missed a few weeks of action around midseason last year with a shoulder issue, but he returned to post a 1.85 ERA and 32:11 K:BB across 24.1 frames the rest of the way to ease injury concerns. The left-hander finished the season with an elevated 3.76 ERA but a much better 3.30 xERA, along with an excellent 82:21 K:BB across 64.2 innings of work. Minter has been one of the best relievers in baseball since 2020, collecting a 2.89 ERA, 30.7 percent strikeout rate and 7.8 percent walk rate. Braves manager Brian Snitker uses him a lot, as Minter has averaged 68 appearances per 162 team games during that stretch. Since the start of the 2022 season, the 30-year-old leads all National League relievers with 55 holds, and he's also picked up 15 saves during that time. Minter is certainly not going to sneak up on anyone in a SV+H league, but his usage on an elite Atlanta club should make him worth the investment.
Bryan Abreu, Houston Astros 
The Astros' signing of Josh Hader might have closed off Abreu's potential path to saves, but he retains elite potential in this format. Abreu was one of five relievers to reach 100 strikeouts last season, recording an even 100 to go along with 31 walks over 72 innings. He has also notched a sub-2.00 ERA two seasons in a row, coming in with a microscopic 1.75 mark in 2023. Abreu boasts arguably the nastiest two-pitch mix of any reliever in baseball. His slider registered a 41.3 percent whiff rate, a .280 xwOBA and a Run Value of 15 last season. His four-seamer wasn't far behind with a 37.3 percent whiff rate, .277 xwOBA and Run Value of 5. Abreu's 10.7 percent walk rate since the start of 2022 is high, but it hardly seems egregious when it comes with a 35.1 percent strikeout rate. The 26-year-old could be an elite closer if given the opportunity, but Abreu should be awesome in SV+H leagues even if he's pitching the seventh inning.
Kevin Ginkel, Arizona Diamondbacks 
Ginkel exploded onto the national scene with a phenomenal showing during the Diamondbacks' run to the NL pennant, tossing 11.2 scoreless innings with 15 strikeouts over 10 postseason appearances. It was the exclamation point following a superb regular season which saw the right-hander hold a 2.48 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 70:23 K:BB across 65.1 frames. Ginkel's slider is easily his best pitch, with the offering garnering a 40.4 percent whiff rate and microscopic .190 xwOBA. He also produced groundballs at a 50.3 percent rate in 2023. Ginkel's 27.5 percent strikeout rate, while good, doesn't stack up with some of the others in this space. However, his 9.0 percent walk rate is good for a high-leverage reliever, he keeps the ball on the ground and he handles both right- and left-handed batters. Ginkel only accrued 12 combined saves and holds last season, but 11 of them came in the second half as he saw more and more late-inning work.
Hector Neris, Chicago Cubs 
Neris' 56 holds since the beginning of the 2022 campaign are the most in baseball and by far the most in the American League. The veteran reliever is headed back to the NL in 2024 after inking a one-year, $9 million contract with the Cubs. Neris is slated for setup duty ahead of closer Adbert Alzolay, but given Alzolay's checkered health history, it wouldn't surprise me if the former winds up leading the Cubs in saves. Neris' 3.33 xERA last season might be a closer representation of his performance than his actual 1.71 ERA, but even if he was a bit lucky, he was still awfully good. The 34-year-old's splitter is his bread and butter, a pitch which produced a 42.2 percent whiff rate and .214 xwOBA and plays well off his high-spin four-seamer. Neris is a flyball pitcher, which could create some problems on days the wind is blowing out at Wrigley Field, particularly if he can't get his 11.4 percent walk rate from 2023 down closer to his career 8.9 percent mark.
Orion Kerkering, Philadelphia Phillies 
Kerkering has easily the shortest resume of anyone on this list, but the 22-year-old is long on potential. He began the 2023 season at Low-A and off the prospect radar, but Kerkering made a rapid rise through four minor-league levels and eventually the big leagues. In 53.2 innings on the farm last year, the reliever collected a 1.51 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 79:12 K:BB. He pitched 8.1 frames for the Phillies between the regular and postseason and held a 3.24 ERA and 11:5 K:BB. Kerkering possesses a fastball that hums in the upper-90s and a sweeper that should be illegal in the continental 48 states. There's always the possibility that a young reliever proves to be not quite ready for the limelight, but I have a difficult time envisioning that for Kerkering, who has dominant stuff and who should receive high-leverage work from the jump.
