Fantasy Baseball Bullpen Report: Camilo Doval gives Giants another option; Ryan Pressly tries to get right

Enjoying what was already a dominant season, Ryan Walker made a smooth transition to the closer role last August, positioning himself as a top-12 Fantasy reliever for 2025.

But methinks it’s all about to go poof.

I haven’t seen anything from manager Bob Melvin suggesting a change is coming, but it just stands to reason. Walker allowed multiple runs for the fourth time in eight games Sunday, his ERA inflating to 6.43, and this time, it cost the Giants the game. Maybe on another team with lesser closer alternatives, Walker would deserve a longer leash, but Camilo Doval is sitting right there. He’s a more highly decorated closer, has already spelled Walker for five saves this year, and is currently sporting a 1.45 ERA and 0.64 WHIP.

He’s why the Giants are one of the 10 closer scenarios most in flux right now.

Note: “Pecking order” refers to rosterability in Fantasy and not necessarily who’s first in line for saves (though it’s usually one and the same).

I have my theories for what’s wrong with Walker. He missed a couple games with back tightness early this year, remember, and may have had his mechanics thrown off. I’ve also noticed that his arm angle is up slightly this year — closer to where it was in 2023, when he wasn’t so dominant. His issue may well be correctable, but doesn’t it make sense at this point to have him work it out in a lower-leverage role? Again, Doval is right there. Since I’m only theorizing at this point, the pecking order remains the same, but the likelihood of a change (and of Doval’s effectiveness in that scenario) means both relievers need to be rostered in leagues where saves are scarce.

Things seemed to be going well enough for David Bednar. He had made five straight appearances to finish out a game, including twice for a save, and in two of those games, he was preceded by Dennis Santana, who had filled in as closer during his time in the minors. So everything was back to normal, right? Wrong! The Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton on Thursday, and new manager Don Kelly apparently sees the bullpen differently.

Santana worked the ninth inning in all three games over weekend, including once for a save, once with a one-run deficit, and once to preserve a tie. Those are all situations in which a team might deploy its closer, and even more telling is that Bednar worked the eighth innings in two of those games. As long as he’s pitching well, I still think Bednar’s history in the closer role will ultimately win out, but I’m nervous for him and would be giving Santana a second look in leagues where saves are scarce.

You may have noticed that Ryan Pressly had one of the worst relief appearances in history back on May 6, allowing nine runs, eight earned, without recording an out. You may have also noticed that his next appearance came in the sixth inning of a game Friday. So does that mean he’s out of the closer role? Not so fast. First, read what manager Craig Counsell had to say about the disastrous outing:

“He couldn’t finish hitters, essentially,” Counsell said. “It snowballed a little bit. But he’s given up one run in the last 10 outings. It has been pretty good.”

That’s a cheery way of looking at things. Next, read what pitching coach Tommy Hottovy had to say ahead of the sixth-inning appearance:

“There’s going to be opportunities where ‘Hey, if you haven’t thrown in a couple days, we need to get your work day in,'” Hottovy told The Athletic. “It might not be a high-leverage situation, but we need to get the reps, because he’s going to be better down the road by pitching more. We just gotta kind of figure out how to navigate that in a series.”

A big reason why the Cubs want to give Pressly more consistent work, according Hottovoy, is so he can work through the mechanical issues that have caused his swinging-strike rate to collapse. It currently sits at 6.4 percent or roughly half of what it was last year, which was already a steep decline from the year before. Hottovoy thinks it’s less a matter of diminished stuff than Pressly failing to hide the ball properly.

So it sounds like the Cubs are still willing to give Pressly save chances as he works through this issue, provided he’s actually getting to work. On those days when Pressly’s scheduled work doesn’t align with a save chance, Porter Hodge would likely get the call, but Hodge has had his own struggles. After recording a save Saturday, he served up three earned runs in just an inning of work Sunday, raising his ERA to 5.71. It’s why I think the Cubs will still try to make it work with Pressly.

Devin Williams has made five appearances since being removed from the closer role, and four of them were stellar, including the most recent one Wednesday in which he allowed no runs on no hits with one walk and three strikeouts. Unfortunately, he had to be removed from the previous outing after loading the bases with two outs. Luke Weaver then allowed all three inherited runners to score, hanging Williams with a crooked stat line.

Was it an act of sabotage by Weaver, who has assumed the closer role in Williams’ stead? OK, probably not, but the ugly outing came just when it seemed like Williams was poised to reclaim the role. In all, he has allowed just one hit in his five appearances since the demotion, his swinging-strike rate going from 9 percent before to 20 percent afterward. While it’s taken longer for him than it did for Emmanuel Clase, it still seems inevitable that Williams will return to closing, given his history in the role. Weaver is capable enough in the meantime, but I’d treat him like a short-term fill-in and consider Williams to be the real prize in Fantasy still.

Here we go again. Jordan Romano seemed to disqualify himself from closing as far back as the second week of the season, handing the job to Jose Alvarado outright. So why was Alvarado the one working the eighth with a three-run lead Sunday while Jordan Romano handled the ninth for his third save? Perhaps it was matchups-dependent. The Guardians had two lefties and a switch-hitter due up in the eighth (Nolan Jones, Angel Martinez and Steven Kwan). Of course, it meant that Romano was tasked with facing the harder part of the lineup in the ninth, including Jose Ramirez.

While Romano is still sporting an 8.79 ERA, he has delivered five consecutive scoreless outings, striking out five and walking none, which apparently was enough to convince manager Rob Thomson to revisit the original plan of a closing committee. For now, it’s just a one-day thing — and it wouldn’t take much for Romano to disqualify himself again — but Alvarado investors may want to look into alternative plans.

Since losing both Justin Martinez (shoulder inflammation) and A.J. Puk (elbow inflammation) to the IL, manager Torey Lovullo has yet to offer a clear vision for the ninth inning. He turned to Shelby Miller for the first couple save chances, but after Miller blew the second, Lovullo tried out Kevin Ginkel for the next one Thursday. Ginkel converted that one, albeit with a home run allowed, but then melted down spectacularly the following day for a blown save after Miller had worked a scoreless eighth.

So … back to Miller, then? That would be my presumption, but in any case, it’ll probably be short-lived. Martinez was already back to throwing off a mound Sunday after being shut down for only about a week, and the performance was “sizzling,” according to Lovullo. Provided Martinez doesn’t suffer a setback, he could be just days away from returning and would presumably reclaim the closer role right away.

When it comes to bullpen roles, no manager likes to obfuscate more than A.J. Hinch, but if you compare the usage of Will Vest and Tommy Kahnle in recent weeks, it’s pretty clear which direction he’s leaning. Since Vest’s three-run, five-hit meltdown April 29 in which he oddly entered the game in the sixth inning (thanks for that, A.J.), the right-hander has only been tasked with closing out games for the Tigers, including once for a save. In all, seven of his past eight appearances have been to close out a game, including four times for a save. You know how many games Tommy Kahnle has closed out during that time? Precisely one — and it was the second game of a doubleheader after Vest had already closed out the first.

The fact is that both relievers have proven capable of closing games this year, so I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Vest will always be Hinch’s choice for the ninth. But if you can only commit to one Tigers reliever, he would appear to be the better choice right now.

If A.J. Hinch is the manager most likely to keep us guessing, then Dave Roberts is the clear runner-up. Even with Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen being out of commission, the Dodgers‘ closer picture is as murky as ever. Tanner Scott handled six straight save chances in mid-to-late April, converting the first five, but then after blowing the sixth on April 22, Scott has only gotten one save chance since. Granted, he’s worked the ninth inning in a non-save chance several times, but he’s also appeared in the eighth inning three times, twice setting up someone else for a save.

One of those saves went to Kirby Yates, who’s the best of the right-handers still healthy. He might be the best regardless given his 15.6 K/9 this year. Even this month, though, he’s been reserved for the ninth inning less often than Scott, so I would say that the actual pecking order hasn’t changed. It’s just that Scott doesn’t have the role on lockdown like we once thought.

Save chances have been so scarce for the Marlins that it’s hard to get a read on what the actual roles are and easy to read into a trend of just two or three appearances. But what else can we do? There’s no clear-cut bullpen ace, so we can only look at the latest usage for manager Clayton McCullough. And the last two times he’s been faced with a situation where a closer might be used — those being the ninth and 10th innings of a tie game Tuesday and an honest-to-goodness save chance Saturday — he turned to Jesus Tinoco, who now leads the team with three saves.

Second is Calvin Faucher with two, and he was the favorite for saves coming into the season. But only once in his past five appearances has he worked the ninth inning. He worked the seventh inning in each of the aforementioned games where Tinoco was used like a closer.

Wait, has something happened to jeopardize Jhoan Duran’s role? No, I’m just here to confirm that it’s looking all the more certain after a recent eight-day stretch in which he recorded five saves. Why is that notable? Well, he didn’t notch his first save until April 15 and had just two for all of April. A big reason why is that four of his first six appearances came in the eighth inning, and he also pitched the seventh one time in April. All seven of his May appearances, though, have come in the ninth inning or later, including six to finish out the game. Griffin Jax remains the go-to for the eighth inning, but since he’s been a bit shaky in the early going, compiling a 5.79 ERA, manager Rocco Baldelli has been less inclined to mix things up lately.