jordan-romano.jpg

Tiers are an alternate form of rankings that concerns itself less with parsing individual players and more with denoting the biggest drop-offs. Players whose value is essentially the same are bundled together to help you prioritize which position to draft next. If the goal in a draft is to maximize the return of each pick, then a simple way to do so is to target a position that's nearing a drop-off and wait on a position that isn't. By crossing off names as you go, your path to victory should become clear.

Below are the relief pitcher tiers for 2024, with a particular emphasis on closers and their possible alternatives (where applicable). Things are looking up here, with more assurances to be found than at any time in recent memory. Most teams will have a clear front-runner for saves going into the season, and generally, those front-runners have come to be by merit rather than happenstance, which is why the top three tiers are so robust.

The Elite: Devin Williams, Josh Hader, Edwin Diaz
The Near-Elite: Emmanuel Clase, Camilo Doval, Jordan Romano, Raisel Iglesias, Jhoan Duran, David Bednar, Alexis Diaz, Paul Sewald
The Next-Best Things: Pete Fairbanks, Craig Kimbrel, Ryan Helsley, Andres Munoz, Tanner Scott, Evan Phillips
The Fallback Options: Kenley Jansen, Adbert Alzolay, Jose Alvarado, Clay Holmes, Jose Leclerc
The Last Resorts: Robert Stephenson, Mason Miller, Yuki Matsui, Alex Lange, Kyle Finnegan, Will Smith, Carlos Estevez, Justin Lawrence, John Brebbia
The Next-in-Line: Robert Suarez, Hector Neris, Bryan Abreu, Jason Adam, Matt Brash, Yennier Cano, Ryan Pressly, Brusdar Graterol, Hunter Harvey, David Robertson, Tyler Kinley