Several American League Closer Roles Appear Up for Grabs in Latest Fantasy Baseball Update

After checking in on fantasy baseball closers in the National League, let's do the same in the American League.

Here's the last AL closer update.

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Yankees

Devin Williams and Luke Weaver are now tied for the team lead in saves with four each. Fernando Cruz has two saves, and Mark Leiter Jr. has one.

Weaver earned a save in his last appearance, and has worked the 8th-9th innings his last three outings. Williams has three straight scoreless appearances, and has worked the eighth or 10th innings.

Cruz worked the eighth inning in his last appearance, and tossed the sixth frame in the game before that. Leiter has been working the seventh or eighth innings of late.

Weaver looks like the preferred closer for now, but a lack of save opportunities is making him a better deep-league option for now. Williams is still the most rostered Yankee reliever, but that's probably because he was drafted so early this year.

This is a situation to watch daily, but I'd say Weaver is the top guy to own for now.

Red Sox

Aroldis Chapman has six saves for Boston. Justin Slaten has three.

Chapman took the loss in his last appearance, but has been working the ninth (or in extra innings) in every outing. Slaten has worked the eighth inning of late.

Chapman is the top fantasy arm in Boston, but he's just a deep-league asset until he can rack up some more saves. We'll see if he ever gets to that point this season.

Blue Jays

Jeff Hoffman has nine of the team's 14 saves. Yimi Garcia has three, while Chad Green and Nick Sandlin have one each.

Hoffman continues to work ninth innings, but after he blew a save and allowed five runs on May 13, his closer role isn't completely locked down.

Garcia earned a save on May 14, and has bounced back after allowing seven runs over appearances on May 3 and 6.

Green earned a save on May 8, then worked in the 7th-8th innings of his next appearance. Sandlin has been appearing between the 6th-8th innings of late.

It's tough to say who the preferred closer is in Toronto right now. You'll need to keep an eye on their game logs daily to get that answer, and we'll update you when we provide another closer report.

Rays

Pete Fairbanks has eight of the team's 12 saves. Eric Orze has two saves.

Fairbanks allowed two runs in his last appearance. He's allowed just three other earned runs on the season though, and there's no reason to think he's lost the closer role.

Orze has worked the 7th-8th innings of his two most recent appearances. He's enjoying a big season, so if Fairbanks ever struggles, he'd probably be the first in line to take over the closer role.

Orioles

Felix Bautista has all seven of the team's saves. He has just three appearances in May, earning two saves and then allowing a run in his last outing.

Bautista doesn't have a win or loss and owns a 2.25 earned run average on the season. The job is his, but he's not a great fantasy asset with Baltimore not winning much. That makes him a better deep-league asset, but he's still owned in 93% of leagues - hopefully more saves come soon for those of you still holding Bautista in standard leagues.

Mariners

Andres Munoz continues to dominate - he has 13 of the team's 14 saves on the season.

Across 19 appearances, Munoz is 1-0 with two blown saves and an unblemished ERA (he's allowed two unearned runs). He's the best fantasy reliever in the game, and even though that might not remain true all season, I'm a fan of keeping Munoz on my fantasy roster.

Rangers

Luke Jackson has eight of the team's 14 saves. Shawn Armstrong has two saves, and four other pitchers have one each.

Jackson is dealing with an arm injury and hasn't pitched since May 12. He'd almost exclusively been pitching in the ninth inning, so we'll see if his injury opens the closer role for someone else.

Armstrong has both of his saves over the past couple days. He looks like he's the preferred closer after Jackson. 

Jacob Webb earned a save on May 12, but hadn't been working late in games before that outing. 

This is a closer situation to watch closely, especially over the next couple days. Jackson has been the go-to guy all season, but maybe his injury will lead to an injured list stint, or Armstrong might simply pitch so well that he just assumes the role even when Jackson can pitch again.

Astros 

Josh Hader has 10 of the team's 11 saves. He's unscored upon in three straight appearances, and he has six punchouts over that span.

Hader is 1-0 and hasn't blown a save over 16 appearances this year. He has a 1.50 ERA.

Athletics

Mason Miller has 11 of the team's 13 saves. He's allowed six runs over his past three outings, so that's something to monitor.

He's 0-1 with a blown save over 15 appearances. Miller has a 4.70 ERA, but 30 punchouts over 15 1/3 innings to help offset some of the negative points from the runs allowed.

Angels

Kenley Jansen has seven of the team's nine saves this season. He's gotten a bit more work of late, but doesn't have a save since May 3.

Jansen is 0-2 with no blown saves over 13 outings. He's got a 6.55 ERA as well, so he's just a deep-league option at this point.

Tigers

Tommy Kahnle (5), Will Vest (4) and Brant Hurter (2) have the saves for the Tigers this season. 

Despite leading the team in saves, Kahnle hasn't pitched in the ninth inning since April 26, which was seven appearances ago. Vest has two wins and a save this month, while working in the ninth inning or later in all five appearances. Hurter hasn't worked in the ninth inning since his saves on March 31 and April 8.

The leader for save opportunities looks like Vest for the time being. Seeing as the three guys could earn saves, none of them are good standard league options. Kahnle is the most-owned fantasy pitcher of the three, but that's likely to change here soon.

Guardians

Emmanuel Clase has nine of the team's 14 saves. Cade Smith has three saves.

Smith has been working the 7th-8th innings of late. Clase has worked the ninth inning in seven straight games, going 1-0 with five saves and a 1.29 ERA over seven innings.

Clase has a firm grasp on the Cleveland closer role again, and he's starting to earn back some of the fantasy value he lost after a shaky start to the season.

Royals

Carlos Estevez has 12 of the 14 saves for Kansas City. He has three saves this month.

Across 19 appearances, Estevez has a 1-0 record, two blown saves and a 2.29 ERA. He's established himself as the team's go-to closer, and it'd take some serious struggles now for him to lose that role.

Twins

Jhoan Duran has eight of the team's 10 saves, with Danny Coulombe getting the other two.

Minnesota has been winning so much of late that Coulombe has had to spell Duran occasionally. Duran has a whopping six saves and a win across nine games and innings this month.

Duran hasn't allowed a run, while striking out 13 batters this month. He's emerged as one of the game's top fantasy relievers because of his team's hot stretch. Duran should be rostered in all leagues until further notice - now might also be a time to sell Duran high in a trade.

White Sox

Cam Booser and Mike Vasil have earned a save over the past week. Brandon Eisert has the team's other save this season.

That just threw a bigger wrench in what is a tough closer situation to predict. Chicago isn't good enough anyways to make any of those guys valuable in fantasy leagues.

No Chicago relievers should be owned outside the deepest of fantasy leagues out there.