With the regular season in the rearview mirror, it's time for a look back. We've examined the position players, starting pitchers and relief pitchers who provided the most value relative to their draft slot. Over the last two weeks, we've looked at position players and starting pitchers who were drafted early but disappointed. This week, it's time to review the relief pitcher busts. I'll be using RotoWire's preseason ADP numbers and earned auction values.
Disclaimer: I will avoid listing the players that suffered catastrophic injuries. Obviously, Ronald Acuna and Spencer Strider were huge busts for fantasy purposes, and injury risk is something you weigh during draft season. However, there's little to dissect in terms of what went wrong for those guys.
Relief Pitchers
Edwin Diaz, 
New York Mets
ADP: 67.08, 2nd among relief pitchers
EAV: 18th among relief pitchers
Diaz was very good for most of the 2024 season following a missed 2023 campaign as a result of knee surgery. However, for the purposes of this exercise, I don't think he can be called anything other than a bust. After surrendering just one run and converting all four save chances in his first 10 appearances of the season, Diaz then allowed 11 runs across his next 10 outings, blew four saves in five opportunities, fell into a closer committee and then went on the injured list with a shoulder problem. He was mostly his usual, dominant self after returning, posting a 2.41 ERA and 54:13 K:BB over
With the regular season in the rearview mirror, it's time for a look back. We've examined the position players, starting pitchers and relief pitchers who provided the most value relative to their draft slot. Over the last two weeks, we've looked at position players and starting pitchers who were drafted early but disappointed. This week, it's time to review the relief pitcher busts. I'll be using RotoWire's preseason ADP numbers and earned auction values.
Disclaimer: I will avoid listing the players that suffered catastrophic injuries. Obviously, Ronald Acuna and Spencer Strider were huge busts for fantasy purposes, and injury risk is something you weigh during draft season. However, there's little to dissect in terms of what went wrong for those guys.
Relief Pitchers
Edwin Diaz, New York Mets
ADP: 67.08, 2nd among relief pitchers
EAV: 18th among relief pitchers
Diaz was very good for most of the 2024 season following a missed 2023 campaign as a result of knee surgery. However, for the purposes of this exercise, I don't think he can be called anything other than a bust. After surrendering just one run and converting all four save chances in his first 10 appearances of the season, Diaz then allowed 11 runs across his next 10 outings, blew four saves in five opportunities, fell into a closer committee and then went on the injured list with a shoulder problem. He was mostly his usual, dominant self after returning, posting a 2.41 ERA and 54:13 K:BB over 33.2 frames while notching 15 saves in 18 chances the rest of the way. All told, Diaz finished with a 3.52 ERA and 20 saves, which is not what you paid for on draft day. ERA indicators suggest he was much better than that 3.52 mark, though, and his 38.9 percent strikeout rate and 9.3 percent walk rate were right around his career marks. Diaz is prone to wildness at times and has had home run issues at times in his career, but he'll be drafted as an elite closer again in 2025.
Camilo Doval, 
San Francisco Giants
ADP: 86.06, 4th among relief pitchers
EAV: 60th among relief pitchers
Doval entered 2024 coming off a 39-save 2023 and boasting a 2.73 ERA, a 29.5 percent strikeout rate and a 54.7 percent ground ball rate over his first two full seasons as the Giants' closer. He was slated to turn just 27 around midseason and would be working the ninth inning for a club that was projected to be competitive. There was little reason to believe he would be anything but an upper echelon closer again in 2024 and he was drafted as such. Well, things didn't turn out that way. Doval posted a 2.78 ERA, struck out 29 in 22.2 innings and notched nine saves in 10 opportunities through the end of May. His 15 walks over that time were a red flag, however, and the doo doo eventually hit the fan. Doval held a 6.75 ERA and 1.83 WHIP with 14 walks over his next 21.1 frames, blowing four of 17 save chances along the way. He was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento at that point to get back on track and when he returned took a back seat to Ryan Walker at closer (he also had a 5.40 ERA and walked 10 over 15 innings covering his final 16 appearances). There are rumors that the Giants might trade Doval this offseason, and that might be best for his fantasy outlook in 2025, as it seems likely he'd enter spring training behind Walker in the Giants' bullpen hierarchy. Doval's slider still graded out as an elite pitch in 2024, his groundball rate was as high as ever and his velocity was fine. The command and control, however, were dreadful. Doval has to get the walks down to a digestible level in 2025, but I'll be buying back in if he finds himself in a favorable situation.
Alexis Diaz, 
Cincinnati Reds
ADP: 107.55, 5th among relief pitchers
EAV: 42nd among relief pitchers
Two Diaz brothers? In this economy? The younger Diaz sibling showed some warning signs in the second half of the 2023 season, posting a 4.61 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and 25:17 K:BB over 27.1 innings. He collected a 4.33 ERA and 1.48 WHIP in the first half this season but was still able to notch 19 saves. While Diaz produced a 2.25 ERA or lower in three of the final four months of the 2024 campaign, his K:BB over that time was an ugly 33:16 K:BB across 35 frames. The whiff rate on Diaz's slider dropped below 30 percent in 2024 after it hovered around the 40 percent mark over the previous two seasons. He also threw fewer sliders than he did in 2023 and for the second straight year his four-seamer earned a negative Run Value from Statcast. Frankly, it was a surprise that a guy who finished with a 22.7 percent strikeout rate and 12.8 percent walk rate managed to hold onto his closer job all season. Diaz might not be so lucky in 2025, especially with new skipper Terry Francona in charge. A flyball pitcher with major control issues at Great American Ball Park is scary.
David Bednar, 
Pittsburgh Pirates
ADP: 115.54, 8th among relief pitchers
EAV: 84th among relief pitchers
Bednar is the latest example of why you're almost always best off trading a reliever at peak value when you're a non-contender. The 30-year-old was one of the best relievers in baseball from 2021-23, posting a 2.25 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 226:56 K:BB over 179.2 innings. The Pirates were 88 games under .500 during that stretch, losing 100 games twice and never finishing closer than 16 games out of first place. In 2024, Bednar was a disaster, finishing with a 5.77 ERA, 1.42 WHIP and 58:28 K:BB across 57.2 frames, blowing seven of 30 save opportunities. He was particularly brutal during the second half with a 6.75 ERA and 25:21 K:BB, losing his closer job along the way. Bednar's velocity was fine this season and his Stuff+, per Fangraphs, was actually a career-best 128. The Location+, however, was a career-low 97. You'd rather the latter be an issue than the former, so Bednar might very well bounce back in 2025. Will manager Derek Shelton give him another crack at the ninth inning?
Jordan Romano, 
Toronto Blue Jays
ADP: 119.46, 9th among relief pitchers
EAV: 230th among relief pitchers
Maybe it's not fair to include Romano on this list. He was limited to only 13.2 innings this season due to an elbow problem which cropped up during spring training and eventually required arthroscopic surgery. He did not make an appearance after May, although he was basically recovered by the end of the season and might have been available late in the year had the Blue Jays still been in playoff contention. When on the bump, Romano did not look like himself, carrying a 6.59 ERA, 1.46 WHIP and 13:4 K:BB. Romano wasn't great in the second half of the 2023 season, either, posting a 1.41 WHIP with 13 walks over 21.1 frames while missing time with back issues. General manager Ross Atkins went on record last month in stating that he didn't know who his closer would be in 2025, although he did add that he believes Romano can return to being the pitcher he was from 2020-23 when he held a 2.29 ERA and 30.8 percent strikeout rate while notching back-to-back 36-save seasons. Romano is arbitration-eligible this offseason for the final time before heading into his walk year.
Runners-up: Paul Sewald, Arizona Diamondbacks; Pete Fairbanks, Tampa Bay Rays; Evan Phillips, Los Angeles Dodgers; Craig Kimbrel, Baltimore Orioles; Adbert Alzolay, Chicago Cubs
