2026 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers: Relief Pitchers

No position in fantasy baseball is as volatile as relief pitcher. They hold value in a draft room, though, because every manager needs relievers to build a well-rounded team.

Since every team in a league is operating under the same desire to pick up elite relief pitchers, they are typically valued higher in fantasy than in real-life baseball. That becomes increasingly true the larger a league’s size becomes.

On the National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) site, they host a variety of contests — all of which do not allow trading. Some, such as the online championship (OC), are 12-team leagues. Over the past two weeks in OCs, a reliever has gone as high as 29th on average and 12 are being selected inside the top 100.

In draft champions (DC) drafts, relievers are going as high as 24th on average and 15 are going inside the top 100. DCs are 15-teamers, which only further exasperates the dire need for a safe saves option.

In your typical 10-12 team league, relievers don’t often get selected as highly. There are likely to be more options on the wire, and you can acquire them from other owners. To identify sleepers for these types of leagues, we’ll be looking at relievers going outside of the top 200 in NFBC drafts over the past two weeks.

By using their average draft position (ADP) tool, we can analyze the market and see who may provide value greater than their price would indicate. Below are some relievers who could produce at a bargain.

Griffin Jax is a Strikeout Specialist — No. 209 NFBC ADP

Since converting to a full-time reliever in 2022, Griffin Jax has been an effective back-end option. He hasn’t had his time to shine in fantasy yet, buried behind the likes of Emilio Pagan, Jhoan Duran, and Pete Fairbanks for his team’s closer role. But now that Fairbanks is out of Tampa, Jax appears to be a front runner for saves with the Rays.

Jax relies heavily on his sweeper and changeup despite gassing his fastball up into the high 90s. He’s posted a strikeout rate of 34% or greater in back-to-back seasons, good for the top two percent in the league each year. He’s incredibly effective at getting the opposition to whiff (37.3%) and chase out of the zone (38.1%).

How valuable Jax ends up being for fantasy depends greatly on whether the Rays use him exclusively as their closer. The projections remain dubious: they all forecast Jax for 12-15 saves. Even if he gets just 15 saves, as ATC projects, they rate him as their 12th-best reliever (RP12) by value.

There’s a very safe floor for production with Jax, and he also has the ceiling of an elite fantasy closer if he’s given the full-time job.

Seranthony Dominguez Will Close Games — No. 230 NFBC ADP

When Seranthony Dominguez entered the league in 2018, he quickly grabbed hold of the Phillies’ closer role and earned 16 saves. That’s a mark that he hasn’t topped since, but Dominguez is likely to beat it this year. Chicago gave him a two-year, $20 million deal in free agency to close games for them, which bodes well for his fantasy value.

Dominguez’s career has been a mixed bag, but he’s always thrown hard. It looked like his command had finally improved when his walk rate was an average 8.2% in 2024. He took a step back last season, however, as he surrendered free passes at an abysmal 13.8% clip. Fortunately, he countered that career-worst walk rate in 2025 with a good 30.3% strikeout rate.

Every projection system sees Dominguez earning 20-21 saves, but his ERA projections range from 3.50 to 4.07. The main risk with selecting Dominguez is that Chicago has an ascending young reliever in Grant Taylor, who could start pushing him for saves as the season wears on.

Someone Has to Close in Texas, Robert Garcia — No. 273 NFBC ADP

The Rangers had one of the least-desirable bullpens in baseball last season and didn’t do much to improve it this year. Three Rangers relievers earned nine saves apiece in 2025, but only one of them is returning to the roster: Robert Garcia.

Garcia doesn’t have the makings of a dominant closer — he’s a lefty that averaged just 94.4 mph on his fastball in 2025. Though he pitched to a 2.95 ERA last season, his 3.68 xFIP indicated that he wasn’t as effective. On most teams, he’s a solid lefty specialist. In Texas, he’s likely to be the leader of their closer committee due to lack of competition.

The projections envision Garcia earning 17-20 saves with a mid-to-upper 3.00s ERA. He’s bound to blow some leads, but the fact that the Rangers project to have a good starting staff and solid lineup means that he should be able to pick up saves early on.