![\"emilio-pagan.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/emilio-pagan.jpg\")
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You’re in the thick of the draft and can’t decide between two players. The logical choice is to target the one whose position is nearest to dropping off. But where are the drop-offs? That’s what these tiers denote. Players whose impact is essentially the same are bundled together, revealing at a glance how many alike choices remain. With these tiers in hand, you’ll have all you need to determine in real time which position is most appropriate to draft next.<\/p>\n
Below are the\u00a0relief pitcher\u00a0tiers for 2026, where the high-end options are plentiful but the mid-range is sorely lacking. The number of teams without a set closer heading into the season ratchets up the urgency in deep Rotisserie leagues.<\/p>\n
The Elite: Mason Miller<\/a>, Edwin Diaz<\/a>, Andres Munoz<\/a>, Cade Smith<\/a>, Aroldis Chapman<\/a>, Jhoan Duran<\/a>
The Near-Elite: David Bednar<\/a>, Devin Williams<\/a>, Raisel Iglesias<\/a>, Josh Hader<\/a>
The Next-Best Things: Jeff Hoffman<\/a>, Ryan Helsley<\/a>, Emilio Pagan<\/a>, Daniel Palencia<\/a>
The Fallback Options: Carlos Estevez<\/a>, Trevor Megill<\/a>, Kenley Jansen<\/a>, Pete Fairbanks<\/a>, Dennis Santana<\/a>, Seranthony Dominguez<\/a>
The Last Resorts: Ryan Walker<\/a>, Griffin Jax<\/a>,\u00a0Robert Suarez<\/a>, Riley O’Brien<\/a>, Kirby Yates<\/a>, Clayton Beeter<\/a>, Taylor Rogers<\/a>, Justin Sterner<\/a>, Kevin Ginkel<\/a>, Seth Halvorsen<\/a>
The Next-in-Line: Abner Uribe<\/a>, Bryan Abreu<\/a>, JoJo Romero<\/a>, Edwin Uceta<\/a>, Robert Garcia<\/a>, Garrett Cleavinger<\/a>, Paul Sewald<\/a>, Matt Svanson<\/a>,\u00a0Cole Sands<\/a>, Elvis Alvarado<\/a>, Victor Vodnik<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You’re in the thick of the draft and can’t decide between two players. The logical choice is to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2276],"tags":[72443,72440,1110,1096,14257,13491,1113,5,7618,539,1092,2280,9707,888,1100,1108,83,1087,6925,7634,1105,28,71528,72441,1099,11613,6439,380,3276,8534,1109,6616,132,1677,99,2291,1101,21751,4,1586,372,848,104,72442,21752,13188,80,109,946,2539,1116,6922,1094,5046,2077],"class_list":{"0":"post-622759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-2026-fantasy-baseball-draft-prep-relief-pitcher","9":"tag-2026-fantasy-baseball-relief-pitcher-tiers","10":"tag-abner-uribe","11":"tag-alexis-diaz","12":"tag-andres-munoz","13":"tag-andrew-saalfrank","14":"tag-aroldis-chapman","15":"tag-baseball","16":"tag-bryan-abreu","17":"tag-cade-smith","18":"tag-carlos-estevez","19":"tag-clayton-beeter","20":"tag-cole-sands","21":"tag-daniel-palencia","22":"tag-david-bednar","23":"tag-dennis-santana","24":"tag-devin-williams","25":"tag-edwin-diaz","26":"tag-edwin-uceta","27":"tag-elvis-alvarado","28":"tag-emilio-pagan","29":"tag-fantasy-baseball","30":"tag-fantasy-baseball-positional-tiers-2026","31":"tag-fantasy-baseball-relief-pitcher-rankings-2026","32":"tag-garrett-cleavinger","33":"tag-grant-taylor","34":"tag-griffin-jax","35":"tag-jeff-hoffman","36":"tag-jhoan-duran","37":"tag-jojo-romero","38":"tag-josh-hader","39":"tag-justin-sterner","40":"tag-kenley-jansen","41":"tag-kevin-ginkel","42":"tag-kirby-yates","43":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","44":"tag-mason-miller","45":"tag-matt-svanson","46":"tag-mlb","47":"tag-mlb-draft","48":"tag-paul-sewald","49":"tag-pete-fairbanks","50":"tag-raisel-iglesias","51":"tag-relief-pitcher-tiers-fantasy-baseball","52":"tag-riley-obrien","53":"tag-robert-garcia","54":"tag-robert-suarez","55":"tag-ryan-helsley","56":"tag-ryan-walker","57":"tag-seranthony-dominguez","58":"tag-seth-halvorsen","59":"tag-taylor-rogers","60":"tag-trevor-megill","61":"tag-victor-vodnik","62":"tag-yimi-garcia"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}