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Published May 13, 2026
It's been four weeks since our mid-April closer report, and the ninth inning has not stayed still. Edwin Díaz had elbow surgery, Josh Hader is still on the IL, Ryan Helsley joined him there, Ryan Walker got optioned to Triple-A, Jordan Romano was DFA'd, and Louis Varland has taken over the Blue Jays job and gone full All-Star. Below is a refreshed team-by-team look at every MLB closer situation as of May 12, listed alphabetically with a status, the primary arm(s), and a quick read on what the last month has shown.
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Tip: click any team's division pill (e.g., NL West) to show only that division.
Sewald has run with the role Lovullo gave him out of camp, including a save on May 11 to close out a 1-0 win. The cheap 1yr/$1.5M February deal is looking like a steal so far. Kevin Ginkel and Ryan Thompson remain the eighth-inning options.
A clearer picture than the full-spread committee we saw in April. Kuhnel has picked up three of the team's last four saves and four of the last six. Jack Perkins and Mark Leiter Jr. are still in the mix and Kotsay continues to mix and match.
Iglesias missed time in late April with right shoulder inflammation (MRI came back clean) and was reinstated on May 5. His first save back, a 6-5 win over Miami, made him the fifth player ever with 100 saves as a Brave. Robert Suarez covered the ninth while he was out and is back to setup work.
Helsley landed on the 15-day IL on May 1 (retro to April 29) with right elbow inflammation right after throwing a perfect ninth for his seventh save. No ligament damage; the Orioles are targeting a late-May return but he'll need a rehab assignment first. He was a perfect 7/7 in saves with a 2.53 ERA before the move. Rico García has handled the two save chances since.
The 38-year-old continues to roll. 8/8 in save opportunities with a 0.71 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, and a 16:3 K:BB across 12.2 innings. Garrett Whitlock and Jovani Morán are the bridge arms for Cora.
Palencia hit the 15-day IL on April 14 with a left oblique strain and was activated May 3. Counsell said he wanted to ease him back in but he is the closer when the spot calls for it. Caleb Thielbar, Ben Brown, Jacob Webb, Corbin Martin, and Hoby Milner combined for six saves during his absence.
Nine saves and a 3.45 ERA over 15.2 innings, including a bases-loaded, one-out escape against Seattle for his ninth. Walks are still a feature of his line but the role is locked in.
The April 14 injury concern turned out to be real. Pagán was carted off on May 5 with a Grade 2 left hamstring strain and the Reds say he's out four to eight weeks, into at least mid-June. He had six saves and three blown saves with a 6.43 ERA when he went down, with the hamstring reportedly nagging him for the prior couple of weeks. Tony Santillan and Graham Ashcraft are the next-up candidates.
Smith has gone from "shaky early" to tied for the major league save lead with 11 at the end of the first week of May. After a 3.86 ERA and 1.43 WHIP through the first month, he's looked like his second-half 2025 self in May. Veteran Shawn Armstrong is the bridge piece behind him.
Vodnik is still holding the role but the results have been ugly: ERA sits at 6.32 as of May 11th. Closing in Coors is a thankless job, but the rope is going to get shorter if it keeps going this way.
Jansen has been unavailable the last few games with right groin and lower-abdomen discomfort traced back to an April 15 outing in Kansas City. Two walk-off home runs followed soon after. The Tigers say no IL trip is needed yet. Will Vest went on the IL on May 2 with a forearm issue, which thins out the leverage options; Kyle Finnegan is still available.
Hader is still on the 60-day IL with left biceps tendinitis and is expected back around May 24. He's already begun a Triple-A Sugar Land rehab assignment and worked a scoreless inning with a strikeout in his first look. Bryan Abreu struggled badly in the role through April and the recent save chances have gone to Enyel De Los Santos.
Estévez is still down with the bruised left foot from a 103.5 mph comebacker, and had a setback when shoulder discomfort cropped up during a Triple-A rehab outing. Picollo had hoped for a return around mid-May; that timeline is now in question. Erceg has converted ten of twelve save chances filling in.
A full reset since April. The Angels DFA'd Jordan Romano in late April after he blew back-to-back saves against the Yankees and the role faded out from under him. Yates was reinstated from a 15-day IL stint following a four-outing rehab assignment for left knee inflammation, with reporting pointing to him as the closer once he's fully ramped. Some recent notes still flag velocity and conditioning, so this is one to monitor.
The April velocity dip on Díaz turned out to be the warning shot. He hit the IL with loose bodies in his right elbow and underwent surgery, with the current projection pointing to a return after the All-Star break. Tanner Scott and Alex Vesia, both lefties, have been splitting save chances since.
The Marlins activated Fairbanks from the 15-day IL, filling Snelling's roster spot. He had been out since April 27 with nerve irritation in his right hand after a Dodgers outing, and was 5/6 on save chances but with an ugly 10.00 ERA across nine innings before the move.
The handoff the April writeup hinted at has happened. Megill kept giving up runs, including a three-run meltdown against Toronto, and Murphy moved Uribe into the closer job. Over the six appearances before the change Megill had two losses, a blown save, and eight earned runs in five innings.
Still no defined closer in Minnesota. Eric Orze has been the most dependable high-leverage option despite a blown save against Seattle in late April. The Twins also traded for Yoendrys Gómez from Tampa Bay and he could move into the high-leverage picture quickly.
Williams settled in after a rough mid-April. The surface ERA still lags but the role is intact. Luke Weaver and Brooks Raley continue to handle the eighth.
Bednar has ten saves with one blown. A loss to the Brewers in the Yankees' weekend sweep at home stirred up some noise, but Boone has not pulled him from the role.
Duran was activated from the 15-day IL on May 6 after a mid-April oblique strain and tossed a clean ninth in a 9-1 win the same night. He's at 1.86 ERA with five saves in ten appearances. Worth noting: he's throwing his four-seamer just 21% of the time, a career low, in favor of his splinker, a true splitter, and two breaking balls.
What looked tilted toward Santana in April has settled into a real co-closer split. Santana has two saves with a 3.63 ERA across 17.1 innings, while Soto has three saves and a 1.33 ERA over 20.1 innings with a 26:7 K:BB and has carved out a clear share. Expectations are Don Kelly will keep splitting based on matchup.
Miller leads the majors in saves. Picked up his 12th on May 9 with four ninth-inning strikeouts against the Cardinals, and took home NL Reliever of the Month honors for April. Manager Craig Stammen spells him occasionally with Jason Adam or Adrián Morejón, each of whom has a save this season.
The Giants pulled the plug on the experiment. Ryan Walker was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento on May 10 after four straight rough outings, ending his run as the primary closer following his 17-save 2025. Bochy has not named a replacement, and no one has stepped into the eighth or ninth in a defined way since.
Muñoz is still the closer and still racking up saves (eight, including a finish on May 11 in Houston), but the early-season run has been by far his worst as a Mariner. ERA sits at 5.63 with 10 earned runs across 16 innings, and three home runs already, more than he gave up in all of 2025. He has steadied lately with a 3.00 ERA over his last seven games, so the stuff isn't gone.
O'Brien is starting to look like one of the best relievers in baseball. Eleven saves on fourteen chances with a 2.84 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, and a 23:1 K:BB across 19 innings. Marmol's clear go-to in the ninth since the Helsley trade last summer.
The Rays said they would run a committee and Baker turned the job into his own. Eleven saves on the year with a 2.16 ERA across 16.2 innings, and reporting puts him among the top closer performers in the first month. The bullpen as a whole had allowed just one run over a 26.1-inning stretch entering Tuesday night.
Still by committee, and now with both Robert García and Chris Martin on the 15-day IL, the late-inning mix has reshuffled to Jakob Junis, Jacob Latz, and Tyler Alexander. As a frame of reference, the Rangers have run at a 56% save-conversion rate since 2023, so the team-level pattern is already working against whoever sees ninth-inning work here.
The biggest change in baseball since our April update. Schneider pulled Hoffman from the closer job in late April after a rough start that included multiple blown saves. Varland has taken it and run: four saves in the past week, a 0.46 ERA across 19 outings, and a 38% strikeout rate. Tyler Rogers still gets some ninth-inning work in lower-leverage spots.
Varland has gotten the bulk of the save chances out of the April committee, but the results have been uneven enough that the role is best read as still committee-style. Clayton Beeter is rehabbing and projected back in mid- to late May, at which point Davey Martinez has more options to mix in.
For a deeper view of how each pen is performing behind these arms, check the Season Long Bullpen Power Rankings, the Snapshot Power Rankings, and the Bullpen ERA Rankings. You can also click any team name above to see the full bullpen breakdown.
-- InsidethePen Staff
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