Spring training camps are underway, which means it is time to look at the state of baseball. As part of our 2025 MLB season preview, ESPN’s Buster Olney is bringing back his positional ranking series, in which he surveyed those around the industry to help him rank the top 10 players at every position.

Today, we cap our series by looking at the best of the best relievers.

The objective of this exercise is to identify the best players for the 2025 season, not who might be best in five years or over their career. We rolled out a position per installment. Here are the nine other lists: catchers, first basemen, second basemen, third basemen, shortstops, corner outfielders, center fielders, designated hitters and starting pitchers.

This is the golden age of relief pitching, a time when there are more dominant relievers than ever before, when teams can construct excellent bullpens faster, with more depth than ever.

More and more relievers are generating higher strikeout rates — 74 had rates of 25% or better last season compared to 41 15 years ago — and holding opposing hitters to batting averages under .200 — 38 in 2024 compared to 22 in 2010.

At the ground level, in the front offices trying to construct effective pitching staffs, this is a good thing.

However, from 30,000 feet — when evaluating what’s good for the sport — this is probably not a good thing, because the high volume of overpowering, short-outing relievers is depressing the offense that Major League Baseball has been working to goose.

The league-wide strikeout rate for bullpens was 20.3% in 2010, with opposing batters hitting .245. Last season, the league-wide K rate was 23.4%, with relievers holding hitters to a .234 average.

Earlier this week, an executive agreed that teams have more bullpen options than they had in the past — but he said the process has become more complicated in identifying relievers “because there are 100 guys available, they all throw hard, and if you can make one tweak, one change — the right change — all of a sudden he’s Emmanuel Clase.”

The industry explosion of high-end relievers is reflected in the supply and demand of the winter market. With so many free agent relievers recycling into free agency every year, teams are mostly assured of their pick of good pitchers at team-friendly prices. Only two relievers received contracts of more than two years during this past offseason — Tanner Scott, who signed a four-year, $72 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Jeff Hoffman, who landed a three-year, $33 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. Another 2024 reliever, Clay Holmes, signed a $39 million contract with the New York Mets as a starting pitcher.

Meanwhile, Kirby Yates, Jordan Romano, Paul Sewald and Kyle Finnegan — all accomplished relievers — signed one-year deals.

The list below of the best relievers is filled with examples of players who found a new pitch, or refined a pitch he already had, and ascended from average to great. That’s part of the reason why constructing a strong bullpen is easier than it was a decade ago — so many pitchers have gone to pitching labs in the offseason and used technology to ramp up their velocity and refine their pitches.

We’ve capped our list at 20 names — the top 10 and 10 honorable mentions — but if we wanted to, we could expand that to 40 or 50, because relief pitching has never been this good.

Top 10 relievers

1. Emmanuel Clase, Cleveland Guardians

His near-complete dominance of the regular season was the reason why his postseason performance was so shocking. After surrendering just two homers during the entire regular season, Clase allowed three within the span of 21 hitters in the playoffs against the Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees.

2. Devin Williams, New York Yankees

For years, the Yankees’ closer job was held by a guy who made his signature pitch, the cutter, famous — Mariano Rivera. Now they have Devin Williams, the master of a changeup otherwise known as the Airbender. He struck out 38 of the 88 batters he faced after returning from the injured list last season.

3. Tanner Scott, Los Angeles Dodgers

Last season, left-handed batters compiled 77 plate appearances against Scott and had just four doubles, no homers and 31 strikeouts. He’ll be part of a bullpen that also includes Blake Treinen, Yates and four or five other high-end relievers.

4. Ryan Helsley, St. Louis Cardinals

He’ll be eligible for free agency in the fall, and with the Cardinals taking a step back in their spending, it seems inevitable that Helsley is among the most coveted players on the trade market this summer. He led the majors in games finished (62) and saves (49) last season, and he didn’t allow a single earned run in his last 17 appearances.

5. Cade Smith, Cleveland Guardians

Smith was a 16th-round pick of the Minnesota Twins in 2017 but did not sign — and then after the 2020 COVID draft, he worked out a deal with Cleveland. He posted a 4.02 ERA while pitching in the minors in 2023, but he ascended to the big leagues last year and became the best working example of how teams develop relievers in this era, becoming an overpowering weapon for new manager Stephen Vogt and allowing just one home run in 74 innings.

6. Mason Miller, Athletics

The first real sign that the A’s organization was going to try to ramp up for the 2025 season came last July when it declined opportunities to trade Miller before the July 30 deadline. Everyone wanted him, of course — he struck out 104 of the 249 batters he faced in 2024.

7. Raisel Iglesias, Atlanta Braves

Iglesias is the rare closer in this era who doesn’t strike out everyone — in 2024 he generated 68 K’s in 69⅓ innings — but he had incredibly clean outings last year, allowing only 38 hits and 13 walks. Now, at age 35, he has had five seasons of 30 or more saves.

8. Tyler Holton, Detroit Tigers

Holton was the ultimate hybrid reliever last season — and a workhorse, starting nine games and collecting eight saves in 66 outings while throwing 94⅓ total innings. He held opponents to a .173 batting average.

9. Griffin Jax, Minnesota Twins

He’s a great example of how teams care less about who closes games and more about putting their best relievers into high-leverage spots. Jhoan Duran will often finish games for Minnesota, getting attention for his velocity, but the 30-year-old Jax had the best season on this staff last year.

10. Edwin Diaz, New York Mets

Diaz has his crises of confidence, as most closers do from time to time, and there are days when he loses the feel of his devastating slider. But generally speaking, he doesn’t allow a lot of baserunners and he strikes out a lot of hitters — and on most days, everything works well. Right-handed batters hit .158 against him last season, with three walks and 42 strikeouts.

Honorable mentions

Kirby Yates, Los Angeles Dodgers: The Texas Rangers slogged through a tough year in 2024, so Yates’ performance for them didn’t get as much attention as it warranted. He faced 237 batters and allowed just 23 hits while holding opponents to an average of .123. Given his age (he’ll be 38 in March) and his injury history, he was never going to get a bigger deal like Scott did. But by season’s end, the Dodgers’ one-year investment in him — which seemed to be driven by the championship-hungry Yates as much as L.A. — could look like one of the best signings of the offseason.

Felix Bautista, Baltimore Orioles: He’s coming back from an elbow reconstruction that caused him to miss the entirety of last season, but it’s worth highlighting his ridiculousness in 2023, when he might have been baseball’s best reliever. That summer, he struck out 110 of the 237 batters he faced and had an adjusted ERA+ of 277.

Josh Hader, Houston Astros: Even through some struggles, he punched out 105 batters in 70 innings last year.

Jeff Hoffman, Toronto Blue Jays: If his deal with the Braves had been completed in November, he would have been a starting pitcher. But he did not get through the Braves’ physical exam, nor that of the Orioles, and so this year, he’s Toronto’s closer, a well-earned payday for a right-hander who struck out 89 of the 265 batters he faced last season.

Andrés Muñoz, Seattle Mariners: It’s not easy being the closer of a team with an inconsistent offense, because there are a whole lot of high-stress appearances. He combines a high strikeout rate with a high rate of ground balls.

Matt Strahm, Philadelphia Phillies: The Phillies’ bullpen went through a lot of change during last season, given Jose Alvarado‘s struggles and the midseason trade for Carlos Estevez, but Strahm was a constant, allowing just 36 hits and 11 walks in 62⅔ innings. He ranked eighth among all relievers in FIP.

Hunter Gaddis, Cleveland Guardians: He surrendered just four homers in 78 appearances as a key contributor in Cleveland’s monster bullpen.

A.J. Puk, Arizona Diamondbacks: Part of one of the best trades made last summer, Puk allowed just four runs and had an adjusted ERA+ of 322 in 30 outings for the D-Backs.

Ryan Walker, San Francisco Giants: Walker took over the closer duties for the Giants late last season and thrived, posting a 0.74 ERA in his last 22 appearances while going 10-for-10 in save chances. Only four relievers had more appearances than his 75.

Jeremiah Estrada, San Diego Padres: He had the fifth-highest strikeout rate (13.87 per nine innings) of all relievers and was fourth best in FIP (2.07).