Mariners Fantasy Baseball Rankings: If he's the closer, Andres Munoz has immense value

With Paul Sewald out of Seattle, Andres Munoz could be the full-time closer for the Mariners. If so, it gives him immense value in fantasy baseball this season

Minnesota Twins v Seattle Mariners
Minnesota Twins v Seattle Mariners / Steph Chambers/GettyImages

I think one of my favorite things in looking at fantasy baseball rankings is looking at the spread in the "experts" votes for a player. It helps you to understand the variance that some may see in a player, and get a better understanding of how early they could go compared to their ranking. If it's a tight grouping, it should be spot on. If it's pretty varied, you could see them go a lot earlier.

I think that's the case with Andres Munoz for 2024. Now that he has the closer role for the Mariners (your best reliever should go against the best guys, and a traditional closer is stupid), he's going to get a bunch of saves and increase his fantasy value. We are talking about standard leagues here, and not ones with K/9 or SV+HLD.

Andres Munoz is a must have for fantasy baseball in 2024

If you check out his rankings, you can see that there is a belief that he is going to get all the saves in Seattle this season. However, there is also a worry that they are going to split it up like they did in years past, and he may only get a dozen or so. That's why his votes go from 6th all the way to 23rd.

Depending on your viewpoint, it makes sense. Check out his prior seasons, and you can see why. In 2023, he finished 208th. In 2022, he finished 146th. However, if he is going to get 25 saves, throw 50+ innings with a 12-14 K/9 rate, then he is going to have massive value. Like, finishing in the top 50 range near David Bednar and Evan Phillips.

With relievers, more than any other position, it's about feel and your guess on their season. It's going to be the same thing with Matt Brash. If you believe Munoz gets all the saves and strikes people out like 2022, he will be a top-5 reliever in all of baseball. If not, he could be a back of the staff guy for you.

However, after the finish to 2023, indications are that he is going to be the closer. Look to take him somewhere in the 8th-9th round in a 10-team, and probably early 8th in a 12-team if you want to get him on your team. Munoz is a game changer, not just for the Mariners, but for your fantasy team as well.