Mariners Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Why Matt Brash is hard to pin down

I don't think you will hear any reasonable argument anywhere against the success and dominance of Matt Brash in 2023. He was one of the best relievers in all of baseball and had a fantastic season. In fact, he had the 4th highest fWAR of any reliever in baseball, trailing only Tanner Scott, Felix Bautista, and David Bednar.

This is one of the prime cases for success in real life not translating to the world of fantasy baseball. well, for standard leagues at least. Matt Brash finished as the 51st ranked reliever in fantasy in 2023. With the subtraction of Paul Sewald from the pen, his potential is higher in fantasy for 2024, but it's still hard to pin down.

If you want strikeouts, random wins, and a handful of saves, Matt Brash is your man

He's likely going to get around 10-12 saves in 2024. Servais has never shied away from sharing saves for his bullpen, so I don't see Munoz getting all of them. It's going to make Brash's worth a bit higher for 2024, but you also have to weigh if you think he is going to perform like he did last season.

The strikeouts are incredible, and Brash had a top-3 season for a reliever last year. You would hope that Servais actually uses him a bit less in 2024, as he led the league in appearances. It's cool getting to see Brash throw so often, but you have to worry about overuse, especially if the Mariners make it to the playoffs as all fans are hoping for.

I think expecting 60-65 innings, 90 strikeouts, 5-8 wins, 8-12 saves, an ERA of around 3 again, and a WHIP around 1.15 are all reasonable. It also brings us to our last topic on Brash. His WHIP should actually drop quite a bit, as Brash had the worst luck in baseball for most of the season when it came to Batting Average on Balls In Play (BABIP).

He finished with a .380 BABIP, 87 points above league average. It was worse than that for most of the season, as he was rocking a mark of around .450 into August. It affected both his ERA and WHIP, so we should see them drop in 2024 if he pitches with the same dominance as we saw in 2023.

When it comes down to it, I think you need to shoot for Brash as a reliever on your team. He's ranked 31st right now, but you need to keep an eye out once it gets into the early/mid-20s of relievers. If Brash ends up with a handful of saves or good luck on balls in play, his ranking is going to quickly climb. Too bad swords aren't counted in fantasy, or else he would be even better.

Take Brash when he's the 5th-8th ranked reliever left on the board, and you'll be happy with the results. Your strikeout totals will thank you.