This is it. You’re either sweating through the last few days of the championship in a head-to-head league or closely watching box scores in a rotisserie league. Either way, the stress we’ve all felt since April comes to an end this Sunday. It’ll either come as a glorious catharsis as you celebrate a championship run that began six months ago or as a crushing disappointment as six months of trades, waiver claims, and setting lineups all ended up being just a touch less effective than someone else’s. Before kicking off the final edition of Closer Report for the 2015 season, I want to thank everyone for reading throughout the season and I hope that I was able to lend a hand in your fantasy success this year. I look forward to next season and hope you do too, regardless of how this one may end.

Closer News Around the League

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

The Angels are playing their best baseball of the year right when they need to. For a while they were considered a long shot for the playoffs after a disappointing start to the season combined with a resurgent Rangers team, but just this week they managed to take the lead for the second Wild Card for a day before slipping back to a half game out. The Angels bullpen has been a mess as far as injuries go, but the replacements have actually been great in the meantime. Setup man Joe Smith hurt his ankle and was originally thought to be out for the season. His recovery went much better than expected, however, and he faced a batter in Wednesday’s game. Manager Mike Scioscia said he would likely use Smith as his closer or to “get out of something” in the late innings. This is because Angels closer Huston Street is also hurt. Street has a grade one groin strain and will miss the last few games of the season. He’s been out since September 26th and may return only if the Angels make it to the postseason. Street was having a great year, leading the American League with 40 saves.

Washington Nationals

If you’re reading this article, you’re a baseball fan, and if you’re a baseball fan, you already know what happened with Jonathan Papelbon this week. With the league suspension for hitting Manny Machado with and the team suspension for hitting Bryce Harper, Papelbon will sit out the remainder of the season. It has yet to be an issue in terms of saves though, as the Nationals have not had a save situation since the incident. With Drew Storen also out for the year with an injury, it seems as though manager Matt Williams will turn to lefty Matt Thornton for saves. He closed out a four-run win for the Nats on Monday. While that wasn’t a save, he was warming up to come into the game before the offense added a run to make it no longer a save situation. Owners desperate for just one or two more saves can add Thornton and hope that the game allows for a save situation to come up.

A Look Ahead

Since the only significant closer-related injury was Huston Street‘s and that was covered above, I’ll use this week’s Injury Report space for a quick look ahead to next season. Every year has its surprises and disappointments, but there are some closers so solid that even if they play to their floor they are still worth owning in all formats. If they play to their ceiling? They could be the difference between a championship and another early end to the fantasy season. Here are the closers I think will fall into the elite tier next season:

Rosenthal is a model of consistency and plays for a team that will be among the league leaders in wins for the next few seasons. Miller has finally found his niche after being a first round draft pick and failing as a starter. Familia came somewhat out of nowhere (he wasn’t even supposed to be the team’s closer this season) but established himself as a nearly automatic ninth-inning option. Kimbrel didn’t have quite the Kimbrel season everyone has come to expect, but he’s still among the best. Chapman may not be closing in Cincinnati next season, but he’ll be elite no matter where he goes and if he’s pitching for a better team he should be able to save more games. Finally, Jansen is always a bit risky because of his health, but when he’s on the mound he’s one of the best.

Interesting Tidbits

The Toronto Blue Jays clinched their first American League East title since 1993. They also contribute with both of his week’s interesting tidbits:

The oldest player in Major League Baseball and the youngest player in Major League Baseball are both members of the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen. LaTroy Hawkins is the oldest player in baseball this season. He made his Major League debut on April 29th, 1995. Roberto Osuna is the youngest player in baseball this season. He was born two months before Hawkins’ big league debut, on February 7, 1995. In other words, when Jays closer Roberto Osuna was born, Jays reliever LaTroy Hawkins was getting ready for Spring Training leading up to his first Major League season.

Another interesting bit relating the Blue Jays young and old: their bullpen leads the league in lowest walk percentage. The chart below shows the top ten teams in terms of lowest walk rate for the 2015 season:

Top Performers for the Week

Roberto Osuna – 2 IP, 3 SV, 2 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.86 WHIP

Francisco Rodriguez – 2 IP, 3 SV, 3 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.43 WHIP

Shawn Tolleson – 4 IP, 2 SV, 4 K, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP

Not a lot of huge performances this week by closers as playoff teams rest their key players and non-playoff teams are trying out new guys in new roles. Still, there were a few impressive, if abbreviated, performances this week by closers.

MLB’s youngest player, Roberto Osuna, saved three games and struck out two this week while pitching only two innings across three games. Osuna allowed two hits in the meantime and walked none. He’s heading into the playoffs as one of the biggest bullpen surprises of the year.

Francisco Rodriguez, certainly not the league’s youngest player, had an impressive week as well. The Brewers closer appeared in three games, saving all three while striking out three in two innings. He allowed only one hit all week while bringing yet another excellent season to a close.

Finally, Rangers closer Shawn Tolleson collected two saves and four strikeouts in four innings this week, giving up four hits through the week. Tolleson put together a great season despite not starting the year as the team’s closer and not even being given the ninth inning to himself for a while.

David A. Marcillo is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from David, check out his archive and follow him @DavidMarcillo77.

