Every year in every league you have someone who will draft one of the top closers starting around round six but is that really worth it?  When you draft a top closer such as Craig Kimbrel or Aroldis Chapman you are getting as sure a thing as there is to guaranteed saves, assuming they stay healthy.  However does that mean that it’s worth passing up on guys such as Dustin Pedroia, Justin Upton, or Madison Bumgarner all of whom are being drafted in the same rounds as those closers.

Some people will argue that they are worth the high pick because of the strikeouts they record compared to other closers.  Sure these guys rack up strikeouts for their position but that still only places them around 100 strikeouts, which is not all that significant in the big picture.  In my opinion if your that dead set of drafting a pitcher that early just go with one of the top starters available.  Whatever pitcher you get this early is going to double the strikeouts of any closer and is going to be a huge asset in wins, ERA and WHIP  

So if you shouldn’t draft a closer early when should you take one?  I don’t draft closers until the very end of the draft for a multitude of reasons.  First of all there is so much turnover at the closer position that a guy who just had 50 saves last year could find himself losing his closers role, such as Jim Johnson.  Closers are constantly getting hurt or losing their jobs due to ineffectiveness (Sergio Romo).  Do you really want to risk drafting a closer early in the draft just to lose him and make that a wasted pick.

It’s possible to have a roster with good closers without even drafting one before the 20th round.  Last season in one of my leagues I drafted only one closer, Steve Cishek, and ended the season with four solid closers, Cishek, Zach Britton, Mark Melancon, and Hector Rondon.  These guys combined for 138 saves, 280 strikeouts, two of them had an ERA under 2.00 and only Cishek had an ERA above 3.00.  

This is a more than capable list of closers and only one of them was drafted.  Instead of wasting picks on a position you can build through free agency, wait on drafting a closer until the very end rounds and build up your closers as guys lose their jobs or fall to injuries.