MLB 2017: National League East Rankings

Bullpen

5. Nationals – They’ve gone through the whole offseason at this point without addressing the closer role, and as of right now it’s Shawn Kelley. If it is Kelley, it’s going to be hard to get the ball to him. Blake Treinen was pretty good last season, but can he handle an eighth inning role? They are going to need Oliver Perez, Trevor Gott and Koda Glover to step up. They did add guys like Joe Nathan, Tim Collins and Matt Albers on minor league deals.

4. Braves – Jim Johnson returns as closer and he looked much better in the second half. They have an interesting setup core in Arodys Vizcaino, Ian Krol and Mauricio Cabrera.

3. Phillies – There should be a nice closer competition during the spring between Jeanmar Gomez, Joaquin Benoit and Hector Neris. They also added Pat Neshek in a trade this offseason

2. Marlins – They dabbled in the big fish free agent market for Kenley Jansen and Aroldis Chapman, but came away with solid pieces in Brad Ziegler and Junichi Tazawa to help David Phelps and strikeout master Kyle Barraclough in front of A.J. Ramos

1. Mets – The Jeurys Familia situation complicates things, but even if he’s suspended for 30 days for his domestic violence incident, they should be okay. They have Addison Reed and kept Fernando Salas and Jerry Blevins along with Hansel Robles.