Top 20 relief pitchers entering the 2024 baseball season

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When we put together our Preseason All-America teams, we followed one guiding principle: If we were building a team to win the 2024 national title, which players would we choose? We use the same philosophy to construct our Player Rankings — think of them as an extension of our Preseason All-America teams.

These are NOT professional prospect lists, though they do take pure talent into consideration. Players who proved themselves against top competition in summer ball and look poised for breakout years might rank higher on the list than other players who had gaudier stats from last spring. We considered past performance and offensive statistics, but we also try to keep the numbers in context, because some leagues or ballparks are more offensive than others, and some leagues simply have more talent than others — so all stat lines are not created equal. So we take an amalgam of past numbers, raw talent, defensive ability (especially at premium positions), makeup and reports of development over the summer and fall. This year, we also made use of more advanced metrics like Defensive Runs Saved and WAR, courtesy of our partners at 6-4-3 Charts.

Finally, remember that there are more than 300 Division I teams, and we’re ranking roughly the top 15 percent of starters at each position. These lists reflect our projections of which players will be the best of the best this spring, but many good players in the remaining 85 percent just didn’t make the cut. We’ll revisit the Player Rankings over the course of the season and make adjustments as players prove themselves on the field.

With all that said, here’s a look at the top 20 relief pitchers in college baseball heading into the 2024 season. Preseason All-Americans Tyson Neighbors (Kansas State), Fran Oschell (Duke) and Brandon Neely (Florida) lead the way.