Buster Olney's 2026 top 10 at every MLB position: Relievers - ESPN

Spring training camps are underway, which means it is time to look at the state of baseball. As part of our 2026 MLB season preview, ESPN's Buster Olney surveyed those around the industry to help him rank the top 10 players at every position as part of his annual positional ranking series.

Today, we rank the best of the best relievers.

The objective of this exercise is to identify the best players for the 2026 season, not who might be best in five years or over their career. We will roll out a position per day over the next two weeks. Here's the schedule: starting pitchers (Monday), catchers (Wednesday), first basemen (Thursday), second basemen (Friday), third basemen (Feb. 23), shortstops (Feb. 24), corner outfielders (Feb. 25), center fielders (Feb. 26) and designated hitters (Feb. 27).

The Padres had checked in with the Athletics on Mason Miller's availability in the midst of the 2024 season, and then again last June. As Padres general manager A.J. Preller recalled in a recent conversation, there didn't seem to be any traction for a possible deal. But about a week before the trade deadline, with A's GM David Forst talking to a handful of teams about Miller, Preller indicated he'd be open to including 19-year-old shortstop Leo De Vries, considered one of the best prospects in baseball, in a deal.

Typically, executives are not willing to surrender high-end position prospects for relievers. This was different, Preller felt. «When you're talking about someone like Mason Miller,» he said, «no one should be off the table.»

Forst had been focused on structuring a potential Miller trade around pitching, but that immediately shifted. «Leo was a difference-maker,» he recalled.

With the possible anchors of a deal in place,