Relief Pitcher of the Year

By Mike Whiteman February 10, 2025 In 2014, Major League Baseball initiated awards to recognize the top relief pitchers in the game. Since then, the Mariano Rivera award goes to the top American League reliever, and the Trevor Hoffman award to the best in the National League.

To clarify, these awards are not akin to the "Rolaids Relief Award" that was once awarded based on a formula with wins, losses, and saves. They have been voted upon by former relief pitchers. We know that relief pitching has been a significant part of the game for much longer than since 2014 though. So, how do we recognize the "firemen" from the past? I came up with a simple idea - the Relief Pitcher of the Year award. Despite the exciting and snazzy name, the Relief Pitcher of the Year (RPY) is a simple concept for retroactively recognizing relievers: The Relief Pitcher of the Year will be given to the relief pitcher who finishes highest among his bullpen peers in the Cy Young voting. In 1960, reliever Lindy McDaniel of St. Louis was 12-4, 2.09 with 27 saves and finished third in Cy Young voting (only one Cy Young was awarded then). What is significant about this is that he was the first pitcher who was primarily a reliever to receive any votes for this award. That was a bit of an exception, as the next time a reliever received votes was in 1970, when Ron Perranoski of Minnesota and Dave Giusti were among the Cy Young voting, and the tops finishers among relief pitchers. Since that time, there has usually been a reliever in the annual Cy Young voting. Adding these pitchers to the list of Rivera/Hoffman winners since 2014 make for a interesting look at the great relievers of our time :

	American League		National League
1970	Ron Perranoski	MIN	Dave Giusti	PIT
1971	none		Jerry Johnson	SFG
1972	Sparky Lyle	NYY	Mike Marshall	MON
1973	John Hiller	DET	Mike Marshall (2)	MON
1974	John Hiller (2)	DET	Mike Marshall (3)	LAD
1975	Rollie Fingers	OAK	Al Hrabosky	StL
1976	Bill Campbell	MIN	Rawly Eastwick	CIN
1977	Sparky Lyle (2)	NYY	Bruce Sutter	CHC
1978	Rich Gossage	NYY	Kent Tekulve	PIT
1979	Jim Kern	TEX	Bruce Sutter (2)	CHC
1980	Rich Gossage (2)	NYY	Tug McGraw	PHI
1981	Rollie Fingers (2)	MIL	Bruce Sutter (3)	StL
1982	Dan Quisenberry	KCR	Bruce Sutter (4)	StL
1983	Dan Quisenberry (2)	KCR	Jesse Orosco	NYM
1984	Willie Hernandez	DET	Bruce Sutter (5)	StL
1985	Dan Quisenberry (3)	KCR	Jeff Reardon	MON
1986	Dave Righetti	NYY	none
1987	Jeff Reardon (2)	MIN	Steve Bedrosian	PHI
1988	Dennis Eckersley	OAK	none
1989	Dennis Eckersley (2)	OAK	Mark Davis	SD
1990	Bobby Thigpen	CHW	Randy Myers	CIN
1991	Bryan Harvey	CAL	Lee Smith	StL
1992	Dennis Eckersley (3)	OAK	Lee Smith (2)	StL
1993	Duane Ward	TOR	Bryan Harvey (2)	FLA
			Randy Myers (2)	CHC
1994	Lee Smith (3)	BAL	John Franco	NYM
1995	Jose Mesa	CLE	none
1996	Mariano Rivera	NYY	Trevor Hoffman	SD
1997	Randy Myers (3)	BAL	none
1998	none		Trevor Hoffman (2)	SD
1999	Mariano Rivera (2)	NYY	Billy Wagner	HOU
2000	Todd Jones	DET	Robb Nen	SFG
2001	none		none
2002	none		John Smoltz	ATL
2003	Keith Foulke	OAK	Eric Gagne	LAD
2004	Mariano Rivera (3)	NYY	Eric Gagne (2)	LAD
2005	Mariano Rivera (4)	NYY	Chad Cordero	WSN
2006	Francisco Rodriguez	LAA	Trevor Hoffman (3)	SD
2007	none		Jose Valverde	ARI
2008	Francisco Rodriguez (2)	LAA	Brad Lidge	PHI
2009	none		none
2010	Rafael Soriano	TB	Brian Wilson	SFG
2011	Jose Valverde (2)	DET	John Axford	MIL
			Craig Kimbrel	ATL
2012	Fernando Rodney	TBR	Craig Kimbrel (2)	ATL
2013	Koji Uehara	BOS	Craig Kimbrel (3)	ATL
2014	Greg Holland	KCR	Craig Kimbrel (4)	ATL
2015	Andrew Miller	NYY	Mark Melancon	PIT
2016	Zack Britton	BAL	Kenley Jansen	LAD
2017	Craig Kimbrel (5)	BOS	Kenley Jansen (2)	LAD
2018	Edwin Diaz	SEA	Josh Hader	MIL
2019	Aroldis Chapman	NYY	Josh Hader (2)	MIL
2020	Liam Hendricks	OAK	Devin Williams	MIL
2021	Liam Hendricks (2)	CHW	Josh Hader (3)	MIL
2022	Emmanuel Clase	CLE	Edwin Diaz (2)	NYM
2023	Felix Bautista	BAL	Devin Williams (2)	MIL
2024	Emmanuel Clase (2)	CLE	Ryan Helsey	StL

Some thoughts: - Kimbrell and Sutter both won five awards. We know Sutter was very, very good and a Hall-of-Famer. Kimbrell, despite recent struggles, looks to be HOF quality for his complete body of work - 440 saves, nine all-star selections, 156 ERA+. His 2011-2018 is particularly spectacular - 1.97 ERA while averaging 42 saves a season. - Mariano Rivera took home four RPY awards and finished second twice. No surprise there. - John Smoltz is the only pitcher to win a Cy Young award as a starting pitcher (1996) and RPY (2002). Impressive! - Mike Marshall's 1972-1974 may be one of the most dominant runs by a reliever. Over these three seasons, he averaged 88 games, 168 innings pitched, 23 saves, and a 2.36 ERA. He won the 1974 National League Cy Young Award and finished second in 1973, along with three RPY awards.

- Newly elected Hall-of-Famer Billy Wagner only took home one RPY award. I still am just fine with his enshrinement, as he may have been the "filthiest" pitcher of all-time. - In the acquisition of Devin Williams, the Yankees picked up a two-time reliever of the year. Will he add more to his collection? Like the Cy Young award, this is certainly not a full proof evaluation system. Take the 1975 American League for example. Rich Gossage had one of the great relief seasons of all time - 1.84 ER, 26 saves, 8.2 WAR (noted now) in 141.2 innings. All numbers were superior to Rollie Fingers, who finished significantly higher in the voting despite inferior stats in all categories. What the RPY does give us is a feel for who was considered the best of the relievers by their contemporary voters. What do you think?