No role in baseball has undergone more of a transformation than that of a relief pitcher. What once was something a hurler became because he wasn't good enough to be a starter is now a vital role manned by a succession of the hardest throwers.
Anyone who doubts the importance of a quality bullpen hasn't been paying attention to the Dodgers lately.
Over the weekend the Baseball Writers’ Assn. of America announced it has established a relief pitcher of the year award — one in each league — beginning in 2026. It will become the fifth honor doled out by the BBWAA each year, joining the most valuable player, Cy Young, rookie of the year and manager of the year awards.
(Disclaimer: I am a BBWAA member of more than 20 years and voted for creating the relief pitcher of the year awards. However, The Times doesn't allow its reporters to vote for the yearly awards or Hall of Fame election to avoid potential conflicts of interest.)
Why did the BBWAA decide to create another award? Well, as Hall of Fame baseball writer and relief pitcher award advocate Jayson Stark wrote in the Athletic, "It's about time."
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Stark pointed out that since Oakland Athletics closer Dennis Eckersley won the American League Cy Young Award and MVP in 1992 when he notched 51 saves, only one reliever has won a Cy Young and no reliever has finished even in the top three in MVP voting.
That one Cy Young winner? Dodgers fans can only wish for a current closer as dominant as Eric Gagne was in 2003 when his performance — admittedly illegally enhanced — resulted in 55 saves and a 1.20 earned-run average.
Otherwise, Stark notes, "voters have decided the MVP is a position player’s award, the Cy Young is a starting pitcher’s award and 'None of the Above' is a relief pitcher’s award."
Relievers were never considered superstars, but for a brief period after saves were introduced as an official statistical category in 1969, closers were routinely honored.
The Dodgers' Mike Marshall became the first relief pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in 1974 when he made a staggering 106 appearances and went 15-12 with 21 saves. Three years later, Sparky Lyle of the New York Yankees became the first American League reliever to take home the honor.
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The recognition didn't end there. Bruce Sutter won the NL Cy Young Award in 1979 and Rollie Fingers became the first reliever to win the Cy Young and MVP awards in 1981. Three years later, Willie Hernández of the World Series champion Detroit Tigers became the second.
Steve Bedrosian and Mark Davis also won Cy Young Awards in the 1980s, but Eckersley taking home the Cy Young and MVP in '92 marked the abrupt end of relievers winning either award. Why? The save became regarded as a flawed statistic, and the workload of a closer paled in comparison to starters, who then still regularly exceeded 200 innings a year.
Relievers were honored for 50 years beginning in 1960 by the Sporting News with what became known as the Fireman of the Year award. It coincided with the introduction of a rudimentary version of the save, created by longtime Sporting News and Chicago baseball writer Jerome Holtzman.
Before then, relievers were especially anonymous. Occasionally one made headlines for an odd accomplishment, such as Roy Face of the Pittsburgh Pirates posting an 18-1 record in 57 relief appearances in 1959. Holtzman was particularly irked that baseball writers were sufficiently impressed to elevate Face to seventh in NL MVP voting.
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Years later somebody went back and determined that 10 of those wins were credited in games Face had blown the lead, with the Pirates coming back while he was the pitcher of record. When it comes to stats, it turns out, saves might be less flawed than wins.
So it's been a love-hate relationship between relievers and writers for decades. Billy Wagner was voted into the Hall of Fame this year in his 10th and last year on the ballot, the eighth pure reliever to be inducted, joining Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith, Goose Gossage, Hoyt Wilhelm, Fingers and Sutter.
Eckersley was a starter for 12 seasons before moving to the bullpen and notching 390 saves, and John Smoltz started for 12 seasons then became an exceptional closer for four years before moving back to the rotation for the last five years of his Hall of Fame career.
Without an award from the BBWAA, MLB in 2005 created the Delivery Man of the Year Award, which honored one best reliever. Nine years later MLB created an award for each league named after Rivera and Hoffman, the only two pitchers to reach 600 career saves.
The winners every year have been closers, typically the league leaders in saves. With the increasing value of setup relievers in an era when starters average only 5.3 innings, perhaps the new relief pitcher of the year awards will reward more than ninth-inning specialists.
Stark, who chaired the BBWAA committee that studied the new awards before presenting it to membership for a vote, would like to think so, rattling off the following reasons the awards are needed.
"Because the evolution of the sport has led us to this moment. Because the debates should be so much fun. Because we have the chance to do something special — and not just count up the saves but to 'get this right.'"
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
