Mariano Rivera: MLB’s greatest closer

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The Bio

Mariano Rivera is the best closer ever in the history of baseball. Three times in 19 years, Rivera had the most saves in all of baseball. He had a career ERA of 2.21 and a WHIP of 1.00 and was also the most reliable.

In his 19 great seasons, all of which took place in the Bronx, Mariano Rivera has won the most games (952), saved the most (652), and had the best ERA+ (205). He was an All-Star 13 times and won five World Series titles. In 2019, he was inducted into the Cooperstown Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Mariano Rivera was the first and, so far, the only player to be chosen unanimously by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA). Rivera won five Rolaids Relief Man Awards from the American League (AL) and three Delivery Man of the Year Awards. He also finished in the top three for the AL Cy Young Award four times.

Mariano Rivera was a pitcher for the New York Yankees in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 19 years, from 1995 to 2013. He was born in Panama and is an American citizen. Before the Yankees signed him in 1990, he was a player in the minor leagues. Mariano Rivera first played in the major leagues in 1995 as a starting pitcher. Toward the end of his first season, he switched to being a relief pitcher for good. In 1996, he had a big year as a set-up man, and in 1997, he became the Yankees’ closer.

Mariano Rivera’s main pitch was a cut fastball that moved quickly and went around 90 miles per hour. It broke a lot of batters’ bats and became known as one of the hardest pitches to hit in the league. Rivera was a big part of the Yankees’ success in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His ominous entrance song, “Enter Sandman,” let fans know he was coming to the game at the end. His performance with the lowest ERA (0.70) and the most saves (42) made him the MVP of the 1999 World Series and the AL Championship Series in 2003.

Born in a fishery village in Panama, Mariano Rivera used to play soccer and baseball on the beach when the tide was out. For baseball games, they used milk cartons for gloves, tree branches for bats, and wads of shredded fishing nets taped together as balls. He quit school in the ninth grade and started working on a commercial fishing boat to learn how to fish. But after his uncle died in a boat accident and his father’s boat sank, Mariano Rivera turned his attention to sports. After hurting his ankles and knees several times, the 17-year-old had to give up soccer and only play baseball. At age 18, he joined the local amateur baseball team Panama Oeste Vaqueros as a utility player.

Chico Heron, a scout for the New York Yankees, was there on an invitation and saw how well Mariano Rivera pitched. He invited him to a Yankees tryout camp that Heron ran in Panama City. Herb Raybourn was impressed by how athletic Mariano Rivera was and how smooth and easy it looked when he pitched, even though he had never had any formal training. Raybourn signed Rivera to a deal with the Yankees organization on February 17, 1990, because he thought Rivera had a lot of potential.

Rivera flew to the United States and joined the Gulf Coast League (GCL) Yankees. He did not speak English and had never left his home country. The pitcher got better after a good year in 1990. The team let Mariano Rivera start the last game of the season so that he could get enough innings to qualify for the league’s ERA title, which came with a $500 bonus. Manager Glenn Sherlock said that Rivera’s seven-inning no-hitter “put him on the map with the organization.” After having surgery on his elbow in 1992, he quickly moved up the ranks, and at the start of the 1995 season, Baseball America said he was the Yankees’ ninth-best prospect.

Rivera’s first game with the New York Yankees was on May 23, 1995, against the California Angels. He had been called up to the major leagues on May 16, 1995. The Yankees thought about trading him to the Detroit Tigers for starting pitcher David Wells after he had a rough start. Then, in a five-inning start on June 26 that was cut short because of rain, Mariano Rivera threw a no-hit shutout. From what people at the game said, his pitches went as fast as 95–96 mph. Gene Michael, the general manager of the Yankees, stopped any trade talks for Rivera. On July 4, Rivera’s first game back in the major leagues was against the Chicago White Sox. He pitched eight innings without giving up any runs and struck out 11 batters. When Mariano Rivera came in as a relief pitcher in the American League Division Series against the Seattle Mariners and went 5 1/3 innings without giving up a run, the Yankees decided to keep him and turn him into a relief pitcher for the next season.

The Yankees’ owner, George Steinbrenner, was offered the chance to trade Mariano Rivera to the Mariners for shortstop Felix Fermn. However, the Yankees’ management convinced Steinbrenner to give the job to rookie Derek Jeter instead. Between April 19 and May 21, 1997, Rivera pitched 26 innings without a run being scored, and 15 of those innings went by without a hit. In a game on May 17 against the Angels, which was part of the streak, he got his first save of his career. Rivera finished the regular season with a 2.09 ERA. Mariano Rivera pitched 107 2/3 innings and set a Yankees single-season record for strikeouts by a reliever (130). It made him worth 5.0 wins above replacement (WAR) to the Yankees that year. This is a number that no reliever has been able to beat in a single season since. During the postseason, he only gave up one earned run in 14+1⁄3 innings of work. This helped the Yankees get to the 1996 World Series, which they won against the Atlanta Braves.

Mariano Rivera got used to being a closer in 1997, when manager Joe Torre told him it would be okay. At the midseason break, he had 27 saves and an ERA of 1.96, which made him eligible for his first All-Star team. Rivera had a 1.88 ERA and 43 saves in 52 chances at the end of the regular season. When Rivera and closer John Wetteland worked together, the Yankees were almost impossible to beat. They won 10 games and saved 48 in total. Wetteland saved 25 out of the 26 times Rivera held the ball. Even though Mariano Rivera came in third for the AL Cy Young Award, which is given to the league’s best pitcher, former player and commentator Tim McCarver said that the Yankees “revolutionized baseball” that year with Rivera, who was “a middle reliever who should have been on the All-Star team and was a legitimate MVP candidate.”

In 1998, the Yankees won 114 games during the regular season. This was a team and American League record then. The bullpen had a great record of 28–9, and Mariano Rivera was the hero. From April 25 to May 13, he saved seven games and won one while giving up no earned runs in eight appearances. During this time, he got out of facing 26 of the 30 batters he faced. He struck out eight of them and didn’t walk anyone. In 54 appearances, he left almost 90% of the runners he inherited on base.

For the season, Mariano Rivera was 3-0, had an ERA of 1.91, and was given 36 saves. Rivera made the cutter one of his main pitches, and it quickly became his signature because of how sharply it moved to the side. It was known for breaking batters’ bats because of how it moved. By the end of the season, Rivera had only given up two earned runs in his 35 career postseason innings. This gave him an earned run average (ERA) of 0.51, and because he had pitched more than 30 innings, he became eligible for the major-league record for the lowest postseason career ERA. Mariano Rivera still holds the record after 141 innings of pitching.

In 1999, he led the major leagues in saves for the first time with 45 saves out of 49 chances and an earned run average of 1.83. Mariano Rivera won the AL Rolaids Relief Man Award, which was given each year to the best closer in the league based on their stats. Rivera got a win and two saves against the Braves in the 1999 World Series. His second save was the one that gave the Yankees their third championship. He won the World Series MVP Award for how well he played against Atlanta.

On July 8, 2000, as part of a day-night doubleheader against the New York Mets, he saved two games. Each game was played in a different stadium. At the end of the season, Mariano Rivera had 36 saves out of 41 chances and an ERA of 2.85. Rivera saved six games in the postseason and only gave up three earned runs in 15 and 2/3 innings. He also broke two major-league records by surpassing Dennis Eckersley’s record for most postseason saves with his 16th and going past Whitey Ford’s record for most consecutive scoreless innings pitched in the postseason with 33 and 2/3 innings. Rivera helped his team win the World Series against the Mets in 2000, making it the third year in a row that they won.

He didn’t let any of the last 309 batters hit. When Mariano Rivera got Mike Piazza to fly out to Bernie Williams in center field on the last play of the 2000 Series, he became the only pitcher to get the last out in three straight World Series. At the same time, Rivera saved his seventh game in the World Series, which beat Rollie Fingers’ record of six. The closer raised that score to 11 over the next few years.

Jack Curry, a journalist, immediately called him the Yankees’ “infallible weapon” and “the biggest reason they won three championships.”

In 2001, Mariano Rivera saved 50 games, which was the most in the league. This broke the team record of 46 saves, which Dave Righetti had set in 1986. He was also the first Yankee reliever to get three saves of 40 or more in a single season (1997, 1999, and 2001). Rivera lost his first and only playoff game in his 96-game career that year.

Mariano Rivera had the best game of his life in the seventh game of the 2003 ALCS. After eight innings, when the score was tied at five, manager Torre called for his closer. Rivera pitched three scoreless innings and then got two of the three batters he faced in the 11th inning to strike out. Would he come out to pitch in the bottom of the 12th? Aaron Boone’s home run in the first inning won the game and the series for New York. As Boone ran around the bases, a happy and tired Mariano Rivera ran to the mound and collapsed in the joy of winning. After first-base coach Lee Mazzilli lifted him off the mound, the rest of the team carried him off the field. This is one of the most famous pictures from his career. Rivera won the MVP award for both the game and the series, and when reporters got to him on the field, he was crying.

In 2004, Mariano Rivera didn’t throw for the first time since he had a career-high 53 saves and an ERA of 1.94. He passed Dennis Eckersley for fourth place all-time in saves on June 6, 2006. Six weeks later, he became the fourth pitcher in the major leagues to reach 400 saves. The White Sox game on July 16 was when the latter milestone was reached. At the end of the 2006 season, Mariano Rivera had 34 saves out of 37 chances and an ERA of 1.80. This was his fourth straight season with an ERA below 2.00. By giving Rivera a three-year, $45 million deal in November 2007, the Yankees made him the best-paid reliever in baseball history. 61 At the start of the season, Rivera pitched 15 innings without giving up a run. This was the most innings he had ever gone without giving up a run. Between April 1 and August 7, he saved 28 times in a row, which was another personal best. After that was broken, Mariano Rivera made 11 more shots in a row. On September 15 against the White Sox, he got his 479th save, passing Lee Smith for second place on the list of all-time saves. During one of his best seasons, he made 39 of 40 saves and had an ERA of 1.40, which was perfect.

From June 7 to September 16 of 2009, Rivera was perfect in all 36 games he played. He had 28 saves and didn’t let any of them go bad. Mariano Rivera won three games and didn’t lose any. The team went undefeated (36-0) in those games. In 36 and a third innings, he struck out 36 batters and walked only nine. During that time, his earned run average (ERA) was 0.50, and batters Mariano Rivera faced only hit.130. The Yankees won 103 regular season games under Joe Girardi, who took over for Joe Torre in 2008. This helped them win the AL East title.

In a win against the Mets in Queens on June 28, Rivera became the second player in baseball history to get 500 saves after Trevor Hoffman. In the same game, he got his only RBI by walking with the bases full. In July of that year, Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect ninth inning in St. Louis to save a record-setting fourth game at the All-Star Game. On November 4, 2009, the Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win their 27th World Series title.

It was also the fourth time in a row that Mariano Rivera ended the Fall Classic, which is a record. On November 6, “The Core Four,” or Rivera, Jeter, Pettitte, and Posada, had their last victory parade down the “Canyon of Heroes” in Manhattan. They had played together at Columbus for the first time in 1994, and together they had won five rings. The Sporting News later named Rivera Pro Athlete of the Year.

Mariano Rivera was still the best at age 40. In 2010, he had 33 saves and an earned run average of 1.80. During Game One of the ALCS at Texas, he got his 42nd and last save of the season (which the Rangers won). Mariano Rivera came into the game in the ninth inning, after the Yankees had pulled off an unlikely comeback of five runs to take a 6-5 lead. Rivera signed a two-year, $30 million contract during the off-season.

The records kept getting more and more. On May 25, 2011, Mariano Rivera pitched in his 1,000th game, which was the most for any pitcher with one team. On September 19 of that year, he made his 602nd save against Minnesota. This put him ahead of Hoffman as the all-time leader in this category. Ricardo Martinelli, the president of Panama, called Mariano Rivera to offer his congratulations. By the end of that season, the 41-year-old pitcher had 44 saves, making him the oldest pitcher to get 40 saves in a single season.

On May 2, 2012, Mariano Rivera fell to the warning track in left field while catching fly balls during batting practice at Kauffman Stadium. He tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), hurt the meniscus in his right knee, and got a blood clot in his calf, all at the same time. Once he was fully recovered, he and the Yankees came to a $10 million deal for one year. This was announced on November 29.

Before his 24th spring training, Mariano Rivera made it official that the 2013 season would be his last. Teams from all of the major leagues paid him tribute. In return, Rivera spent hours with certain groups of fans who were disabled or had been hurt, as well as with employees who had hard jobs that no one appreciated. Rivera saved 44 games in his last season and went 6-2 with a 2.11 ERA. The last four outs he got in his career brought his career ERA down to 2.209.

During the regular season, Mariano Rivera struck out 1,173 of his opponents. He has come in as a relief pitcher for the Yankees 1,105 times, which is more than anyone else. He has pitched 1,115 times in the major leagues, which is a record for right-handed pitchers and puts him in fourth place. Rivera saved 11 games and had an ERA of 0.99 in seven World Series between 1996 and 2009.  He saved 42 games in the playoffs and had an earned run average of 0.70, which are both major league records. His 141 innings in the playoffs are the same as what a reliever would do in two full seasons. Mariano Rivera only gave up two home runs in the playoffs. He also walked 21 batters (1.3 per nine innings), four of which were on purpose, and struck out 110 (7.0 per nine innings).

Mariano Rivera has been an All-Star 13 times, and he is MLB’s all-time leader in saves (652) and games finished in the regular season (952).

Mariano Rivera was chosen for the Baseball Hall of Fame on January 22, 2019. This was his first time on the ballot. He was the first person to be elected to the HOF by a unanimous vote. This was in line with the fact that he had an unmatched career and was the pitcher who defined the role of “closer” for all time. All 425 ballots that BBWAA members filled out for the award went to him.

Rivera holds or shares several records for the most seasons with more than 20 saves. Rivera’s career ERA (2.21) and WHIP (1.0) are the lowest of any MLB pitcher who has thrown at least 1,000 innings of live-ball baseball since 1920. This makes Mariano Rivera one of the best pitchers at keeping batters from getting on base and scoring since 1920. He had an ERA of less than 2.00 in 11 seasons, which was the same number as Walter Johnson (minimum 60 innings pitched each). Rivera also has the best career-adjusted ERA+ (205), which takes into account the league and ballpark so that pitchers can be compared from the same starting point.

Mariano Rivera holds many postseason records, such as the lowest career ERA (at least 30 innings pitched) of 0.70, the most saves (42), the most consecutive scoreless innings pitched (33+1/3), the most consecutive save opportunities made (23), and the most games pitched (96). He saved more than twice as many games in the playoffs as any other pitcher. The next-highest total is 20 games, which Kenley Jansen has. It is aptly said, “more people (12) have walked on the moon than have scored an earned run against Mariano Rivera in the postseason, which is a fact that is often brought up (11).”

In a 2009 poll on ESPN.com, Rivera was chosen as one of the top five players in MLB history to play in the postseason. Neil Greenberg of The Washington Post said that Mariano Rivera was the most “clutch” player in the history of the MLB playoffs.

The cut fastball Mariano Rivera threw was a well-known pitch in the major leagues. Jim Thome said it was “the best pitch in the history of the game; Rivera’s cutter was the best pitch I’ve ever seen,” said David Ortiz. In 2004, ESPN.com said that his cutter was the best baseball “out pitch.” Olney said that his cut fastball was “the best pitch in a generation.” ESPN.com ranked him as the 31st best MLB player of all time in 2022.

Mariano Rivera’s Greatest Moments

• 13-time AL All-Star (1997, 1999-2002, 2004-2006, 2008-2011 & 2013)
• 6-time AL Reliever of the Year Award Winner (1997, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005 & 2009)
• 5-time AL Rolaids Relief Award Winner: (1999, 2001, 2004, 2005 & 2009)
• 1999 World Series MVP
• 2003 ALCS MVP
• 2013 All-Star Game MVP
• 2013 AL Comeback Player of the Year
• 3-time AL Saves Leader (1999, 2001 & 2004)
• 30 Saves Seasons: 15 (1997-2001, 2003-2011 & 2013)
• 40 Saves Seasons: 9 (1997, 1999, 2001, 2003-2005, 2009, 2011 & 2013)
• 50 Saves Seasons: 2 (2001 & 2004)
• Won five World Series with the New York Yankees (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 & 2009)
• Baseball Hall of Fame: Class of 2019

FAQs about Mariano Rivera

The Stats

Mariano Rivera’s Standard Pitching Record

Mariano Rivera’s Postseason Pitching Record

Mariano Rivera’s Career Graph

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