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The Top 100 Relievers of All Time

By Bill James

October 27, 2017

2017-56

The 100 Greatest Relievers of all time, presented with no commentary:

	Names		Years		Best
Rank	First	Last	First	Last	Year	Points
1	Mariano	Rivera	1996	2013	2005	1801
2	Rollie	Fingers	1968	1985	1981	1111
3	Trevor	Hoffman	1993	2010	1998	1057
4	Goose	Gossage	1972	1994	1977	1039
5	Billy	Wagner	1995	2010	2010	1027
6	Joe	Nathan	2002	2016	2006	1000
7	Hoyt	Wilhelm	1952	1972	1964	981
8	Francisco	Rodriguez	2002	2017	2008	850
9	Lee	Smith	1980	1997	1991	805
10	Jonathan	Papelbon	2005	2016	2006	804

11	Dennis	Eckersley	1987	1998	1992	802
12	John	Franco	1984	2005	1988	784
13	Sparky	Lyle	1967	1982	1972	776
14	Craig	Kimbrel	2010	2017	2013	769
15	Robb	Nen	1993	2002	2000	745
16	Dan	Quisenberry	1979	1990	1983	727
17	Bruce	Sutter	1976	1988	1979	694
18	Mike	Marshall	1967	1981	1974	684
19	Doug	Jones	1982	2000	1997	675
20	Kent	Tekulve	1974	1989	1978	658

21	Tom	Henke	1982	1995	1989	652
22	John	Wetteland	1989	2000	1993	650
23	Lindy	McDaniel	1956	1975	1960	617
24	Kenley	Jansen	2010	2017	2017	595
25	Roy	Face	1953	1969	1959	581
26	Tug	McGraw	1965	1984	1972	570
27	Clay	Carroll	1964	1978	1972	561
28	Armando	Benitez	1994	2008	2004	544
29	Francisco	Cordero	1999	2012	2004	540
30	John	Hiller	1965	1980	1973	538

31	Ron	Perranoski	1961	1973	1963	538
32	Jeff	Reardon	1979	1994	1982	536
33	Roberto	Hernandez	1991	2007	1996	531
34	Stu	Miller	1954	1968	1965	530
35	Randy	Myers	1985	1998	1997	526
36	Huston	Street	2005	2017	2014	520
37	Aroldis	Chapman	2010	2017	2012	508
38	Keith	Foulke	1997	2008	2003	504
39	Eric	Gagne	2002	2008	2003	503
40	Jeff	Montgomery	1987	1999	1993	484

41	Todd	Worrell	1985	1997	1986	484
42	Willie	Hernandez	1977	1989	1984	464
43	Jose	Mesa	1994	2007	1995	463
44	Dick	Radatz	1962	1969	1964	455
45	Rick	Aguilera	1988	2000	1991	454
46	Rod	Beck	1991	2004	1993	445
47	Gene	Garber	1970	1988	1978	439
48	Mark	Melancon	2009	2017	2015	437
49	Gregg	Olson	1988	2001	1989	435
50	Jason	Isringhausen	1999	2012	2007	429

51	Dave	Righetti	1984	1994	1986	424
52	Ted	Abernathy	1955	1972	1967	423
53	Jesse	Orosco	1979	2003	1983	419
54	Mike	Henneman	1987	1996	1988	417
55	Steve	Bedrosian	1981	1995	1987	415
56	Bill	Campbell	1973	1987	1976	412
57	J.J.	Putz	2003	2014	2007	408
58	Troy	Percival	1995	2009	2002	404
59	Gary	Lavelle	1974	1987	1977	401
60	Zach	Britton	2014	2017	2016	398

61	Dave	Giusti	1962	1977	1973	395
62	Jose	Valverde	2003	2014	2011	393
63	Eddie	Fisher	1959	1972	1965	391
64	Brad	Lidge	2002	2012	2008	387
65	Firpo	Marberry	1923	1936	1926	386
66	Rafael	Soriano	2003	2015	2010	385
67	Joakim	Soria	2007	2017	2008	384
68	Jeff	Brantley	1988	2001	1996	384
69	Aurelio	Lopez	1974	1987	1979	373
70	Don	McMahon	1957	1974	1970	372

71	Greg	Holland	2010	2017	2014	370
72	Jeff	Shaw	1991	2001	1997	370
73	Jim	Brewer	1961	1976	1971	369
74	Heath	Bell	2004	2014	2010	359
75	Phil	Regan	1960	1972	1966	354
76	Pedro	Borbon	1969	1980	1973	342
77	Ellis	Kinder	1946	1957	1953	341
78	Jay	Howell	1980	1994	1985	339
79	Bob	Wickman	1994	2007	2001	339
80	Tim	Burke	1985	1992	1987	337

81	Dave	Smith	1980	1992	1985	335
82	Bob	Stanley	1977	1989	1978	334
83	Fernando	Rodney	2002	2017	2012	324
84	Ugueth	Urbina	1997	2005	1998	324
85	Bob	Locker	1965	1975	1967	321
86	Duane	Ward	1986	1995	1993	321
87	Mark	Davis	1985	1997	1989	316
88	Tom	Gordon	1988	2009	1998	316
89	Bryan	Harvey	1987	1995	1991	314
90	Todd	Jones	1993	2008	2005	312

91	Wade	Davis	2012	2017	2015	308
92	Frank	Linzy	1963	1974	1965	307
93	Jeff	Russell	1986	1996	1989	305
94	David	Robertson	2008	2017	2017	303
95	Clem	Labine	1950	1962	1955	301
96	Greg	Minton	1976	1990	1982	300
97	Steve	Farr	1985	1994	1990	300
98	Johnny	Murphy	1932	1947	1941	298
99	Al	McBean	1961	1970	1964	297
100	Danny	Graves	1996	2006	2000	295

OK, minimal commentary.

1) It’s a purely numbers-based ranking, with no subjective adjustments after the fact (although, of course, subjective judgment is always used, by all analysts, in determining what goes into the numbers.

2) There are five "rules" for awarding points, four of which are derived in one manner or another from Season Scores; it’s really a system of looking at the Season Scores this way, and then looking at them that way, and then a third way, and then a fourth way.

3) The only points that aren’t awarded in that way are bonuses for winning the Cy Young Award and the MVP. Without the Cy Young/MVP points, Rollie Fingers would rank fifth, behind Hoffman, Gossage and Wagner.

4) I don’t intend to explain the points, because that’s a four-page explanation and I’m interested in the rankings, not the method; the points are really just displayed here to show how absurdly far ahead of everyone else Mariano is.

5) I started the system with one idea of how I would rank players, but that didn’t really work, so I added a second element and adjusted the points and re-ranked them, added a third element, etc., etc.; it went through about 15 iterations before I was ready to go with it. The only consistent thing was that Mariano was always absurdly far ahead of everybody else, no matter how I did the rankings. And none of this even considers post-season play.

6) There are no actual ties; there are un-displayed decimals which would make it all but impossible to have a tie.

7) The guy who always gets screwed in these discussions is Joe Nathan; it was actually just in the last iteration of the system that he dropped to sixth. Until then he was third or fourth. People talk about Billy Wagner as a Hall of Fame candidate and K-Rod and Lee Smith and Franco and Quisenberry; Sutter and Wilhelm are actually in the Hall of Fame. But Nathan had a LOT more impressive seasons than K-Rod did or most of those other pitchers, really more high-impact seasons as a reliever than almost anyone other than Rivera, but somehow he always gets left out of those discussions.

8) Active relievers (2017) who are on the list: Francisco Rodriguez (8^th), Craig Kimbrel (14^th), Kenley Jansen (24^th), Huston Street (36^th), Aroldis Chapman (37^th), Mark Melancon (48^th), Zach Britton (60^th), Joakim Soria (67^th), Greg Holland (71^st), Fernando Rodney (83^rd), Wade Davis (91^st), and David Robertson (94^th).

9) Number of pitchers on this list active by decade: 1920s, 1; 1930s, 2; 1940s, 2; 1950s, 9; 1960s, 23; 1970s, 32; 1980s, 43; 1990s, 46; 2000s, 39; this decade, 24. Highest number is 46, in the 1990s.

10) Number of pitchers per decade by their best seasons: 1920s, 1; 1930s, none; 1940s, 1; 1950s, 3; 1960s, 11; 1970s, 17; 1980s, 18; 1990s, 18; 2000s, 17; this decade, 14.

11) Pitchers who usually get overlooked in this discussion: Joe Nathan, Doug Jones, Clay Carroll, Francisco Cordero, John Hiller, Jeff Montgomery, Gregg Olson, Mike Henneman, Gary Lavelle, Don McMahon, Bob Wickman, Todd Jones, Frank Linzy, Greg Minton, Al McBean, Danny Graves. Pitchers who maybe get overrated in this discussion: K-Rod, Sutter, Tekulve, Roy Face, Eric Gagne, Mark Davis, Bryan Harvey, Jim Konstanty (101), Al Hrabosky (103), Joe Page (108), Rob Dibble (148).

COMMENTS (32 Comments, most recent shown first)

RMc
Joe Nathan, Francisco Rodriguez, Doug Jones and Jose Valverde were all great relievers...except when they pitched for the Tigers.
6:25 PM Nov 18th

trn6229
My bad again, Tugger is at number 26. I missed those two when I scanned the list. Take Care, Tom Nahigian
11:52 PM Oct 30th

trn6229
Whoops. Missed Sparky at number 13, but still no sign of Tug McGraw. He was good in 1969, great in 1971 and 1972, up and down in 1973 and had some good years with the Phillies and a great year in 1980. Take Care, Tom Nahigian
11:51 PM Oct 30th

trn6229
I am surprised that Sparky Lyle and Tug McGraw did not make the list. Take Care, Tom Nahigian
11:48 PM Oct 30th

BryanBM
86 players have 300+ IP in the 9th inning from 1913-2017. 72 of those players make the list. 27th Clay Carroll, 30th John Hiller, 39th Eric Gagne, 44th Dick Radatz and 48th Mark Melancon are the highest rated relievers without 300+ IP in the 9th. 3 of the 14 that don't make the list with 300+ IP in the 9th are for obvious reasons: Gaylord Perry, Robin Roberts and Warren Spahn

The other 11: Brian Fuentes, Kevin Gregg, Eddie Guardado, LaTroy Hawkins, Michael Jackson, Darold Knowles, Roger McDowell, Dan Plesac, Bobby Thigpen, Mike Timlin and Mitch Williams

The 28 without are 9 with 250-299.2 IP in the 9th: Heath Bell 279, Jim Brewer 270, Clay Carroll 289.2, Eric Gagne 268.1, John Hiller 290.2, Greg Holland 255.1, Frank Linzy 256, Mark Melancon 281 and Jeff Russell 281

15 with 200-249.2 IP in the 9th: Pedro Borbon 207.1, Tim Burke 227, Mark Davis 204.1, Steve Farr 236.1, Eddie Fisher 246, Bryan Harvey 240.1, Ellis Kinder 232.1, Clem Labine 217.1, Bob Locker 204.2, Aurelio Lopez 220, Johnny Murphy 221, Dick Radatz 239.2, Phil Regan 225.2, David Robertson 235.2 and Duane Ward 241.1

180 players have 200+ IP in the 9th with 109 (Eckersley) or fewer starts that they reach the 9th inning and 96 of them make the list. The other 4: Zach Britton 182 (1 start), Wade Davis 142.1 (3), Firpo Marberry 62 (27) and Al McBean 165 (28)

Information provided by baseball-reference.com Play Index.
2:40 PM Oct 30th

OldBackstop
Papelbon surprised me at being that highly rated but out of the game at 35.

It's like he became a choker.
1:19 PM Oct 30th

jwilt
#6 Joe Nathan
In relief: 761 innings of a 2.50, 377 saves, 0.7 HR/9, 10.4 K/9, 2.9 BB/9
High leverage situations: .592 OPS in 1509 PA
9th inning: 2.37 ERA, .592 OPS, 553 innings
Nine seasons with 50+ innings in relief and en ERA under 3.00

#7 Hoyt Wilhelm
In relief: 1872 innings of a 2.49, 228 saves, 0.6 HR/9, 6.6 K/9, 3.1 BB/9
High leverage situations: .618 OPS in 3083 PA
9th inning: 2.54 ERA, .563 OPS, 528 innings
13 seasons with 50+ innings in relief and an ERA under 3.00

7:12 AM Oct 30th

MooseforCooperstown
Like FireballWenz, I'm a little confused as to why Rollie Fingers is so high on this list. Bill in the New Historical Abstract, said something like: "I fail to see what was so remarkable about Rollie Fingers' career."
8:50 PM Oct 29th

mikeclaw
I frequently find myself putting Billy Wagner's career next to Trevor Hoffman's and finding Wagner to be the better pitcher. Hoffman hung around, and Wagner retired while he was still unhittable. For that reason, Hoffman has more saves and more innings, but Wagner seems to me to be far more effective and amazingly consistent. If memory serves, except for one or two injury-shortened seasons, Wagner never had an ERA over 3.00, or even anywhere close to three.

Hoffman is ahead of him here, but only by a couple of points, so I would assume that reflects the longer career. If one of them was going to be my closer and I was going to have his full career as-is, I would take Wagner in an instant.
4:01 PM Oct 29th

KaiserD2
Dave Smith did a fine presentation last summer at SABR on why the theory behind closers is meaningless. He said some organization people have told him they know it but they have to use them anyway because everybody expects it.

DK
2:53 PM Oct 28th

jollydodger
The stupidity/stubbornness/laziness of managers giving their not-best reliever all the save opportunities is sort of a thing, isn't it?
11:29 AM Oct 28th

CharlesSaeger
What would the list look like without the criterion for awards?
10:52 AM Oct 28th

KaiserD2
I have no argument with the list. I didn't do anything similar in my book but I certainly found that Rivera was head and shoulders above any other reliever. I also found, ironically, that his best year in terms of value to the his team was 1996, before he was the closer. I do regret that Bill did give us at least a general opinion of the comparative value of great relievers and great starters. I did not find any reliever, including Rivera, whose value could remotely be compared to that of a legitimate Hall of Fame starter. What has happened regarding the Hall of Fame is that, having made saves a recognized stat, we assume that the men who have the most saves deserve to be in the Hall. But as a group I have no doubt that relievers, within the Hall, did relatively little to help their teams win games.

9:06 AM Oct 28th

nettles9
I wish Bill called it the Best Fireman list of the Best Stopper list. Seems to me Best Reliever list is the most appropriate name.
8:50 AM Oct 28th

hotstatrat
BryanBM vs. BJames - or Reed, O'Day & Eichhorn vs. Wickman, McBean, & Graves -

What about O'Day vs. Graves. ERA+ normalizes the ERA to park and league/season context - with 100 being average and 150 being 50% better than league average. In his first 535 innings Darren O'Day has a 170 ERA+ (2.52 in just plain old fashioned ERA). Graves had a 133 ERA+ (3.42) in his first 518 innings, then after a bad year had only one more good year of 68 innings and a 108 ERA+ (3.95). Graves' only plus is his 170 Saves during his good years. O'Day has only 19. I'm not taking sides, but it is fair to say Bryan's original point (not put as nicely as I'm going to) seems to hold up - that Bill factors in Saves more heavily than Bryan would appear to.
8:16 AM Oct 28th

hotstatrat
BobGill: Making a rough estimate, Firpo Marberry reach no. 1 in the mid to late 1920s and held that spot until Roy Face and Hoyt Wilhelm passed him sometime likely in the early 1960s with a cluster of relievers coming right behind.

Mariano has 62% more points than no. 2 guy Rollie Fingers and 70% more than his N.L. rival Trevor Hoffman. I wonder who had 2nd and third most reliever points after Marberry's final year and if they were as close.
10:00 PM Oct 27th

BobGill
I've always thought Fred Marberry was a really interesting figure from the past. Just out of curiosity, how long did he hold the top spot? It looks like it must've been 20 years, at least.

9:06 PM Oct 27th

BryanBM
For baseball-reference.com pitching WAR go to any player page and hover your cursor over WAAadj for the full explanation. Pretty sure gmLI is the same as aLI, Average Leverage Index. Bruce Sutter has the highest career aLI at 1.971 among pitchers with at least 500 IP, 52 pitchers have at least 1.5.

Relief pitchers WAA is multiplied by (1+gmLI)/2, the entire league gets a small negative WAAadj to get the sum of the league WAA+WAAadj back to 0.

WAR = WAA + WAAadj + Replacement Value

Rivera's entire career is 10.2 WAAadj and is most likely one of the highest career WAAadj.
7:41 PM Oct 27th

jimmybart
Question for those who follow sabermetric developments more than myself: have adjustments been made recently to attribute more value to relievers/closers? There seemed to be a disconnect between the computed valuations vs. how the teams actually valued these players, especially the one-inning relievers.
7:09 PM Oct 27th

BryanBM
What are the chances that Craig Kimbrel from this point forward has Billy Wagner's entire career? He's currently given Wagner a ~4 year head start, Wagner has 0.1 IP at 23, 6.18 ERA at 28 and because of a July birthday for Wagner and May for Kimbrel they are closer in Age if you consider Wagner before his Age 29 season.

Kimbrel needs something like: 875 IP, 2.19 ERA, 1168 K, 12.0 K/9, 282 BB, 2.9 BB/9, 416 Saves in 476 Opportunities or 87.4% in 14 more seasons which are Wagner's stats once you eliminate 1995 and 2000. 62 IP, 83 K, 20 BB and 30 saves in 34 opportunities. Kimbrel's average season 2011-17 is 64 IP, 1.86 ERA, 105 K, 23 BB, 41 saves in 45 opportunities.

Depending on how the points scale a season of 70 IP, 0.50 ERA, 110 K, 15 BB, 44 saves in 45 opportunities and a season of 58 IP, 3.10 ERA, 100 K, 31 BB and 38 saves in 45 opportunities could be worth a lot more than 2 average seasons but the baseline for Kimbrel to reach Mariano is Wagner's entire career.

I have no problem with the list, but if Bill had made a list of best 100 pitchers and didn't include Mariano I would have suggested it would be more accurate to call it the best 100 starting pitchers since Bill would most likely exclude the 19th century and 100th might be Frank Tanana or Steve Rogers and there are an assortment of metrics which suggest Mariano was a better pitcher. Or simply "only players with 2000+ career IP are considered" or "only players with 100+ saves are considered".

The vast majority of the best pitchers start. The vast majority of the best relievers close. Making parameters and/or metrics which cater to starting or closing makes a lot of sense. If you do that though I disagree with an article title which implies Mariano isn't one of the best 100 pitchers.
4:36 PM Oct 27th

Fireball Wenz
Interesting how well Fingers does, as I believe that elsewhere Bill made the case that he was overrated and not comparable to Gossage.
4:21 PM Oct 27th

Brian
The era of Tigers baseball that began with a near-miss for the playoffs in 2009 and ended with a near-miss for the playoffs in 2016 is generally considered a very good era in team history, but one that came up short mostly due to their bullpen. In 2006, the bullpen was the strength of the AL Champion team. Prior to that, the team had a horrendous history dating back to 1989. I think it would be fair to say the bullpen was just as bad as the rest of the team. The 1987 division champs were clearly weakest in the pen.

Joe Nathan, Francisco Rodriguez, Willie Hernandez, Mike Henneman, Jose Valverde, Joakim Soria, Fernando Rodney, Ugueth Urbina, Todd Jones - 9 of the top 100 - all played significant roles at one time or another on those teams. I can't imagine that Benoit, who didn't make the top 100, is too far down the list.

Seems like a high number of top 100 pitchers to be on a unit that can be fairly described as a weakness over a 30 year period. When you look at it, other than Henneman and Rodney, none of these pitchers started with Detroit. In fact, most were pitchers who were acquired later in their career. While they often got 1 and sometimes 2 good years out of these guys, the acquire an old closer strategy was a doomed long term plan.

4:18 PM Oct 27th

tangotiger
I took Bill's list and converted it into a WAR-like number, just so we can compare to what Fangraphs WAR has. Here is the top 25:

diff BJ FG Reliever
2 41 39 Mariano Rivera
-1 25 26 Rollie Fingers
-2 24 26 Trevor Hoffman
-5 24 29 Goose Gossage
0 24 24 Billy Wagner

4 23 19 Joe Nathan
3 23 19 Hoyt Wilhelm
3 20 17 Francisco Rodriguez
-7 19 26 Lee Smith
0 19 19 Jonathan Papelbon

-2 19 20 Dennis Eckersley
2 18 16 John Franco
3 18 15 Sparky Lyle
0 18 18 Craig Kimbrel
-1 17 18 Robb Nen

2 17 15 Dan Quisenberry
-3 16 19 Bruce Sutter
2 16 14 Mike Marshall
-6 16 22 Doug Jones
1 15 15 Kent Tekulve

-5 15 21 Tom Henke
0 15 15 John Wetteland
-5 14 19 Lindy McDaniel
-3 14 17 Kenley Jansen
4 14 9 Roy Face

3:54 PM Oct 27th

jollydodger
Helluva'n undertaking.
3:51 PM Oct 27th

sansho1
I'm reminded of this deathless quote: "If I didn’t do it the way that you would have done it, that is because I did it and you didn’t."

Yeah sure, he just said it a couple days ago, but I'm predicting deathlessness.
3:37 PM Oct 27th

evanecurb
Just as he did while active, Doug Jones continues to surprise us. (number 19 on this list). I never understood how he got everyone out. But he did.
3:32 PM Oct 27th

tigerlily
Yes, Mariano is miles ahead of the other relievers based on this method. I wonder, however, what sort of odds would you give to Kimbrel in catching Rivera. Rivera had 18 years as a reliever in which he earned those 1801 points - so 100 points per year. Kimbrel has relieved for 8 years and has 769 points - 96 points per season. If,and it's a big if, he can maintain that pace for another 10 years, he'd be within spitting of distance of Mariano by then. And since Kimbrel (who just finished his age 29 season) began his career as a reliever 3-4 years younger than Mariano, he'd be 39 (Mariano played through age 43). I doubt he'll get there but he does have a real chance.
2:37 PM Oct 27th

BryanBM
Edit: are not similar caliber
2:37 PM Oct 27th

BryanBM
Bob Wickman 807 games and 895 IP in relief, Steve Reed 833 games and 870.2 IP in relief. Eckersley's ranking strongly suggests you're only considering relief appearances. Wickman does have the 3.37 to 3.63 ERA in relief lead you mentioned, I'm not seeing how that indicates a gap of 79th and not a credible candidate for the Top 100.

Weirdly I do consider effective relief pitching to be getting batters out in games you didn't start. There are even various studies which suggest your best reliever should enter the game in the highest leverage situation and/or to face the heart of the order regardless of the inning.

I was disappointed that yet another list of "relievers" didn't include Eichhorn one of my favorite players because his un-orthodox delivery amused me as a child. I considered that he might have been somewhere in the low 100s so spot checked two additional names and identified that it was extremely likely that Saves factored into the list.

Thank you for confirming that Saves are indeed a criteria, changing the title of the article would make it more accurate even if you feel it's redundant as you feel and your rankings reflect that Wickman and Reed are similar caliber relievers.
2:33 PM Oct 27th

bjames
Violating my own rule against arguing with readers.. . there is no way in hell that Steve Reed can be considered one of the 100 top relievers of all time. You can't IGNORE saves in evaluating a reliever, just as you can't ignore strikeouts, walks, ERA, innings, or game appearances. Comparing Steve Reed to Bob Wickman, Wickman has more games, 20% more innings, and a better ERA--and he ranks 79th on the list. The fact that Wickman has a 267 to 18 advantage in Saves is not THE reason for that; it is merely the last straw.
1:56 PM Oct 27th

wovenstrap
On what basis are you calling Tekulve overrated? If he's the 20th-greatest reliever of all time (higher than I would have estimated), he ought to be mentioned a lot more often than he is! I suppose there's a serious timeline bias there, because I guess people don't mention Quiz or Sutter that much either. But at least those guys I'd have pegged for possibly top ten; not Tekulve.
1:53 PM Oct 27th

BryanBM
100 best closers not relievers. You have Saves or something else factored in that excludes Steve Reed, Darren O'Day and Mark Eichhorn most notably.
1:35 PM Oct 27th

The Top 100 Relievers of All Time

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