In 2008, Francisco Rodríguez saved 62 games, setting an MLB record. That was the high water mark for the save, a statistic that had only been around for about 30 years at that point.
Things have changed. That season, 139 pitchers recorded a save, as teams generally tabbed one pitcher as their closer and stuck with it until a change was obviously needed. In 2025, 212 pitchers earned a save. It seems everyone is getting saves now, and the notion of having a single closer for each team is less prevalent.
Though the overall number of saves has remained consistent, this year, the trend of more pitchers recording saves is even more obvious. Thanks to Katie Sharp at Baseball-Reference, we can see how bullpen usage is shifting:
A month into the season, almost 100 pitchers have a save already, another big jump in the progression. Why do so many pitchers have a save already? Are we moving away from the closer and devaluing the save stat?
There are several factors in play, including injuries and changes to how teams look to navigate the later innings. But with teams spreading their saves around, it changes how relievers are being evaluated and compensated.
Some of what is happening is a trick of circumstance. Plenty of managers would still prefer to have one guy at the back of the bullpen who they can rely on.
“It’s way easier to have one guy,” said Derek Shelton, manager of a Minnesota Twins team that has had five pitchers record a save this year.
The start of the season hasn’t been kind to the top closers in the game. Among the closers projected to be among the top 15 in saves this year, you’ll find:
Edwin Díaz, on the injured list (elbow surgery)
Devin Williams, trying to find his old changeup again
Daniel Palencia, on the IL (muscle strain)
Jhoan Duran, on the IL (oblique strain)
Josh Hader, hasn’t pitched yet due to a shoulder problem
Carlos Estévez, whose velocity was down before a foot injury
Jeff Hoffman, whose team has moved to a closer-by-committee approach after his early-season struggles
Raisel Iglesias, on the IL (shoulder issue)
Pete Fairbanks, on the IL (numbness in his pitching hand)
So, to some extent, injuries to the top closers can explain the increase in the number of pitchers getting save opportunities. But that doesn’t explain the entire shape of that graph. There’s been a change in how the back end of bullpens have been utilized for five-plus years now.
“Teams are just matching up,” Shelton said. “They’re using guys in higher-leverage situations earlier in the game. What teams are learning is, you may not get to the ninth.”
Relievers themselves are buying into the new way of handling the later innings. Whereas relievers once seemed to yearn for defined roles — often by inning as seventh-, eighth- or ninth-inning guys — relievers now see their “roles” differently. Instead of being told when they’re likely to be used, they’re told who they are likely to face.
“Everybody has a pocket (with) the way the game has evolved with analytics, matchups and all that stuff,” Twins reliever Justin Topa said. “They say, ‘We think you’re successful against this group of guys.’ Whether that’s in the seventh, eighth or the ninth, it’s going to be that situation. We’ve trended that way, it’s how the game has evolved.”
The three-batter minimum rule — introduced at the start of the 2020 season — may have had some effect on this, as pitchers after that change couldn’t fall into specialist roles where they were used only against same-handed hitters. Those match-up specific pitchers weren’t ideal candidates for save opportunities as they were often used for only one or two outs at a time. But the big spike in the number of pitchers with saves predates that rule (in 2019), and that was more a part of a sea change than anything that specifically spurred the trend.
“We’re all trying to find opportunities to put our best arms, our best out-getters, against the other team’s best hitters, because those are the leverage moments,” an American League executive told Mark Feinsand at MLB.com. “Whether it’s deploying your best reliever in the eighth inning because he’s going to face the heart of the order, or even running out an opener to make sure he faces the top of the order, that can matter more than doing it in the ninth against the 7-8-9 hitters.”
Advancements in athlete science could have more to do with spurring the change.
Back-to-back-to-back appearances used to be more common for relievers, but they’re almost extinct now. Even back-to-backs are down off a peak. As teams have become smarter about keeping their relievers fresh, it’s required managers to trust more pitchers with that ninth-inning role.
“It’s the nature of the way these kids train now,” San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello said. “It’s a lot more like football, where they’re almost training to throw one time. So if you’re asked to throw more and more and more, but that’s not the way you’re training, you’re maybe a little bit more susceptible to get hurt, or the shelf life maybe shrinks a little bit.”
Clearly, there are a couple things at play. One is a short-term crisis in personnel that has led to a potential temporary spike in the number of relievers getting save chances. The other is a long-term trend toward playing the matchups in the bullpen, where roles are more fluid and each reliever has their particular strengths and weaknesses that are pitted against each batter’s strengths and weaknesses to find the best way to finish off a win.
But both of these things do lead to a question: Is the save dead?
“It’s definitely not,” said Twins reliever Taylor Rogers. “There’s two ways of thinking about it: If you are a designated closer, you get judged on how you do that. And if you’re not, let’s get judged on other factors, like what the team is asking of you.”
So going forward, how should relievers be evaluated and compensated if the save isn’t the apex of a reliever’s value?
“It’s going to have to be a slow process,” Rogers continued. “I think we’re going to try to take a look at the pre-arbitration bonus pool and how that’s structured to try to help out the relievers, try to re-work a few things there. Obviously, arbitration is tough to re-work with how that’s set up. It’s more of a long-game thing along the lines of the mechanisms that were put in the last CBA.”
One mechanism to judge relievers could be leverage index, which is a stat that judges how important the current game situation is to the team. Bases loaded in the seventh? That can be as important to the win as a clean 1-2-3 ninth inning.
“Maybe leverage index needs to be more valuable (in compensation negotiations),” Giants reliever Ryan Walker said. “If they were to change anything, that would be something to look at. If pitchers are rotating, then the only thing they have to show is that leverage part. If it’s a committee basis, you’d have to look at that.”
While those changes haven’t yet been made officially, Rogers has seen signs that relievers are still being valued in the absence of big saves numbers.
“I may know a guy who got paid to throw leverage for Toronto, who is getting closer money to throw leverage,” Rogers said, referring to his twin brother Tyler Rogers, who signed a three-year, $37 million contract with the Blue Jays this offseason. “It’s going to start to sprinkle in, it’s just going to take a while.”
Everyone’s getting saves now, but that doesn’t mean the stat is dead. It’s just a little different. Holds matter now. Leverage matters now.
Teams care about strikeout rates, pitch shapes, velocity, and maybe even performance in leverage more than they care about saves. But the main closer, the guy who can get it done, is still valued. Things change but change itself is constant.
“Goose Gossage used to say a one-inning save is not a save. Back then it was two-inning saves and, sometimes, even three innings,” Topa said, noting that the game has evolved and teams have adjusted how they view their bullpen.
“Things are going to shift. It’s kind of like that pendulum that’s always going to find its way back to equal. Whether it be a new stat, or that leverage index is very important, but I don’t think the save is dead yet.”
In the end, all everyone is trying to do is get to the “W.”
“Sometimes, it’s one or two (outs), sometimes it’s four,” Vitello said. “All we’re trying to do is win the game. We’re not trying to make a guy uncomfortable. We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything like that. We’re just trying to win.”