The best closers in MLB history: 7. Dennis Eckersley
- 390 total saves
- 1992 Cy Young and MVP Award winner
- 2.85 ERA (as reliever)
- 84.6 save percentage
There are a number of closers on this list that began their careers as starting pitchers. But, no one else did it quite like Dennis Eckersley.
Eckersley spent his first 12 MLB seasons as a full-time starting pitcher. In fact, he won close to 150 games and pitched to a 3.71 ERA along with two different All-Star appearances. Sure, he wasn’t the best starting pitcher in baseball, but he was more than reliable.
But, in 1987, everything changed. The Oakland Athletics pushed Eckersley to the back end of the bullpen to help revitalize his career. The result? It worked, beautifully.
Eckersley spent the final 12 years of his lengthy 24-year career as a closer and dominated the game. In that span, he recorded at least 30 saves in eight different seasons and owned a 2.85 ERA as a reliever. Eckersley led all of baseball in saves twice, hitting 45 and 51, respectively. In total, he recorded 390 career saves, the seventh-most all-time.
The highlight of Eckersley’s career came in 1992 when he took home a set of dual hardware. Eckersley is just one of 11 pitchers to win both the Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player Award in the same season and just the second relief pitcher to ever accomplish that feat. In 1992, Eckersley led all of baseball with 51 saves, also recording 65 games finished with a 1.91 ERA, 1.72 FIP, and 0.913 WHIP.