Over the past two seasons, the only 20-game winners in MLB have been Julio Urias and Kyle Wright. Urias won 20 games in 2021 with the Dodgers while Wright won 21 games with the Atlanta Braves last season.
Being 20-game winners in the past two seasons is not the only connection for Urias and Wright. For both pitchers, the bullpen closer in their 20-win season was the same pitcher, Kenley Jansen.
Jansen, a 13-year veteran, spent the first 12 seasons of his career with the Dodgers compiling 391 saves. He left Los Angeles in 2022 to become the closer in Atlanta. In Urias’ 20-win season, Jansen had 38 saves. Last year, as the Braves’ closer, Jansen had 41 saves in Wright’s 21-win season.
Jansen and his connection to Urias and Wright got me thinking about how often a 20-game winner has had a closer with a significant number of saves in a season. To find the answer, I selected 45 saves as the milestone to go along with a 20-game winner.
How many MLB pitchers have won 20 games since 1900?
For the record, there have been 839 pitchers who have won 20 or more games in the majors since 1900. Saves, on the other hand, really didn’t start to be coveted stat until the mid-1960s. It was in 1965 that the first relief pitcher ended the season with 30 or more saves; Ted Abernathy of the Chicago Cubs in ’65 had 31 saves appearing in a league-high 84 games from the bullpen.
Back to the task at hand … there have been 11 teams that have had a 20-game winner and a closer with 45 or more saves in the same season. Here is a look at those 11 teams.
MLB teams with a 20-game winner and a closer with 45 saves
1984 St. Louis Cardinals: Joaquin Andujar (20 wins), Bruce Sutter (45 saves)
1988 Oakland A’s: Dave Stewart (21 wins), Dennis Eckersley (45 saves)
1990 Oakland A’s: Dave Stewart (22 wins) and Bob Welch (27 wins), Dennis Eckersley (48 saves)
2001 New York Yankees: Roger Clemens (20 wins), Mariano Rivera (50 saves)
2001 Seattle Mariners: Jamie Moyer (20 wins), Kazuhiro Sasaki (45 saves)
2005 St. Louis Cardinals: Chris Carpenter (21 wins), Jason Isringhausen (47 saves)
2005 Los Angeles Angels: Bartolo Colon (21 wins), Francisco Rodriguez (45 saves)
2011 Arizona Diamondbacks: Ian Kennedy (21 wins), J.J. Putz (45 saves)
2011 Detroit Tigers: Justin Verlander (24 wins), Jose Valverde (49 saves)
2012 Tampa Bay Rays: David Price (20 wins), Fernando Rodney (48 saves)
2014 St. Louis Cardinals: Adam Wainwright (20 wins), Trevor Rosenthal (45 saves)