Rolaids Relief Man Award

Rolaids Relief Man Award
	Mariano Rivera won the AL Relief Man Award in 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, and 2009.
Sport	Baseball
League	Major League Baseball
Awarded for	Best relief pitcher in the American League and National League
Sponsored by	Rolaids
Presented by	Rolaids
History
First award	1976
Final award	2012
Most wins	5, shared by Mariano Rivera and Dan Quisenberry

The Rolaids Relief Man Award was an annual Major League Baseball (MLB) award given from 1976 to 2012 to the top relief pitchers of the regular season, one in the American League (AL) and one in the National League (NL).

Relief pitchers enter the game after the starting pitcher is removed. The award was sponsored by the antacid brand Rolaids, whose slogan was "R-O-L-A-I-D-S spells relief." Because the first closers were nicknamed "firemen", a reference to "putting out the fire" of another team's rally, the trophy was a gold-plated firefighter's helmet.

Statistical performance determined the winner, unlike the voting bodies that chose the recipients of the Cy Young Award and the MLB Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award. Each save was worth three points; each win was worth two points; and each loss was worth negative two points. Beginning with the 1988 MLB season, negative two points were given for blown saves.^[1]^[2] In the 2000 MLB season, Rolaids added an additional point for a "tough save": when a relief pitcher got the save after entering the game with the potential tying run on base. The player with the highest point total won the award.^[3]

The first winners were Bill Campbell (AL) and Rawly Eastwick (NL); Campbell also won in the following season. Dan Quisenberry and Mariano Rivera each won the AL award five times, while Rollie Fingers and Bruce Sutter won the award four times each. Lee Smith won the award on three occasions; Campbell, Dennis Eckersley, Dave Righetti, John Franco, Éric Gagné, Randy Myers, Trevor Hoffman, Francisco Rodríguez, Heath Bell, and José Valverde each won the award twice. Sutter (NL 1979), Fingers (AL 1981), Steve Bedrosian (NL 1987), Mark Davis (NL 1989), Eckersley (AL 1992), and Éric Gagné (NL 2003) won the Relief Man and the Cy Young Award in the same season; Fingers and Eckersley won the AL MVP as well, in 1981 and 1992 respectively.^[4]^[5] Todd Worrell won both the Relief Man and the MLB Rookie of the Year Award in the 1986 MLB season.^[6] Rivera and Joe Nathan were the only relief pitchers to have tied in points for the award, and both received the award in 2009. Goose Gossage, Fingers, Eckersley, Hoffman, Rivera, Smith, John Smoltz and Sutter were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.^[7] Craig Kimbrel (NL) and Jim Johnson (AL) were the final award winners in 2012.

In 2013, Sanofi acquired Rolaids from Johnson & Johnson unit McNeil Consumer Healthcare and canceled the award.^[8]^[9]

Winners

Francisco Rodriguez won the AL Relief Man Award in 2006 and 2008.

J. J. Putz won the AL Relief Man Award in 2007.

W	Wins
L	Losses
SV	Saves
TS	Tough saves
BS	Blown saves
ERA	Earned run average
WHIP	Walks plus hits per inning pitched
Pitcher (#)	Winning pitcher and the number of times they had won the award at that point
	Player who is still active
	Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame
	Denotes multiple winners in a single year

National League (1976–2012)

Year	Pitcher	Team	W–L	SV	TS	BS	ERA	WHIP
1976	Rawly Eastwick	Cincinnati Reds	11–5	26	—	—	2.09	1.115
1977	Rollie Fingers (1)	San Diego Padres	8–9	35	—	—	2.99	1.202
1978	Rollie Fingers (2)	San Diego Padres	6–13	37	—	—	2.52	1.053
1979	Bruce Sutter (1)^[b]	Chicago Cubs	6–6	37	—	—	2.22	0.977
1980	Rollie Fingers (3)	San Diego Padres	11–9	23	—	—	2.80	1.291
1981	Bruce Sutter (2)	St. Louis Cardinals	3–5	25	—	—	2.62	1.069
1982	Bruce Sutter (3)	St. Louis Cardinals	9–8	36	—	—	2.90	1.192
1983	Al Holland	Philadelphia Phillies	8–4	25	—	—	2.26	1.015
1984	Bruce Sutter (4)	St. Louis Cardinals	5–7	45	—	—	1.54	1.076
1985	Jeff Reardon	Montreal Expos	2–8	41	—	—	3.18	1.072
1986	Todd Worrell^[c]	St. Louis Cardinals	9–10	36	—	—	2.08	1.225
1987	Steve Bedrosian^[b]	Philadelphia Phillies	5–3	40	—	—	2.83	1.202
1988	John Franco (1)	Cincinnati Reds	6–6	39	—	3	1.57	1.012
1989	Mark Davis^[b]	San Diego Padres	4–3	44	—	4	1.84	1.047
1990	John Franco (2)	New York Mets	5–3	33	—	6	2.53	1.286
1991	Lee Smith (1)	St. Louis Cardinals	6–3	47	—	6	2.34	1.137
1992	Lee Smith (2)	St. Louis Cardinals	4–9	43	—	8	3.12	1.173
1993	Randy Myers (1)	Chicago Cubs	2–4	53	—	6	3.11	1.208
1994	Rod Beck	San Francisco Giants	2–4	28	—	0	2.77	1.274
1995	Tom Henke	St. Louis Cardinals	1–1	36	—	2	1.82	1.104
1996	Jeff Brantley	Cincinnati Reds	1–2	44	—	5	2.41	1.155
1997	Jeff Shaw	Cincinnati Reds	4–2	42	—	1	2.38	0.961
1998	Trevor Hoffman (1)	San Diego Padres	4–2	53	—	1	1.48	0.936
1999	Billy Wagner	Houston Astros	4–1	39	—	3	1.57	0.777
2000	Antonio Alfonseca	Florida Marlins	5–6	45	0	4	4.24	1.514
2001	Armando Benítez	New York Mets	6–4	43	3	3	3.77	1.297
2002	John Smoltz	Atlanta Braves	3–2	55	5	4	3.25	1.033
2003	Éric Gagné (1)^[b]	Los Angeles Dodgers	2–3	55	2	0	1.20	0.692
2004	Éric Gagné (2)	Los Angeles Dodgers	7–3	45	3	2	2.19	0.911
2005	Chad Cordero	Washington Nationals	2–4	47	2	7	1.82	0.969
2006	Trevor Hoffman (2)	San Diego Padres	0–2	46	0	5	2.14	0.968
2007	José Valverde (1)	Arizona Diamondbacks	1–4	47	1	7	2.66	1.119
2008	Brad Lidge	Philadelphia Phillies	2–0	41	0	0	1.95	1.226
2009	Heath Bell (1)	San Diego Padres	6–4	42	3	6	2.71	1.120
2010	Heath Bell (2)	San Diego Padres	6–1	47	5	3	1.93	1.200
2011	John Axford	Milwaukee Brewers	2–2	46	0	2	1.95	1.140
2012	Craig Kimbrel	Atlanta Braves	3–1	42	1	3	1.01	0.654

American League (1976–2012)

Year	Pitcher	Team	W–L	SV	TS	BS	ERA	WHIP
1976	Bill Campbell (1)	Minnesota Twins	17–5	20	—	—	3.01	1.235
1977	Bill Campbell (2)	Boston Red Sox	13–9	31	—	—	2.96	1.229
1978	Goose Gossage	New York Yankees	10–11	27	—	—	2.01	1.087
1979	Jim Kern	Texas Rangers	13–5	29	—	—	1.57	1.126
1980	Dan Quisenberry (1)	Kansas City Royals	12–7	33	—	—	3.09	1.216
1981	Rollie Fingers (4)^[a]	Milwaukee Brewers	6–3	28	—	—	1.04	0.872
1982	Dan Quisenberry (2)	Kansas City Royals	9–7	35	—	—	2.57	1.010
1983	Dan Quisenberry (3)	Kansas City Royals	5–3	45	—	—	1.94	0.928
1984	Dan Quisenberry (4)	Kansas City Royals	6–3	44	—	—	2.65	1.028
1985	Dan Quisenberry (5)	Kansas City Royals	8–9	37	—	—	2.37	1.225
1986	Dave Righetti (1)	New York Yankees	8–8	46	—	—	2.45	1.153
1987	Dave Righetti (2)	New York Yankees	8–6	31	—	—	3.51	1.463
1988	Dennis Eckersley (1)	Oakland Athletics	4–2	45	—	8	2.35	0.867
1989	Jeff Russell	Texas Rangers	6–4	38	—	6	1.98	0.950
1990	Bobby Thigpen	Chicago White Sox	4–6	57	—	8	1.83	1.038
1991	Bryan Harvey	California Angels	2–4	46	—	6	1.60	0.864
1992	Dennis Eckersley (2)^[a]	Oakland Athletics	7–1	51	—	3	1.91	0.913
1993	Jeff Montgomery	Kansas City Royals	7–5	45	—	6	2.27	1.008
1994	Lee Smith (3)	Baltimore Orioles	1–4	33	—	6	3.29	1.174
1995	José Mesa	Cleveland Indians	3–0	46	—	2	1.12	1.031
1996	John Wetteland	New York Yankees	2–3	43	—	4	2.83	1.178
1997	Randy Myers (2)	Baltimore Orioles	2–3	45	—	1	1.51	1.156
1998	Tom Gordon	Boston Red Sox	7–4	46	—	1	2.72	1.008
1999	Mariano Rivera (1)	New York Yankees	4–3	45	—	4	1.83	0.884
2000	Todd Jones	Detroit Tigers	2–4	42	4	4	3.52	1.438
2001	Mariano Rivera (2)	New York Yankees	4–6	50	3	7	2.34	0.905
2002	Billy Koch	Oakland Athletics	11–4	44	2	6	3.27	1.270
2003	Keith Foulke	Oakland Athletics	9–1	43	4	5	2.08	0.888
2004	Mariano Rivera (3)	New York Yankees	4–2	53	2	4	1.94	1.081
2005	Mariano Rivera (4)	New York Yankees	7–4	43	5	4	1.38	0.868
2006	Francisco Rodriguez	Los Angeles Angels	2–3	47	3	4	1.73	1.096
2007	J. J. Putz	Seattle Mariners	6–1	40	8	2	1.38	0.698
2008	Francisco Rodriguez (2)	Los Angeles Angels	2–3	62	1	7	2.24	1.288
2009	Mariano Rivera (5)	New York Yankees	3–3	44	4	2	1.76	0.905
2009	Joe Nathan	Minnesota Twins	2–2	47	1	5	2.10	0.932
2010	Rafael Soriano	Tampa Bay Rays	3–2	45	0	3	1.73	0.802
2011	José Valverde (2)	Detroit Tigers	2–4	49	0	0	2.24	1.190
2012	Jim Johnson	Baltimore Orioles	2–1	51	0	3	2.49	1.019

Notes

^a Won Cy Young Award and MLB Most Valuable Player Award in the same season.

^b Won Cy Young Award in the same season.

^c Won MLB Rookie of the Year Award in the same season.

References

General

"Rolaids Relief Man Award Past Winners". McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division of McNeil-PPC, Inc. Archived from the original on February 16, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2012.
"Relief Man Award winners". Major League Baseball. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
"Rookie of the Year Awards & Rolaids Relief Award Winners". Baseball-Reference. Retrieved May 26, 2009.

Specific

^ "Thrown for a Loss". Sun-Sentinel. Fort Lauderdale, Florida. AP. May 21, 1988. p. 48. Retrieved June 6, 2021 – via newspapers.com.
^ Tourtellotte, Shane (December 28, 2017). "The Unofficial Rules: Of Holds and Blown Saves". fangraphs.com. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
^ "About The Award". McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division of McNeil-PPC, Inc. Archived from the original on September 6, 2012.
^ "Cy Young Award winners". Major League Baseball. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
^ "Most Valuable Player winners". Major League Baseball. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
^ "Rookie of the Year winners". Major League Baseball. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
^ "Hall of Famers". Baseball Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on September 20, 2012.
^ Van Riper, Tom (April 10, 2014). "Why Can't Baseball Monetize It's Big Postseason Awards?". Forbes.com. Archived from the original on April 12, 2014.
^ Neyer, Rob (April 9, 2014). "Kissing the Rolaids Relief Award goodbye". FoxSports.com. Archived from the original on April 12, 2014.