Virtually perfect since May, Baker's 2026 journey with Rays a meteoric rise

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays weren’t supposed to have a closer this year.

They wound up with the Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of the Year.

While Louis Varland became the first-ever recipient of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s AL Reliever of the Year Award on Wednesday night, Rays closer Bryan Baker earned Major League Baseball’s highest honor for a relief pitcher during the MLB Awards presented by MGM Rewards in Las Vegas.

“We played eight-inning baseball games any time we had the lead, essentially,” president of baseball operations Erik Neander said. “Start to finish, just locked down the ninth all year long.”

Baker finished third in the BBWAA balloting behind Toronto’s Varland and Cleveland’s Cade Smith. Tampa Bay’s All-Star closer received six of 30 first-place votes, eight second-place votes and 11 third-place votes but only appeared on 27 of 30 ballots. With 111 points in the voting, he was not far behind Varland (146) or Smith (133).

But there is no doubt Baker deserved the recognition he received from MLB after emerging as arguably the Majors’ most reliable ninth-inning arm for the AL champion Rays. What more fitting honor could there be than an award voted on by a panel of retired relievers and named after the Yankees’ Hall of Fame closer?

Baker recorded 41 saves, tied with Smith for most in the Majors, while posting a 1.44 ERA over 65 appearances. But the right-hander’s most impressive accomplishment was converting 30 consecutive save opportunities to finish the regular season -- plus five more in a row in the postseason, when he worked 10 scoreless innings over nine appearances.

Yes, Baker’s next blown save will be his first since May 13. He was simply automatic for the Rays, who finished 92-0 on the year (including the postseason) when leading after eight innings.

“When he had his 'A' stuff, there was no chance,” Neander said. “When he had his 'B' stuff, there was still no chance because of his ability to find a way to get outs.”

Baker is the first Rays pitcher to win the award named after Rivera. Fernando Rodney was the 2012 MLB Delivery Man of the Year, and Rafael Soriano won MLB’s Rolaids Relief Man Award for the AL in 2010.

Baker also received a fifth-place vote in the AL Cy Young Award balloting. Rays starter Drew Rasmussen placed fourth, but with 72 points in the balloting, he wasn’t far behind third-place finisher Parker Messick (84). Rasmussen, Messick, second-place Dylan Cease and unanimous winner Cam Schlittler were the only pitchers to appear on all 30 ballots.

Baker’s 1.44 ERA was the second lowest in the Majors among pitchers who worked at least 60 innings this past season, behind Varland’s 1.27 mark. It was only the third time in franchise history that a Rays reliever worked at least 60 innings with a sub-1.50 ERA; the other two were Rodney in 2012 (0.60 ERA in 74 2/3 innings) and setup man Joaquin Benoit in 2010 (1.34 ERA in 60 1/3 innings).

“Just an unbelievable year. Shoot, [other than] Fernando Rodney in 2012, we haven't had many that have been even in the vicinity of that one,” Neander said. “That was an unbelievable job by Bake.”

How he got here is similarly unbelievable.

When the Rays acquired Baker from the Orioles in July 2025, he was a quality reliever but hardly a star. And while he pitched relatively well for Tampa Bay the rest of the way, nothing about his performance screamed “All-Star closer in the making.” It would have been fair to list him fourth on the Rays’ bullpen depth chart heading into Spring Training.

At that point, the Rays’ plan was to proceed without a traditional closer after parting ways with Pete Fairbanks. The idea was that Griffin Jax, Edwin Uceta and Garrett Cleavinger would split the highest-leverage situations, with others like Baker and Kevin Kelly handling the rest.

But Uceta didn’t throw a pitch all year, Cleavinger battled injuries and inconsistency, and Jax struggled as a reliever before a successful move into the rotation. So along came Baker, armed with a strong fastball, a devastating changeup and an incredible competitive edge that made his post-victory celebrations as entertaining as his work on the mound.

And the rest is history.

“You never know who's made for those moments until you provide them the opportunity, and we didn't know with Bake until he started doing it early in the year,” Neander said. “It's like, 'This is kind of cool. This guy's a little different.' And he never looked back.”