Reliever Roundup & Bullpen Bonanza — 2026 Awards

2026 Sport Relay NL Closer of the Year Mason Miller of the Padres entering a game to pitch relief. Miller had the highest ranking and highest score among all NL relievers in 2026.

Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images

November 10, 2026

Reliever Roundup & Bullpen Bonanza, 2026 Year-End Rankings and Awards

Welcome to Reliever Roundup and Bullpen Bonanza! These analyses and rankings take it to a different level than the other reliever rankings and coverage you’ve seen. We will separate our rankings by closers, setup men, and middle relievers. (We aren’t going to worry about ranking long relievers; instead, we’ll lump them in with the middle relievers.)

Additionally, we will give out our 2026 Relief Awards! With one exception, these awards are for the regular season only.

For reference, in the 2026 season, the league-wide AL ERA was 4.14. This is for every pitch thrown by any player from an American League team. For the National League — within the same parameters — it was 4.20. As for the rest of the stats, statistics are for the 2026 season unless otherwise noted, are for relief appearances only, and exclude position pitchers.

To the reader: we use some statistics you might not recognize. To help you out, we have a glossary page. Furthermore, if a stat name is linked, click/tap it to see, in a new tab, the definition of that stat.

Click/tap here to see the ranking method.

League Averages:

AL — 1.317 WHIP, 2.8 HR%, 13.1 K–BB%, 71.0 ScOtgER%, 2.9 GE/BE, 4.049 GE, 30.5 IS%.
NL — 1.313 WHIP, 2.7 HR%, 12.8 K–BB%, 70.7 ScOtgER%, 3.0 GE/BE, 3.872 GE, 32.7 IS%.

Away we go!

Deadbolt Delivered

First, we will honor the relief units that slammed the door and threw away the key. Here are the updated totals for Door Slams!

To get a Door Slam, a team must close out the game with at least three consecutive Goose Eggs. This string must be completely uninterrupted — there cannot be any Broken Eggs in there, there cannot be any Mehs in there, and there can’t be any situation where the score differential is such that the pitcher doesn’t get any of the three. It must be Goose Egg-Goose Egg-Goose Egg. Bang, bang, bang. At least three in a row.

Why is this important? If a team gets a door slam, they completely shut the opponent down en route to a narrow victory. When the last outs are on the line, it’s lockdown only. The Door Slam celebrates those nights when the back end doesn’t merely protect the lead — it shuts the door, throws the deadbolt, and walks away with the key.

Door Slam Table

Door Slams by team, 2026 season. A Door Slam is defined as a game that ends with a team getting three or more consecutive Goose Eggs without interruption of any kind.

Door Slam Totals

Here is the list of each team’s Door Slam totals for the season. Please note that the Yankees and Orioles had a rained-out game that was never made up, since it was irrelevant to standings order, so they only played 161 games. As you can see from the numbers here, Door Slams are not easy to get and are not common. They aren’t un-common — we typically get at least one per day — but they aren’t common, either.

The Cincinnati Reds held both the NL and major-league lead, with 14. Second place was a tie between the AL-leading Boston Red Sox and the NL’s Pittsburgh Pirates, with 13 each. The Houston Astros sat alone in fourth, with 12. Four teams had 11 each: the Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Guardians, and Milwaukee Brewers. Three teams had ten Goose Eggs each: the Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Texas Rangers. Five teams — the Athletics, Kansas City Royals, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, and Seattle Mariners — had nine each. Three teams had eight each: the Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres, and Toronto Blue Jays.

Four teams had seven each: the Arizona Diamondbacks, Miami Marlins, New York Yankees, and Tampa Bay Rays. The Detroit Tigers had six. One team had five door slams: the Baltimore Orioles. Four teams had four each: the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Angels, Philadelphia Phillies, and Washington Nationals. Finally, the San Francisco Giants had one.

Door Slam Summary

In summary, over the course of the 2026 season, there were 251 total Door Slams league‑wide. The Reds led with 14, followed by the Pirates and the AL-leading Red Sox with 13. Splitting it up by league, the AL had 130 and the NL had 121.

2026 Team Relief Corps Power Rankings

Time now for the Team Power rankings. These rankings include every pitch thrown in relief by a player wearing their team’s uniform — excluding position players — for the 2026 season. The tables below show the scoring breakdown. Teams are ranked in Clutch, Run Prevention, Baserunner Prevention, and Command, weighted as shown. The final score determines the ranking. Zero means right at league average. Positive is better than average, negative is below average. A score of 100 means the team is 100% better than league average; a score of 50 is 50% better; a score of -50 is 50% lower, and so on. Each whole number equals one percentage point. The number in parentheses is that team’s overall score.

Here is the Scatter Plot for the year-end rankings.

2026 Season. (Wk 26 was the last week of the season) Chart, rankings, and ranking methods created by Evan M. Thompson.

2026 Team Awards

That brings us to the team award winners for 2026. You’ve already seen who they are, but here we’ll go into more detail as to why they earned the score that they did.

AL Relief Corps of the Year: Boston Red Sox

Relevant 2026 Stats and Rankings:

29.5 pts (1st in AL, 2nd in majors)
4.1 GE/BE (1st in AL)
110 GE, 27 BE (8th & 1st in AL, resp.)
74.9 ScOtgER% (4th in AL)
70 ERA-minus (1st in AL)
1.165 WHIP (1st in AL)
2.1 HR% (1st in AL)
15.4 K-BB% (2nd in AL)

Shakiest AL Relief Corps of the Year: Kansas City Royals

Relevant 2026 Stats and Rankings:

-9.7 pts (15th in AL, 28th in majors)
2.0 GE/BE (T-13th in AL)
95 GE, 48 BE (13th & 14th in AL, resp.)
68.3 ScOtgER% (12th in AL)
119 ERA-minus (14th in AL)
1.507 WHIP (15th in AL)
3.3 HR% (14th in AL)
8.0 K-BB% (15th in AL)

NL Relief Corps of the Year: San Diego Padres

Relevant 2026 Stats and Rankings:

36.0 pts (1st in NL and majors)
4.7 GE/BE (1st in NL)
131 GE, 28 BE (1st & T-1st in NL, resp.)
72.4 ScOtgER% (T-4th in NL)
80 ERA-minus (2nd in NL)
1.241 WHIP (6th in NL)
2.4 HR% (T-3rd in NL)
15.8 K-BB% (4th in NL)

Shakiest NL Relief Corps of the Year: San Francisco Giants

Relevant 2026 Stats and Rankings:

-17.3 pts (15th in NL, 30th in majors)
1.6 GE/BE (15th in NL)
67 GE, 41 BE (15th & 11th in NL, resp.)
69.7 ScOtgER% (12th in NL)
104 ERA-minus (13th in NL)
1.407 WHIP (12th in NL)
2.4 HR% (T-3rd in NL)
8.7 K-BB% (15th in NL)

Most Outstanding Postseason Relief Unit: Milwaukee Brewers

Relevant 2026 Postseason Stats:

20.0 GE/BE
20 GE, 1 BE
86.0 ScOtgER%
34 ERA-minus
0.862 WHIP
0.8 HR%
18.5 K-BB%

2026 Individual Reliever Power Rankings

Statistics include every regular-season game from the 2026 season. To qualify for the rankings, there is a minimum of 30 relief appearances, and for the GE/BE-plus statistic, which forms 2/3 of the “Clutch” category we use to rate setup men and closers, there is a minimum of 15 GE+BE.

A note on the roles: if a team used Co-Closers, we listed both as closers. If it was “Closer by Committee,” we listed all members of that committee as setup men.

Also of note: there were several players in the leaderboards who played on more than one team. Their scores are based on their combined totals for the whole season, unless only one team name appears in parentheses.

AL Middle/Long Relievers

10. Mason Fluharty (TOR) — 11.3
9. Jovani Morán (BOS) — 12.2
8. Gabe Speier (SEA) — 13.6
7. Josh Walker (BAL) — 14.0
6. Grant Wolfram (BAL) — 14.7
5. Huascar Brazobán (NYM/CHW) — 16.8
4. Paul Sewald (ARI/TOR) — 16.9
3. Colin Holderman (CLE) — 20.3
2. Drew Sommers (DET) — 27.3
1. See awards section below

NL Middle/Long Relievers

10. DL Hall (MIL) — 14.8
9. Lake Bachar (MIA/PIT) — 15.5
8. Jack Dreyer (LAD) — 16.2
7. Yohan Ramírez (PIT) — 16.6
6. Jeremiah Estrada (SD) — 19.7
5. Jonathan Bowlan (PHL) — 21.0
4. Alex Vesia (LAD) — 25.0
3. Dylan Dodd (ATL) — 25.4
2. Anthony Bender (MIA) — 25.4
1. See awards section below

AL Setup Men

10. Yoendrys Gómez (MIN) — 81.7
9. Bryan Abreu (HOU) — 87.8
8. Erik Sabrowski (CLE) — 91.8
7. Kevin Kelly (TB) — 95.0
6. Steven Okert (HOU) — 99.5
5. Brent Headrick (NYY) — 101.8
4. Hunter Gaddis (CLE) — 105.2
3. Garrett Whitlock (BOS) — 139.1
2. Paul Blackburn (NYY) — 139.2
1. See awards section below

NL Setup Men

10. Didier Fuentes (ATL) — 96.8
9. Ryne Stanek (STL) — 97.4
8. Aaron Ashby (MIL) — 106.3
7. Juan Morillo (ARI) — 132.8
6. Brock Burke (CIN) — 135.9
5. Brandyn Garcia (ARI) — 137.7
4. Abner Uribe (MIL) — 143.9
3. Gregory Soto (PIT) — 144.0
2. Adrián Morejón (SD) — 200.3
1. See awards section below

AL Closers

5. Bryan Baker (TB) — 158.9
4. Grant Taylor (CHW) — 172.7
3. David Bednar (NYY) — 219.5
2. Cade Smith (CLE) — 247.4
1. See awards section below

NL Closers

5. Trevor Megill (MIL) — 147.8
4. Emilio Pagán (CIN) — 148.1
3. Tanner Scott (LAD) — 156.1
2. Mason Montgomery (PIT) — 204.1
1. See awards section below

2026 Individual Relief Awards

Middle/Long Relievers

AL: Cam Booser, Tampa Bay Rays

Relevant 2026 Stats:

33 ScOtgER, 42 GR (81.0%)
9 ER in 41 IP
25 H, 6 BB, 152 TBF
0.756 WHIP
5 HR (3.3 HR%)
25.7 K-BB% (29.6 K%, 3.9 BB%)
37.2 points

NL: Robert Suarez, Atlanta Braves

Relevant 2026 Stats:

29 ScOtgER, 33 GR (87.9%)
4 ER in 34 IP
24 H, 6 BB, 130 TBF
0.882 WHIP
1 HR (0.8 HR%)
15.4 K-BB% (20.0 K%, 4.6 BB%)
33.7 points

Setup Men

AL: Tyler Rogers, Toronto Blue Jays

Relevant 2026 Stats:

31 GE vs 3 BE → 10.3 GE/BE
63 ScOtgER, 74 GR (86.5%)
14 ER in 71 IP
61 H, 22 BB, 294 TBF
1.169 WHIP
2 HR (0.7 HR%)
6.1 K-BB% (13.6 K%, 7.5 BB%)
185.0 points

NL: Luke Weaver, New York Mets/Pittsburgh Pirates

Relevant 2026 Stats:

31 GE vs 2 BE → 15.5 GE/BE
50 ScOtgER, 60 GR (85.0%)
18 ER in 60⅓ IP
42 H, 16 BB, 238 TBF
0.961 WHIP
5 HR (2.1 HR%)
20.6 K-BB% (27.3 K%, 6.7 BB%)
246.0 points

Closers

AL: Josh Hader, Houston Astros

Relevant 2026 Stats:

31 GE vs 2 BE → 15.5 GE/BE
40 ScOtgER, 45 GR (88.9%)
5 ER in 44⅔ IP
19 H, 15 BB, 167 TBF
0.761 WHIP
1 HR (0.6 HR%)
24.0 K-BB% (32.9 K%, 9.0 BB%)
258.1 points

NL: Mason Miller, San Diego Padres

Relevant 2026 Stats:

40 GE vs 3 BE → 13.3 GE/BE
54 ScOtgER, 66 GR (86.4%)
13 ER in 70 IP
37 H, 26 BB, 272 TBF
0.900 WHIP
3 HR (1.1 HR%)
37.9 K-BB% (47.4 K%, 9.6 BB%)
270.2 points

League Averages

AL — 1.317 WHIP, 2.8 HR%, 13.1 K–BB%, 71.0 ScOtgER%, 2.9 GE/BE, 4.049 GE, 30.5 IS%.
NL — 1.313 WHIP, 2.7 HR%, 12.8 K–BB%, 70.7 ScOtgER%, 3.0 GE/BE, 3.872 GE, 32.7 IS%.