Trevor Hoffman, who is baseball’s all-time saves leader, picked up his 500th career save last night against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 5-2 Padres victory. Hoffman, who closed out his 58th career game vs the Dodgers (his most versus any team), recorded his 18th save this season in 20 opportunities.
This is an argument that will probably be thrown around for ages but I’d like to settle it with my opinion right here right now. Trevor Hoffman is the greatest closer of all time. Yes, thats right. Greater than Lee Smith. Greater than Bruce Sutter. Greater than even Mariano Rivera (gasp!). Before you get outraged and start looking up stats, here me out.
How do we define the greatest home run hitter of all time? I define it by the player who has hit the most home runs in their career, i.e. Hank Aaron. The greatest hitter of all time? It has to be Ted Williams, who hit .406 way back in 1941. The greatest closer? It has to be Hoffman, who recorded his 500th, a whole 81 saves more than Mariano Rivera has in his career.
If we’re gonna sling stats, then we can do that as well. Hoffman has the highest save percentage of any active closer, higher than even Rivera. Sure, Rivera has many more post season saves but, lets remember, we’re talking about the Padres and the Yankees. The Yankees haven’t sniffed a losing season since Rivera took over the closers role. Hoffman’s Padres have only had five winning seasons since he came over from the Marlins for Gary Sheffield in 1993.
This may be news to a bunch of east coast fans because most baseball fans on the right side of the United States are asleep when Hells Bells is playing and Hoffman is trotting into the game. And while I’m sure my opinion won’t settle any argument over the best closer of all time, know that when it comes to closing a game, Hoffman is about as much of a lock as it gets.
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Surprised Eric Gagne wasn’t mentioned here. Eighty-four straight? I suppose he hasn’t had the longevity to be considered among the greatest of all time, but for those two or three years, there was no one better.
You make a good point. My counter argument? Steroids.
You can make an argument for a lot of guys if you only want to consider one or two years. Geez, you’d have to consider just about anybody who has ever saved 50 games in a season. The argument is not what reliever had the best 1 or 2 years, but what reliever has put together the best career. The list is short — Hoffman, Rivera, Sutter, Eckersley, Fingers, Gossage.
Rich, as a Giants fan, it’s somehow comforting to think you’re right. :-)
Ed, I beg to differ. Look at the list of pitchers that have saved 50+ games in a season. There are eight men on it (Rivera and Gagne did it twice). Look at the numbers that he put up in those two seasons. 137 and 114 strikeouts? 1.20 and 1.97 ERA? Unbelievable!
I see what you’re saying about longevity, but those two seasons alone get Gagne a spot at the table, at least.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlbhist/alltime/leaders?breakdown=0&year=0&type=1&sort=13
I googled Trevor Hoffman Greatest Closer ever just so I could find an article like this and pee on it! It is October 2nd, only 12 hours since Hoffman blew a 2 run lead and was charged with a Loss in the Wild Card Tie-Breaker. A Tie-Breaker that was only needed cause he blew a save 2 games before. If he was the greatest ever the Padres would be the Wild Card team right now. He is a Stat Compiler, end of story…