BBWAA To Institute Relief Pitcher Of The Year Award In 2026

The Baseball Writers’ Association of America announced the creation of a new award, as starting in 2026, the writers will now be voting on a Relief Pitcher Of The Year in both the American and National League.  The RPOY will join the MVP Awards, the Cy Young Awards, the Rookie of the Year Awards, and the Manager of the Year Awards as the most prominent year-end honors voted on by the BBWAA.

This isn’t the first time relievers have gotten their own trophy.  The old “Rolaids Relief Man Award” existed from 1976-2012, with winners were determined by a points system rather than a voting system).  Since 2014, Major League Baseball has a Reliever Of The Year trophy that has been decided by a panel of former relief pitchers, with the AL version of the award named after Mariano Rivera and the NL version named for Trevor Hoffman.  The Rivera and Hoffman Awards are expected to continue, as per The Athletic’s Steve Berman, though it seems possible the league could retire their awards if the BBWAA’s trophy becomes the most public standard for relief pitching achievement.

Jayson Stark was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Relief Pitcher of the Year Award, and Stark outlined the BBWAA’s thought process in a piece for The Athletic.  Simply put, “relief pitching now dominates this sport — how it’s played, how it’s managed, who sprays champagne every fall — in a way it never has before,” Stark writes, and thus relievers deserve their own dedicated award to reflect their specific role.

While relievers are naturally eligible for other awards, a relief pitcher hasn’t won a Cy Young Award since Eric Gagne in 2003.  Stark notes that it is increasingly rare to see relievers receive any first-place votes in Cy Young or MVP races, and even the Rivera/Hoffman Awards usually focus on closers (as one ex-player on the voting committee admitted to Stark).  The creation of a prominent award for relievers also adds some historical weight to their careers, which helps in future Hall of Fame voting and for a fuller appreciation of just how good a particular relief pitcher was in any given year or any given era.

It’s probably safe to assume closers will still win Relief Pitcher Of The Year Award the majority of the time, yet the broader scope allows the BBWAA voters to consider all types of relievers, who are arguably even more overlooked in terms of recognition.  Pitchers like Abner Uribe, Garrett Whitlock, Randy Rodriguez, Bryan Abreu, or (from the Padres alone) Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam, or Adrian Morejon are examples from 2025 of pitchers who have been dominant out of the pen in set-up or fireman roles.

From a transactional standpoint, a high finish in a RPOY vote may not necessarily mean much for a relief pitcher in free agency, as teams will still prioritize statistics and projections even if a RPOY Award gives a player a bit more acclaim.  The creation of this award could mean a few extra dollars for relievers in terms of contractual bonuses, in the same way that hitters and starting pitchers often receive incentive bonuses attached to any top-3, top-5, etc. finishes in MVP or Cy Young Award balloting.