Mariano Rivera’s legendary career is still the gold standard for MLB closers

On February 17, 1990, the New York Yankees made the signing of a lifetime, inking Mariano Rivera to a contract with a $3,000 signing bonus.

He would end up playing in 22 games in the Gulf Coast League that same year, giving an early sign of the dominance he would later impose by posting a 0.17 ERA in 52 innings.

Enamored by the results but hoping for more, the Yankees turned Rivera from a reliever into a starter in 1991, and that was where he continued to shove all the way until 1995, when hed reached Triple-A Columbus and performed well enough to earn a promotion to the major leagues at last.

That run, starting with small stints in May and June before getting more consistent playing time in July through the rest of the year, went infamously bad a 5.51 ERA in 67 innings that saw him removed from the rotation for good after a September start against Seattle where he allowed five runs in 4.1 innings.

Buck Showalter shuffled the young Rivera into the bullpen, where he immediately settled into form.

He earned the nod to stay on the postseason roster and pitched three times in the Yankees eventual ALDS loss to Seattle, throwing gas the whole way through.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Rivera became a full-time reliever in 1996 and never again started a game, instead taking to the back end of the bullpen and bulldozing over the rest of the league.

Riveras total of 107.2 innings in 1996 would prove to be his career-high as manager Joe Torre threw him into any and every fire that popped up, as well as going multiple innings to form the bridge to closer John Wetteland.

From 1997 onward, the closer role became his own, and he rattled off an unprecedented 652 saves while pitching to a 205 ERA+ that remains the best mark of any pitcher all-time.

Mo was as solid of an insurance policy that any manager in the history of the game has ever carried, and in a league filled with debate between eras and contemporaries there is no debate about his status he is the greatest reliever of all time.

These flowers came in for Rivera early and often, and theyve only magnified since his retirement.

Much is made about the fact that he became the first (and so far only) player in MLB history to be inducted into the Hall of Fame with a unanimous vote, often citing the many cases of former players who had solid claims to that title in the past.

Theres merit to that, as the selection process has its flaws and biases and there were many truly great players that could reasonably be seen as universally beloved, but theres also no doubt that Rivera earned the accolade as well.

A reliever only has so much of an impact on the length of a season, but time and time again weve seen flashes of greatness from a dominant arm fizzle out in the brightest spotlight or after hed been exposed to the league for more than a few seasons.

The Sandman was eternal if ever there was an athlete that could beat Father Time Id argue it was Rivera, but he walked away because hed simply seen enough.

Its been over a decade now since Rivera last graced the mound in Yankee Stadium, and in the intervening time the league has seen an even heavier emphasis on the importance of an elite bullpen.

The game has gone from needing one or two great arms to secure games to needing multiple men on hand any given night, and in the postseason, managers are quicker than ever with their hooks.

As such, it takes a lot of talented arms to get a lead into the ninth, and then that puts an even bigger onus on the closer to truly be the best man for the job.

There have been plenty of elite relievers in this era: from Craig Kimbrel to Aroldis Chapman, Kenley Jansen to Edwin Diaz, and Josh Hader to Emmanuel Clase, the league has seen marquee closers pop up and experience bursts of dominance on par with the best of Riveras in the regular season.

Where each of these names have faltered has been in replicating his success in the postseason, or maintaining it throughout the span of an entire decade.

Every October, with the spotlight once again on each and every win mattering more than ever, the broadcast booth and analysts are quick to anoint the next great player as the best since Mo.

Theyre automatic, nearly impossible to budge, the odds of them failing are miniscule.

We saw this happen this past month, when the Yankees squared up with the Cleveland Guardians , who carried closer Cy Young candidate Emmanuel Clase in the back of their pocket like a Get Out of Jail Free card.

However, Clase had stumbled in his first test against the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS, and his stumble became a full-on collapse against the Bombers.

A mere 2.1 innings later, and the mythos around him had broken just as quickly as Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stantons home runs left the park .

He was beatable, and now despite a solid resume in his five years in the league hell have to build himself back up to that moment.

It may come as quick as next season, it may never come again, but either way the search begins anew.

Volatility is the name of the game when it comes to this position.

Dominant closers come and go beyond these big names.

Entire bullpens rise and fall in the span of just a year or two, and yet the Yankees were blessed with 19 years of assurance that the game was all but over when Rivera walked out of the bullpen.

There were some notable failures, but in the canvas of his career they get washed out by the nigh-endless success that accompanied him.

At first, it was a heater blowing everyone away in 1996.

Then, come, 97, the pitch began to break , and the cutter that developed led to a street named after the Panama native next to the ballpark where he ascended to the top of the sport.

Its an unprecedented path, and one that has yet to be repeated for good reason it may never happen again.

As fans of the sport, enough time has passed to let the future generations make their own mark without sizing them up to such an incomparable figure..

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