300 save club


In Major League Baseball, the 300 save club is the group of pitchers who have recorded 300 or more regular-season saves in their careers. Most commonly a relief pitcher earns a save by being the final pitcher of a game in which his team is winning by three or fewer runs and pitching at least one inning without losing the lead. The final pitcher of a game can earn a save by getting at least one batter out to end the game with the winning run on base, at bat, or on deck, or by pitching the last three innings without relinquishing the lead, regardless of score.
The statistic was created by Jerome Holtzman in 1959 to "measure the effectiveness of relief pitchers" and was adopted as an official statistic by MLB in 1969. The save has been retroactively measured for past pitchers where applicable. Hoyt Wilhelm retired in 1972 and recorded just 31 saves from 1969 onwards, for example, but holds 228 total career saves.
Mariano Rivera holds the MLB save record with 652. Only Rivera and Trevor Hoffman have exceeded 500 or 600 saves, and Hoffman was the first to achieve either. Rivera, Hoffman, Lee Smith, Francisco Rodríguez, John Franco, and Billy Wagner are the only pitchers to have recorded 400 or more saves. Rollie Fingers was the first player to record 300 saves, reaching the mark on August 21, 1982. Kenley Jansen is the most recent, achieving his 300th on September 25, 2019. In total, 30 players have recorded 300 or more saves in their career. Only eight relievers – Dennis Eckersley, Fingers, Goose Gossage, Hoffman, Rivera, Smith, Bruce Sutter, and Wilhelm – have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame; all but Wilhelm also have at least 300 saves. Craig Kimbrel, Fernando Rodney, and Jansen are the only active players with more than 300 saves, and Kimbrel is the active leader with 346.

Key

List

PlayerSVDateTeamYears activeRef
652New York Yankees1995–2013
601San Diego Padres1993–2010
478St. Louis Cardinals1980–1997
437Milwaukee Brewers2002–2017
424New York Mets1984–2005
422New York Mets1995–2010
390Oakland Athletics1975–1998
377Texas Rangers1999–2000, 2002–2009, 2011–2016
368Philadelphia Phillies2005–2016
367Boston Red Sox1979–1994
358Anaheim Angels1995–2005, 2007–2009
347Baltimore Orioles1985–1998
346Boston Red Sox2010–present
341Milwaukee Brewers1968–1985
330Texas Rangers1989–2000
329Cincinnati Reds1999–2012
327Arizona Diamondbacks2002–2003, 2005–present
326Kansas City Royals1991–2007
324Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim2005–2017
321Pittsburgh Pirates1987, 1990–2007
319Detroit Tigers1993–2008
318Chicago Cubs1985–2000
314San Francisco Giants1993–2002
311St. Louis Cardinals1982–1995
310Chicago Cubs1972–1989, 1991–1994
304Kansas City Royals1987–1999
303Oakland Athletics1982–2000
302Los Angeles Dodgers2010–present
300New York Mets1995–2012
300Atlanta Braves1976–1986, 1988

became the second player in MLB history to earn 300 career saves on August 6, 1988.