For the first time since 1983, the Baseball Writers Association of America is adding a new end-of-season award, one that will honor the game’s best relief pitchers.
The announcement was made on Saturday.
“The BBWAA announced Saturday that it has voted to create a Relief Pitcher of the Year Award in each league, beginning in 2026,” Steve Berman of The Athletic wrote. “It will be presented every November, alongside the group’s other awards — MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year and Manager of the Year. The honor for Major League Baseball’s best relief pitcher is the BBWAA’s first new award since the inception of the Manager of the Year in 1983.”
Jayson Stark expressed his excitement for the new awards.
Big announcement.
The BBWAA has voted to create an award honoring the relief pitcher of the year starting in 2026
As chairman of the committee that proposed this award, I’m really excited it’s finally happening.
https://t.co/RyMXHJLPRA— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) August 23, 2025
Stark also explained why the decision was made, noting MLB’s increased use of relief pitchers.
“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, in any version of professional baseball that has ever existed,” Stark wrote in The Athletic. “The creation of a prestigious new Relief Pitcher of the Year Award is so overdue, I first proposed this idea to the BBWAA a dozen years ago. It didn’t make it to a vote then. That was our mistake.”
This will not be the first end-of-season award to honor the league’s best relievers. Since 2014, the Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman Reliever of the Year Awards have gone to the best relief pitchers in the American League and National League, respectively. Those awards are voted on by retired relievers. From 2005-2013, the MLB Delivery Man of the Year Award was given to only one reliever. It was voted on by fans from a list of 10 finalists chosen by an MLB panel. Previously, the Rolaids Relief Man Award was given to the top reliever from each league as determined by an objective formula using the pitchers’ statistics.
This will, however, be the first BBWAA Award specifically designed to honor the full-season performance of relievers.
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