Last night, Trevor Hoffman further ingrained himself into the baseball record books by becoming the first pitcher in baseball history to record 600 saves. He recorded his 600th save against the NL Central rival St. Louis Cardinals. Hoffman converted most of his saves with the San Diego Padres, with whom he spent all but 3 seasons and with whom he converted all but 53 of his 600 saves.
Closest to Trevor Hoffman on the All-Time Saves list is New York Yankees active closer Mariano Rivera. He trails Hoffman by 45 saves with 555. Lee Smith (478), John Franco (424), and Billy Wagner (Active; 417) are the only other players with 400+ saves. Depending on the length of his career, Rivera could battle for the All-Time Saves Lead, as he is having more opportunities than Hoffman to convert saves on a day-to-day basis. In Milwaukee, rookie reliever John Axford has taken over the closer job from Hoffman and has done extremely well in that role.
However, no matter who ends their career with the All-Time Saves Lead, both Hoffman and Rivera will be #1 and #2 on the All-Time Saves list for a long time to come. There are no active closers who are both young enough and have enough saves already under the belt to make a run at 600+ saves. The only young player at this point who also has a lot of saves is Francisco Rodriguez, of the New York Mets. He set the single season saves record with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2008 with 62, topping Bobby Thigpen’s record of 57 in 1990. Rodriguez is only 28 years old but has 268 saves and is 26th on the All-Time list. However, Rodriguez is not even halfway to 600, and his stuff is already starting to lose its zip. Therefore, it will most likely take at least another generation of closers in order to challenge the record now held by Trevor Hoffman and being chased by Mariano Rivera.
Congratulations to Trevor Hoffman on becoming the first pitcher in baseball history to 600 saves.