Yankees (officially) sign Rivera
-
- December
- 17
Press release from the Yankees:
YANKEES SIGN MARIANO RIVERA TO A THREE-YEAR CONTRACT
The New York Yankees announced today they have signed right-handed closer Mariano Rivera, the American League’s all-time saves leader, to a three-year contract.
Rivera, 37, owns 443 career saves, the most in franchise history and the third-most all-time behind Trevor Hoffman (524) and Lee Smith (478). His 395 saves over the last 10 years are the most in the Majors while his 787 career appearances are the most-ever by a Yankees pitcher and place him in 42nd place on baseball’s all-time list. Among pitchers with at least 200 save opportunities, Rivera’s 88.2 percent career save conversion rate (443-for-502) is second-best all time, behind only Trevor Hoffman (89.3).
In 2007, Rivera was 3-4 with a 3.15 ERA and 30 saves in 67 relief appearances for the Yankees, ranking fourth in the American League with 59 games finished and tying for eighth in saves with Toronto’s Jeremy Accardo. Over his final 59 appearances (from 4/28), Rivera was 2-2 with a 2.23 ERA, converting 30-of-32 save opportunities. It marked the fifth consecutive season he reached the 30-save plateau and 10th time in his last 11 seasons (1997-2007), joining Trevor Hoffman (12) and Lee Smith (10) as the only pitchers in Major League history to record 30-save seasons at least 10 times.
Rivera’s 34 postseason saves and 76 postseason appearances are both tops in Major League history while his 0.77 ERA (117.1IP, 10ER) in postseason play is the lowest all-time (minimum 30.0 IP). He owns a Major League-best nine saves in the World Series, and only Whitey Ford (22) has pitched in more World Series games than Rivera (20).
The Panama native was originally signed by the Yankees as a non-drafted free agent on February 17, 1990 and is currently the longest tenured Yankee (12 yrs, 105 days).
This entry was posted
on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 11:40 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Peter Abraham
WB Mo, sortive…
I only hope I don’t get used to holding my breath watching you pitch like I was doing last year more often than not.
Welcome back, MO!
Girardi won’t abuse him like Torre did, welcome back MO !
of those three yrs, how long will rivera be able to stay our closer? And at what point to we acquire or start training someone as his replacement? Before or after he begins to fall apart?
Who was let go to give Mo his 40 man roster spot?
And to answer Dave about if Mo can stay our closer all 3 years I’d say no. One way to deal with that is if we go back into negotiations for Santana again and we already know Hughes would go (which I’m against) then maybe if we add Kennedy in the deal we can land Nathan as well as Santana. Nathan could be Mo’s super setup man and eventually they can switch rolls. Otherwise, we deal with it when it comes. But no I dont think he can last.
Chew on this.
Both CC Sabathia and Chien Ming wang gave up more earned runs in one post season series than Mo has given up in his entire post season career! Holy Crap!
CC- 10.1 IP – 12 ER vs. Boston 2007.
CMW – 5.2 IP – 12 ER vs. Cleveland 2007
MO – 117.1IP, 10ER
Incredible. Keep on rockin’ it MO.
Pete,
I saw Beam signed with Pirates and Rasner signed a fair minor league contract with the Yankees, any word on Matt Desalvo?
You know, looking at this press release by the Yankees…it really makes you appreciate Trevor Hoffman.
I always knew Hoffman was good, and always said he was one of the best closers ever, but, just look at the yankee press release about MO, a competitor of his, is mentioned 3 times in 5 paragraphs.
I still think Mo is better, but reading this actually gives me more respect for Hoffman then I had before (yea, I am biased towards MO, but look, he is the best closer of all time, better then Eck, or Smith, or Hoffman, or anyone else), its just that sometimes you really appreciate how good someone is, when you realize how good the next best guy is, and realize, holy crap, our guy is way better then we ever realized.
Think of it this way, look at Ted Williams, and how good he was, and everything about him, he is Hoffman, and realize now, we have the Babe Ruth of closers.
Interesting quote from Mo about Pettitte’s use of HGH:
“”I might have done the same thing. Who knows?” Rivera said.”
So Andy, by all accounts a stand up guy, used HGH. And Mo, another by all accounts stand up guy, might have been tempted.
Peter, silly question, is the competitive atmosphere in a locker room so intense that normally good guys would be tempted to stray into the dark side?
The Dark Side? It is the dark side now, but it was not the dark side in 2002. I wish people would stop judging events that happened 5-10 years ago with the opinions they have now. I am not apologizing for the players—I’m accepting of the reality. Just like greenies, this is the big time, this is how you do it, and there is no one in the game publicly saying otherwise. There isn’t an industry in the world that doesn’t have its shady secrets. We know insider trading goes on. We know there are all sorts of lobbiest breaking laws in the interest of corporate profit. There are always two sets of rules: the rules they tell us, and the rules they actually play by.
About Rivera, I was very surprised by the Yankees offer. I would’ve thought they could’ve offered $45M (or maybe 48) for 4 years instead: It still would’ve been the highest annual average of any reliever, a raise from his last contract, and would’ve avoided all that messy “I want a 4th year” stuff. I do not think Rivera will be a dominant pitcher in 2011, but I bet he will pitch, and that negotiation could be messy.
Not to give away too much personal info, but I was just treated (8 weeks) for cancer. The cancer is gone. But “one of the little things” of which I thought when focused on beating this was the feeling I get when Mo comes into the game in the 9th. (Not fixing things for Farnsworth in the 8th. ) It’s a feeling of: “Everything’s gonna be alright.”
To MarkK:
What a beautiful post. I’m sure Rivera would love to know that he had this centering effect on you. Please consider learning about qi gong, it will make you strong forever. Rivera is an avatar who happens to be a transcendently talented relief pitcher. Your soul senses this about him. God bless you (and the Yankees) and stay well.