Getty Images
At 33, Milwaukee Brewers‘ closer Francisco Rodriguez (a.k.a K-Rod) is in his prime and his statistics back that claim up. He has appeared in 27 games this season and collected 15 saves while sporting a 1.00 ERA. Rodriguez’s production begged me to consider the following: Could Rodriguez surpass New York Yankees’ legend Mariano Rivera as the all-time saves leader of MLB?
I can answer that with one word – yes.
Now as to why I believe he can, consider the following:
Rodriguez currently plays for a team that owns the second-worst record in the league at 27-46. Despite playing on a bad team, he has been able to record 15 saves. The major league-leading St. Louis Cardinals’ closer, Trevor Rosenthal, has recorded only 10 more saves (25).
You can argue that some of that has to do with the margin of victories (and it does), but if Rodriguez is traded to a team that can put him in more save situations then he could finish with close to 50 saves this season.
At the moment, Rodriguez sits only 290 saves away from breaking Rivera’s mark of 652 career saves. Here is how many saves K-Rod would need to average in order to cement his name as the all-time saves leader:
6 years / 48.3 saves / Age: 39
7 years / 41.4 saves / Age: 40
8 years / 36.3 saves / Age: 41
9 years / 32.2 saves / Age: 42
10 years / 29 saves / Age: 43 *Rivera’s age upon retiring
As the statistics show, the key to Rodriguez’s chance to break the record is his longevity which relies on his ability to stay healthy. As seen above, Rivera retired at age 43, which is 10 years down the road from Rodriguez now.
If Rodriguez continues to produce in the fashion he has this season (15 saves so far) and last season (44 saves), then “The Sandman” might have to step aside and let K-Rod take his title as the all-time saves leader in Major League Baseball.
Chad Troyan is a baseball and football writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChadTroyan15, “Like”him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google
