MLB: Top 20 closers in Major League Baseball history
Career Statistics:
- Games: 674
- Saves: 244
- Won-Loss Record: 56-46
- ERA: 2.76
- ERA+: 146
- FIP: 3.24
- WHIP: 1.175
- Innings: 1,043.1
- Strikeouts: 379
- Strikeout Percentage: 8.9%
- All-Star Appearances: 3
- World Series Championships: 1
- Awards: None
A key member of the great Kansas City Royals teams of the 1980s, Dan Quisenberry had some of the greatest seasons ever for a closer. He was arguably the best American League relief pitcher of the decade.
Quisenberry was a late-blooming sidearmer that didn’t debut with the Royals until the age of 26. However, after working 32 games in middle relief as a rookie (and notching his first five big league saves), Quiz transitioned into the closer role in 1980 and led Major League Baseball with 33 saves. He appeared in 75 games that season, which was the most in the AL, and finished in the top five of the Cy Young voting and top ten in the MVP race.
After saving 18 games and posting a career low 1.73 ERA in 1981, Quisenberry began a streak of four consecutive seasons of 35 saves or more in which he averaged 40.3 saves per campaign, made the All-Star team three times and was the runner-up for the Cy Young twice. In 1985, Quisenberry and the Royals won the World Series.
Unfortunately, ineffectiveness and injury struck shortly thereafter. Quiz saved only 28 more games over the next five seasons before retiring in 1990.
Next: 17. Randy Myers