Mariano Rivera

Mariano Rivera was the Yankees' legendary closer whose cutter and postseason dominance made him MLB's all-time saves leader.

Mariano Rivera was born on November 29, 1969, in Panama City, Panama, and raised in Puerto Caimito, a small fishing village on the Pacific coast. As a boy he played baseball with makeshift gloves fashioned from cardboard and spent much of his youth working alongside his father on his fishing boat. Rivera favored soccer and played shortstop for a local amateur team, Panamá Oeste, before injuries to the team's regular pitcher led him to volunteer to take the mound in 1989 — a decision that changed the course of his life. Yankees scout Herb Raybourn watched Rivera pitch and later said he "saw enough in nine pitches" to sign him. On February 17, 1990, the 20-year-old signed an amateur free-agent contract with the New York Yankees for a bonus of roughly $2,000 to $3,000, hardly a sum that suggested he would become the greatest reliever in baseball history. Rivera began his professional career as a starter, and a serious elbow injury in 1992 nearly derailed him before he'd truly begun. He made his major league debut in May 1995, still working as a starting pitcher, before the Yankees moved him to the bullpen — arguably the most consequential roster decision in franchise history. The signature pitch that made Rivera untouchable arrived almost by accident: during a warm-up session in 1997, he noticed his fastball had begun cutting sharply and unpredictably late in its flight. Rather than fight the movement, he built his entire arsenal around it. For the next decade and a half, opposing hitters knew exactly what was coming — a mid-90s cutter aimed at their hands — and still could not consistently hit it. His mechanics were so repeatable and his command so precise that he dominated baseball's best lineups for nearly two decades using essentially one pitch. Rivera became the Yankees' closer in 1997 and anchored five World Series championships (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2009), winning World Series MVP in 1999 and ALCS MVP in 2003. He retired in 2013 as baseball's all-time saves leader with 652, a record that still stands, while his 0.70 ERA across 141 career postseason innings remains one of the most remarkable statistical achievements in the sport's history — a level of sustained postseason dominance no other pitcher has approached. His entrance to Metallica's "Enter Sandman" became one of the most feared sounds in sports, signaling to opponents that the game was effectively over. In 2019, Rivera became the first player in history elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame unanimously, receiving 100% of the vote. The Yankees retired his No. 42 — the last time any Yankee will wear the number, following its earlier universal retirement across baseball in honor of Jackie Robinson. Beyond baseball, Rivera has devoted significant resources to philanthropy in both Panama and the United States through the Mariano Rivera Foundation, which supports underprivileged children.

Dominant closer with devastating cut fastball, exceptional clutch performance

Widely regarded as the best relief pitcher ever, revolutionized the closer role

• 5x World Series champion
• MLB all-time saves leader (652)
• 13x All-Star
• Hall of Fame 2019 (unanimous)