Ranking every New York Yankees closer since Mariano Rivera

No. No, not every Yankees pitcher who's recorded a save since Mariano Rivera's career ended in 2013. That would be pure lunacy.

For reference, on that list, Shawn Kelley ranks 54th and Tommy Layne ranks dead last.

For this exercise, we're ranking only Yankees who've been considered the primary closer in the great Rivera's wake, potentially the only job harder than being New York's starting shortstop after Derek Jeter's retirement.

From Jeter's successor, Yankee fans demanded production, but were willing to accept star power and charisma from a different position. Ultimately, Didi Gregorius was a joy, but Aaron Judge got the captaincy. That was fine.

In the aftermath of the Rivera Era? Nope. Absolute perfection in the ninth inning, or you were a bum who couldn't hack it. One blown save? Rivera would never. TWO blown saves? Here's your bus ticket.

Rivera, the only unanimous Hall of Famer in MLB history, was shockingly great, as well as consistent, but in retirement, Yankee fans built him up to an impossible standard that even the man himself couldn't have reached. Rivera had flaws. Some of them showed their ugly faces in October. Sometimes, he allowed mid-summer grand slams to Bill Selby and walk-offs to Marco Scutaro. While consuming these rankings, it seems crucial to remember that nobody's perfect. Not the modern Yankees bullpen. Not this author. And not even Rivera.

For the purposes of this exercise, what's a "primary" closer? Let's say 20+ saves with the Yankees since 2013 garners you inclusion. That's ostensibly one great season in the role. We'll also give a special membership to the team's primary closer during the very weird 2020 season, who didn't rack up enough saves, but ... well, he was the primary closer! What do you want from us?

Ranking the Yankees' 6 closers since Mariano Rivera handed the ball to Jeter and Andy

6. Dellin Betances

Betances was a great Yankee reliever bordering on historic. He was raised in the post-Rivera glow in 2014 and swiftly became a perennial All-Star, a near-impossible feat for a middle reliever to reach.

Unfortunately ... he was not a closer. If Betances was on, he was on. If he was off, he was OFF. That doesn't typically translate well to the ninth inning, and the 6'8" right-hander quickly became the poster boy for that final frame being a whole different animal.

Betances was a better reliever in pinstripes than many of the names ahead of him on this list. Some of his full seasons were jaw-dropping; 135 and 131 Ks in 90 and 84 innings his first two seasons helped define him, but probably also helped ultimately slow him down. As a closer, his 36 saves over the course of five seasons, with numerous unfortunate blow-ups mixed in, have him properly ranked last. Negative bonus points for blowing an entire season at Fenway Park back in 2016.

5. Zack Britton

Britton was a powerhouse closer in Baltimore, racking up 47 saves in 2016, as well as one very important sit in the bullpen (shoutout to Buck Showalter).

The O's left-hander with the unhittable sinker came to the Yankees in a 2018 deadline deal meant to close the gap between New York and Boston. While it didn't work (what were those, uh, Red Sox doing in the video room), Britton was surprisingly extended in New York, ending up in pinstripes through 2022, a sad season that represents his most recent professional appearance.

That afforded him the opportunity to step up into the closer's role in 2020 when primary stopper Aroldis Chapman started the season late after a battle with COVID-19. He performed quite well, racking up eight saves that season to Chappy's eventual three, posting a 1.89 ERA/2.61 FIP in 19 innings. He powered through the Rays in a back-and-forth ALDS, too, allowing one hit and walking two in four shutout innings across three appearances. He set up the deciding Game 5 nicely, too, leaving room for Chapman to enter and end the season himself. Cool.

4. Aroldis Chapman

It would've been downright disrespectful to rank Aroldis Chapman, the Yankees' primary closer for most of 2016 and 2017-2019/2021, below Britton, who did it for ~15 games. That said ... we considered it!

This is the lowest you can place Chapman without being unreasonable or personally biased, and furthermore -- OK, no, there's clearly still a level of personal bias here. But there always will be with Chapman. He was ill-gotten goods. The Yankees read about a domestic violence suspension looming and saw only dollar signs, and they decided to pounce as his price dropped. Then, they flipped him to Chicago after an excellent half-season, only to pounce again when the campaign wrapped, and he was forever slightly deadened by overuse in the postseason.

But don't worry! When they had a chance to wriggle out of Chapman's expensive deal after the 2019 season -- which ended with him on the mound, smirking -- they somehow turned it into another extension.

Don't let Chapman's regression and indelible postseason failures blind you from acknowledging that he was legitimately great, more often than not, from 2016-2019. Additionally, though, don't let Chapman's string of success allow you to forget how he got here. The Jekyll and Hyde act we often watched on the mound -- you knew whether he had it from the first pitch -- was probably what we deserved.

3. Clay Holmes

Clay Holmes' slump, from the summer of 2022 to the early part of May 2023, brought about a cascading wave of "It's Over" takes, as well as a subtler wave of "Verdugo Broke Him!" takes from the demons in the back.

Since his early-season mechanical failures, though, which led to crowds questioning whether he had that patented ninth-inning fortitude (real closer debaters know), Holmes has turned things around again, piloting his Devil Pitch to the corners more often than not and pairing the high-velocity sinker with an effective slider. Suddenly, he's turned a season on the brink into another borderline All-Star campaign with 1.2 bWAR from the bullpen to his name.

This was supposed to be the year that comeback story Michael King probably took over as the Yankees' full-time closer. Instead, King has regressed (slightly), and works better as a multi-inning wipeout option once per series anyway. Holmes looks like the same old, same old, proving that the version the Yankees "unlocked" in a half-season in 2021 might just be the "real one" instead of the scuffling Holmes we watched in April.

(We reserve the right to move Holmes back extremely far if he doesn't continue building on his reputation over the course of his next year and a half in pinstripes.)

1. Andrew Miller

You probably remember Andrew Miller being pretty good. Andrew Miller was even better than you remember.

Armed with a devastating slider and a killer walk-out song (God's Gonna Cut You Down), Miller was the piece the Yankees never should've traded during their 2016 hybrid sell-off. Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield? Eh. Cleveland getting a multi-inning relief mastermind for the '16 World Series run, as well as 2017 and 2018? They won that trade. Would've been really nice for the 2017 Yankees to have Miller!! We digress.

Miller was a buzzsaw in 2015 after the Yankees coerced him to come over from the Orioles and fill D-Rob's shoes. 33 hits. 20 walks. 61.2 innings. 100 strikeouts. The walk total wasn't as problematic as it likely seemed in your mind's eye (again, Rivera, used to perfection, etc.). His WHIP still stood at 0.859, helping to keep an aging and befuddled Yankees team in playoff position (it's a shame he couldn't help steal the Wild Card Game).

Surely, Miller didn't get even better in 2016 after his career year -- oh, wait, yeah! As a Yankee, he struck out 77 men in 45.1 innings, allowing just seven earned runs (somehow on five homers). With Cleveland, post-deadline? Another 46 Ks in 29 innings and the enduring story of the postseason, considering the experimental way in which he was used.

Rivera was generational. Miller was evolutionary. It's a shame only 1.5 of his seasons were spent in pinstripes.