Closer of the Year Award on Baseball Almanac

Closer of the Year Award

The Closer of the Year Award is part of the This Year in Baseball Awards, established by Major League Baseball (MLB.com) in 2002 allowing "connected" fans to first select nominees for various awards then vote for those they selected in the categories. In 2010 the overall suite of awards changed from This Year in Baseball Awards to Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards, aka GIBBYS.

Those who were nominated and those who won the Closer of the Year are presented below in yearly sections. Bold names denote the winner and all nominees appear in descending order of total percentage of votes received.

"And the Gibby goes too, Jose Valverde of the Detroit Tigers. Perfection for Pape Grande. Valverde a perfect 49 for 49 in save opportunities for the AL Central champions in route to becoming the Tigers all time single season saves leader." - MLB Network Studio Host Greg Amsinger (MLB Network, 2011 Gibby Awards, 12/16/22011)

Closer of the Year Award Image of an Actual This Year in Baseball Award by MLB.com via "The Fans"
2004 Closer of the Year Award		% of Votes
Mariano Rivera	New York	28.5%
Keith Foulke	Boston	25.6%
Brad Lidge	Houston	13.8%
Eric Gagne	Los Angeles	13.1%
John Smoltz	Atlanta	5.9%
2005 Closer of the Year Award		% of Votes
Mariano Rivera	New York	36.3%
Brad Lidge	Houston	18.3%
Derrick Turnbow	Minnesota	14.5%
Francisco Rodriguez	Los Angeles	6.5%
Chad Cordero	Washington	6.2%
2006 Closer of the Year Award		% of Votes
Mariano Rivera	New York	26.7%
Jonathan Papelbon	Boston	21.1%
Francisco Rodriguez	Los Angeles	11.3%
Trevor Hoffman	San Diego	10.6%
Joe Nathan	Minnesota	10.3%
Billy Wagner	New York	8.7%
B.J. Ryan	Toronto	4.6%
Takashi Saito	Los Angeles	3.6%
J.J. Putz	Seattle	1.6%
Mike Gonzalez	Pittsburgh	1.5%
2007 Closer of the Year Award		% of Votes
Jonathan Papelbon	Boston	38.1%
Bobby Jenks	Chicago	26.0%
J.J. Putz	Seattle	10.0%
Takashi Saito	Los Angeles	5.2%
Francisco Cordero	Milwaukee	4.2%
Billy Wagner	New York	4.2%
Jose Valverde	Arizona	3.9%
Trevor Hoffman	San Diego	3.2%
Francisco Rodriguez	Los Angeles	2.7%
Joe Nathan	Minnesota	2.4%
2008 Closer of the Year Award		% of Votes
Brad Lidge	Philadelphia	44.0%
Mariano Rivera	New York	22.7%
Jonathan Papelbon	Boston	12.4%
Francisco Rodriguez	Los Angeles	6.1%
Joe Nathan	Minnesota	3.1%
Joakim Soria	Kansas City	2.1%
Kerry Wood	Chicago	2.8%
Jose Valverde	Houston	2.6%
Bobby Jenks	Chicago	1.9%
Brian Fuentes	Colorado	3.0%
2009 Closer of the Year Award		% of Votes
Mariano Rivera	New York	46.9%
Jonathan Papelbon	Boston	8.8%
Joe Nathan	Minnesota	7.7%
Jonathan Broxton	Los Angeles	7.3%
David Aardsma	Seattle	6.7%
Francisco Cordero	Cincinnati	6.5%
Heath Bell	San Diego	5.0%
Trevor Hoffman	Milwaukee	4.9%
Ryan Franklin	St. Louis	4.2%
Brian Fuentes	Los Angeles	2.1%
2010 Closer of the Year Award		% of Votes
Brian Wilson	San Francisco	58.0%
Neftali Feliz	Texas	20.0%
Mariano Rivera	New York	11.0%
Heath Bell	San Diego	8.0%
Rafael Soriano	Tampa Bay	3.0%
2011 Closer of the Year Award		% of Votes
Jose Valverde	Detroit	54.0%
John Axford	Milwaukee	13.2%
Craig Kimbrel	Atlanta	11.4%
Mariano Rivera	New York	11.2%
J.J. Putz	Arizona	6.4%
Joel Hanrahan	Pittsburgh	2.8%
Drew Storen	Washington	1.0%
2012 Closer of the Year Award		% of Votes
To Be Determined	--	--
To Be Determined
To Be Determined
To Be Determined
To Be Determined	--	--
Closer of the Year Award		% of Votes
Closer of the Year Award

Team

The Closer of the Year is part of the This Year in Baseball Awards set, created in 2002 by MLB.com. Review the main page to see all the other variations.

In 2010 the award title didn't change, but they did choose to start also calling them GIBBY Awards, short for Greatness in Baseball Yearly.

Did you vote? Do you agree with the choices seen above? What pitcher will win the Closer of the Year this season? Share your thoughts on Baseball Fever.

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