40+ saves

A couple of months ago, I bought some lucky bags of baseball cards. When I opened one of them, I found a John Franco autograph baseball card. At the beginning, I was just wondering whether the autograph was real. Then, I realized that it’s a buyback autograph card. After getting this card, I went to check his stats on the great baseball reference website. And, I found something interesting.

Saves (Career)
Player	SV
Mariano Rivera	652
Trevor Hoffman	601
Lee Smith	478
Francisco Rodriguez	437
John Franco	424
Billy Wagner	422
Dennis Eckersley	390
Joe Nathan	377
Craig Kimbrel	372
Jonathan Papelbon	368

John Franco had 424 saves in his career, 5th most of all-time. In baseball history, there are 6 players who collected 400+ career saves. Craig Kimbrel is the leader for saves among active players. If he can record 28 saves in 2022, he will be the 7th pitcher with 400 saves. However, he had only 1 save after being traded to the White Sox last July. Liam Hendriks is going to be the White Sox closer in 2022 and Kimbrel might not have enough save opportunities to reach 400 saves this year. In addition, looking back at John Franco’s career, he recorded 400+ saves over 21 seasons in the majors. Moreover, there were 8 seasons in which Franco collected 30+ saves. Nonetheless, he had never collected 40 saves in a single season in his career. John Franco never earned 40+ saves in a single season and I’m just wondering whether it’s easy to see a player collect 40 saves in a single season.

John Franco’s last appearance in the MLB was in 2005 and in that year, 9 players earned 40+ saves. Before that, in 2002, John Smoltz and Eric Gagne each recorded 50+ saves and there were 10 pitchers who had at least 40 saves in that season. Additionally, Mariano Rivera collected a career-high 53 saves in 2004 and 10 pitchers each had 40+ saves in that year. Hence, over the last 22 seasons, there were only two times that we saw 10 pitchers with 40+ saves in a single season.
   It’s not very easy to record 40 saves in a single season. However, we can basically see some players collect 40 saves. Nonetheless, in 2019, Kirby Yates was the only pitcher who earned 40 saves in that season. In Yates’ career so far, he only has two seasons with double-digit saves. Then, we know that the 2020 season was a shortened season and there were only 60 games for each team in the regular season. It’s impossible to see a pitcher with 40 saves in that season. Last year, we didn’t see any pitchers with 40+ saves. Mark Melancon was the Padres closer last year and led the majors with 39 saves. Over the last two seasons, we didn’t see any pitchers record 40+ saves in a single season. Eventually, MLB and the MLBPA reached an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. And yes, baseball is back. A 162-game season will begin on April 7. It will be interesting to see which pitcher will pick up the first save of the 2022 season. Furthermore, is it going to be another season that we don’t see a pitcher with 40+ saves?