Reliever Baker Is Saving Rays’ Season as Low-Profile MLB Elite Closer

What a difference one season has made for Bryan Baker.

As the American League East-leading Tampa Bay Rays rolled into Atlanta on Tuesday for the start of a three-game series with the National League East-leading Braves, Baker has an MLB-leading 39 saves.

His dominance coming out of the bullpen this season has come out of left field at Tampa Bay’s Tropicana Field and ballparks around the nation. But if you were to sample a number of fans of opposing clubs of the Rays, chances are they would name Boston’s Aroldis Chapman or the Padres’ Mason Miller as most likely to be topping the saves tote board.

It’s likely that at this time in 2025, Baker himself couldn’t have envisioned this All-Star season, which he is close to putting a cap on. His 28 consecutive saves earned, dating back to May 13, make for a tremendous turnaround season. His pitches of choice, slider and changeup, have made Baker the club’s most valuable player this side of the batter’s box for manager Kevin Cash’s lineups since breaking training camp in Port Charlotte, Florida, in March.

In 2025, before being traded to Tampa Bay in July from the Baltimore Orioles where he filled a setup relief arm role, Baker had a grand total of three saves during parts of five MLB seasons. Three. In 31 appearances with the Rays last season, one save is what Baker registered. Going into spring training, not Cash, not the Rays’ pitching coach Kyle Snyder, and in all likelihood not the analytics department of Tampa Bay HQ could have predicted the sheer shutdown dominance that Baker would unleash through 58 trips (and counting) to the mound in 2026.

The highest workload of his career this season has recently spawned some signs of physical pushback for the Fort Walton Beach, Florida, native. On Friday in a game against the Texas Rangers on the road, after a noticeable drop in his velocity, Cash made the trip to the mound to remove Baker.

“I think I reached a point of dehydration,” Baker told reporters after Tampa Bay’s 7–6 win. “It was harder to repeat my mechanics after however many pitches that was.”

With the season-ending series coming up, after their time in Atlanta, with the Athletics, Astros, Red Sox, Yankees, and Phillies, Kelly didn’t hesitate to give Baker the hook in Texas.

Baker, who grew up in Florida’s Panhandle and attended the University of North Florida, is as valuable to the club’s expectations of going deep into October as offensive heavyweights Yandy Diaz, Junior Caminero, and Jonathan Aranda. Baker gave every reason after his appearance against the Rangers that he will be able to answer the call for duty in Atlanta and beyond this season.

“It’s nothing crazy, though,” Baker said in the clubhouse after the game. “Nothing really notable. Nothing I would have thought beforehand, oh, I shouldn’t pitch. Unfortunately, it’s one of those things where you go out there and you realize, man, this is not good. Props for [Tampa Bay pitcher Tyler Wells] coming in there and cleaning up my mess.”

Baker has been given the opportunity to slide into the closer’s role this season and hasn’t looked back. When he broke Fernando Rodney’s Tampa Bay record set in 2012 of 22 consecutive saves, few around MLB took note. With New York, Toronto, and Boston having firm grips on most media cycles in the division, until the Rays capture the American League East, there isn’t much the club could do to grab a headliner role. As for Baker’s 2026 performances going under the radar to some, perhaps the turnaround can be chalked up to simply where Tampa Bay’s home games are being played this season.

Being back home, in 2026, in the climate-controlled confines of a domed Tropicana Field as opposed to pitching outdoors at a minor league ballpark (Yankees’ Tampa spring training facility—George M. Steinbrenner Field) is one theory. After large sections of the roof were blown off of Tropicana Field due to Category 3 winds of Hurricane Milton in October 2024, the Rays played all 81 home games in 2025 in the often sweltering and muggy conditions of a Central Florida summer.

Whether or not it is the air-conditioned temperature controlled environment afforded at Tropicana Field, it’s where Baker’s skills shine the most. Fully 24 of his saves have come at home. His 60 strikeouts in 55 innings of work are accurately reflected in his 1.64 ERA. In 31 appearances last season for the Rays, however, Baker’s 4.75 ERA didn’t indicate that, in 2026, he would be the guy called upon to close the door on opposing clubs late in the games.

With the Rays solidly in first place in their division, and Baker closing in on his 40th save, what’s next for Tampa Bay—returning to the World Series after a seven-season hiatus?