Can Roberto Osuna become the next Mariano Rivera?

Roberto Osuna has had an unbelievable start to his career and has already achieved the most saves in MLB history, before the age of 22.

Osuna also has a terrific postseason resume in the two years he has pitched in October.  With this unbelievable start to his career, it makes you wonder just what Roberto Osuna has yet to accomplish.  Maybe just maybe, Roberto Osuna can reach the level, or at least come close to the level, of the great Mariano Rivera.

 Very often, the career of a baseball player has some blips, there may be a less than stellar season in the middle of two terrific seasons, or perhaps they played less than half a season in their first career season with little success.   Looking at Roberto Osuna’s short career so far, it’s very clean and solid.  Osuna has pitched more than 65 innings in his first two seasons, with a SO/9 of more than 9.5.  He has an ERA in the mid 2.00’s both years, in the best hitting division in baseball.  

Roberto has accomplished all of this at the young age of 20 years old.  When you have this type of success at such a young age, especially in the AL East, you can’t help but think about the great Mariano Rivera.  Rivera, of course, began his career in 1995 as a starter and moved to the bullpen in the 1996 season.  The big difference between Rivera and Osuna is Rivera was 26 when he became a full-time relief pitcher, opposed to Osuna who was 20 when he became a full-time relief pitcher.  That gives one huge advantage to Roberto Osuna in the quest to become the greatest closer ever.

Toronto Blue Jays

Another comparison I look at between Osuna and Rivera is their success as relief pitchers as soon as they became relief pitchers.  Rivera had terrific success, better stats than Roberto Osuna, but once again that was at the age of 26 and not 20, with maturity and experience, Osuna has a good chance to become as dominant as Rivera was at 26, at a younger age. 

The last comparison between the two is their postseason success. This is what separates the David Ortiz’s from the Edgar Martinez’s or the Mariano Rivera’s from the Trevor Hoffman’s. Postseason success is when legends are born and when players can make their mark. To have great postseason success, you need to be on a very good baseball team. As we all know, Mariano Rivera is the best postseason relief pitcher in MLB history.  The reason for his success is the opportunity he had to participate in postseason action, 16 out of his 19 years, all with the New York Yankees.

For Osuna to become the elite type closer that Rivera was, he will need to continue to dominate the regular season, lead his team to the postseason and have unbelievable success in the playoffs.  If Osuna is limited to only having success in the regular season, but can’t get it done in the postseason, he has a chance to be a Trevor Hoffman, and that would be something remarkable. 

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However, if the Blue Jays can continually make the postseason and Roberto Osuna has terrific success, he has a chance to become the next Mariano Rivera or at least pretty close.  With his huge age advantage, he has a head start in the quest to become the greatest closer of all time.