The Rolaids Relief Man Award was an annual Major League Baseball (MLB) award given from 1976 to 2012 to the top relief pitchers of the regular season, one in the American League (AL) and one in the National League (NL).
Mariano Rivera won the AL Relief Man Award in 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, and 2009.
Rollie Fingers won the NL Relief Man Award in 1977, 1978, and 1980, and the AL Relief Man in 1981.
Goose Gossage won the AL Relief Man Award in 1978.
Lee Smith won the NL Relief Man Award in 1991 and 1992 and the AL Relief Man Award in 1994.
In baseball and softball, a relief pitcher or reliever is a pitcher who pitches in the game after the starting pitcher has been removed because of fatigue, ineffectiveness, injury, or ejection, or for other strategic reasons, such as inclement weather delays or pinch hitter substitutions. Relief pitchers are further divided informally into various roles, such as closers, setup men, middle relief pitchers, left/right-handed specialists, and long relievers. Whereas starting pitchers usually throw so many pitches in a single game that they must rest several days before pitching in another, relief pitchers are expected to be more flexible and typically pitch in more games with a shorter time period between pitching appearances but with fewer innings pitched per appearance. A team's staff of relievers is normally referred to metonymically as a team's bullpen, which refers to the area where the relievers sit during games, and where they warm-up prior to entering the game.
Cleveland Guardians relief pitchers Aaron Fultz and Rafael Betancourt warming up in the bullpen at Jacobs Field in 2007
The bullpen car used by the Boston Red Sox to cart relievers into games