List of Major League Baseball annual saves leaders

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The following is a list of annual leaders in saves in Major League Baseball (MLB), with separate lists for the American League and the National League. The list includes several professional leagues and associations that were never part of MLB.

Image:BruceSutterCardinals.jpg is tied for Major League records in both total times leading the league in saves (5) and consecutive league-leading seasons (4)|alt=A bearded man with his hands in his jacket pocets, wearing a red baseball cap and red jacket with a bird logo on the left chest, standing with a field and stands in the background.]]

In baseball, a save is credited to a pitcher who finishes a game for the winning team under prescribed circumstances. Most commonly a relief pitcher ("reliever") earns a save by entering in the ninth inning of a game in which his team is winning by three or fewer runs and finishing the game by pitching one inning without losing the lead.{{cite web|url=http://www.livestrong.com/article/91288-baseball-save-rules/|title= Baseball Save Rules|access-date=August 31, 2011 |last=Horneman |first=Tim|work=livestrong.com|date=March 23, 2010}} The statistic was created by Jerome Holtzman in 1959 to "measure the effectiveness of relief pitchers" and was adopted as an MLB official statistic in 1969.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/sports/baseball/22holtzman.html|title=Jerome Holtzman, 82, 'Dean' of Sportswriters, Dies|work=The New York Times|first=Bruce|last=Weber|date=July 22, 2008|access-date=March 13, 2013}}{{cite web|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080721&content_id=3167355&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb|title= Legendary historian Holtzman passes|access-date=March 13, 2013|last=Bloom|first=Barry|work=MLB.com|publisher=Major League Baseball|date=July 21, 2008| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110429155949/http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080721&content_id=3167355&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb| archive-date= 29 April 2011 | url-status= live}} The save has been retroactively measured for pitchers before that date.

MLB recognizes the player or players in each league{{ref label|League|a|a}} with the most saves each season. In retrospect, the five saves by Jack Manning meant he led the National League in its inaugural year, while Bill Hoffer was the American League's first saves champion with three.{{cite web|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/SV_leagues.shtml|title=Yearly League Leaders & Records for Saves|work=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=March 13, 2013}} Mordecai Brown was the first pitcher to record at least 10 saves in a season. Dan Quisenberry, Bruce Sutter, Firpo Marberry, and Ed Walsh are the only pitchers to lead the league in saves five times (though Marberry and Walsh did so before 1969). Sutter is also tied with Harry Wright, Dan Quisenberry and Craig Kimbrel for the most consecutive seasons leading the league in saves with four.

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