A generation of Yankees fans have been spoiled. First, it was Mariano Rivera — when “Enter Sandman” began to echo through the halls of Yankee Stadium, the game was effectively over. David Robertson “the Houdini” and Andrew Miller “the Game Enderer” locked down the ninth inning so effectively in their one-year stints as the closer that nobody really noticed a difference. Aroldis Chapman exasperated fans, for, well, a lot of reasons, but he’s got a Hall of Fame resume for a reason, and there’s a non-zero
chance he ends up there with a Yankee cap. Clay Holmes spent the better part of three seasons as the Yankee closer, making two All-Star appearances, and in his brief stint in the job in 2024, Luke Weaver was a big reason they made the World Series.
In truth, only one closer in the last 30 years has been an unmitigated disaster, and his performance prompted the Yankees to make a swing for his replacement — today’s birthday boy, David Bednar.
David Jeffrey Bednar
Born: October 10, 1994 (Pittsburgh, PA)
Yankees Tenure: 2025-present
Born in Pittsburgh and raised in the extremely small town of Mars (the Pennsylvania borough, a part of the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan area, has fewer than 1,500 inhabitants), Bednar played baseball for his local high school but — perhaps unsurprisingly, given the size of the school — went undrafted. From there, he went to Lafayette College in Easton, PA, and was en route to Massachusetts after his junior year to play in the Cape Cod Summer League. He never made it there, however, as the San Diego Padres instead made him the 1,044th pick of the 2016 MLB Draft — a pick that, since Rob Manfred shrunk the draft to 20 rounds, no longer exists.
According to the school newspaper, he was just the fourth player ever drafted out of Lafayette, and when he made his MLB debut as a 40-man roster call-up in 2019, he became just the second Lafayette alumnus to make The Show. Between that month and the abbreviated 2020 campaign, Bednar struggled in limited time with the Padres, allowing 13 runs in 17.1 innings across the two years. As such, the Padres had no problem including him as part of the seven-player deal that brought Joe Musgrove to Southern California.
Now with his hometown Pirates, Bednar spent the entire 2021 season in the Majors, and he established himself as one of the league’s most reliable relievers. He posted a 2.23 ERA in 61 games, striking out 77 en route to a down-ballot Rookie of the Year vote. He then took over the closer’s job on a permanent basis the following year, compiling 58 saves and a pair of All-Star nods across the 2022 and 2023 campaigns.
An awful start to 2024, however — he allowed 14 runs in 10 innings in April — prompted the Pirates to remove him from the closer’s role after a disastrous August (10.97 ERA), and when he struggled out of the gate in 2025, they wasted no time and optioned him to Triple-A in the first week of the season.
When he returned to the Majors in late April, though, Bednar recaptured his All-Star self. From April 19th through July 28th, he allowed just seven runs and struck out 50 batters in 37 innings. It was on the back of this dominant performance that the Yankees, eager to rebuild their bullpen, made Bednar a priority at the trade deadline, sending a package centered on catcher Rafael Flores to the Pirates to bring “Renegade” to the Bronx.
Bednar’s introduction to the Yankees was, like that of every player the Yankees acquired at the 2025 deadline, a disaster: called on to bail out fellow acquisition Jake Bird, he allowed two runs on four hits (including one home run) to hand the lead to the Miami Marlins. Fortunately, his second inning of work in that game, in which he struck out two while retiring the side in order, would be much more emblematic of the rest of his 2025 — he allowed just four runs in 23 innings across the final two months of the season, as he brought stability to a closer role that had seen Devin Williams and Luke Weaver struggle. He remained his dominant self that October, allowing a grand total of three hits across six innings, earning the final out in each of the two Wild Card wins as the 2025 Yankees became the first team since the new playoff format was introduced to advance to the ALDS after dropping Game 1 of the Wild Card.
Bednar began 2026 by joining Team USA for this year’s World Baseball Classic, and while the United States squad embarrassed itself in pool play against Italy and ultimately lost in the championship to Venezuela, none of that was his fault: he provided four scoreless innings in middle relief as part of a stacked bullpen, allowing just six baserunners and striking out eight. Unfortunately, following the tournament, he got off to a shaky start to the season, culminating in a disastrous blown save against the Mets on May 17th in which he allowed three runs.
After that day, though, Bednar became lights-out, surrendering just 11 runs (eight earned) in his final 44 appearances of the season, with just two blown saves in that stretch. While his early slow struggles kept him from making his third career All-Star appearance, he ended the season tied for fifth in saves (35) and 14th among relievers in fWAR (1.9). Sure, he needed his emotional support baserunners far too often for my liking, but at the end of the day, few relievers were as reliable as he was in 2026.
At the end of this season, Bednar hits free agency, and at this point, it’s not clear whether the Yankees will look to retain their closer — after all, they haven’t really signed a reliever to a big long-term deal in half a decade, and on top of that, Bednar is on the wrong side of 30. (That’s a discussion for another day.) Whether he stays or goes, though, he was one of the bright spots in the Yankee bullpen over the last two seasons.
See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.
