Toronto Blue Jays’ right-hander Louis Varland, who had a 1.27 ERA, won the American League Reliever of the Year Award.

This is the first year of the BBWAA’s Reliever of the Year Award, which will be given annually to honor the best pitcher from each league whose contributions to his team are primarily in a bullpen role. The first  new award introduced by the BBWAA since 1983 reflects the growing prominence of bullpen usage in the game.

Cade Smith was the only reliever named on all 30 ballots. Louis Varland was listed on 27 ballots, but 16 first-place votes secured the victory.

Prior to this year, Varland had not received a vote for the Cy Young Award. Of the 12 relievers who received votes on this ballot, only three had ever gotten Cy Young Award votes prior to this year. Aroldis Chapman finished seventh in 2025 and eighth in 2012. Josh Hader was seventh in 2018. Smith was ninth in 2024.

Ballots were submitted prior to postseason play. They are tabulated on a system that awards seven points for first place, four points for second place, three points for third place, two votes for fourth place and one point for fifth place.

2026 AL Reliever of the Year

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	Points
Louis Varland, Blue Jays	16	4	5	1	1	146
Cade Smith, Guardians	7	15	8			133
Bryan Baker, Rays	6	8	11	2		111
Aroldis Chapman, Red Sox		1	3	8	7	36
Josh Hader, Astros	1			4	7	22
David Bednar, Yankees		1	1	5	3	20
Jacob Latz, Rangers				7	3	17
Brent Headrick, Yankees			2	2	2	12
Garrett Whitlock, Rangers		1			2	6
Grant Taylor, White Sox					3	3
Spencer Miles, Blue Jays					2	2
Tyler Rogers, Blue Jays				1		2

Below is a breakdown of the 30 individual ballots, submitted by two writers representing each city in the American League. For more information on the voting, see our Voting FAQ.

Name	Affiliation	Chapter	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Ronald Blum	The Associated Press	BAL	Varland	Smith	Bednar	Baker	Chapman
Rich Dubroff	Baltimore baseball.col	BAL	Varland	Baker	Smith	Hader	Latz
Jen McCaffrey	The Athletic	BOS	Varland	Chapman	Smith	Bednar	Miles
David Laurila	FanGraphs	BOS	Smith	Varland	Baker	Latz	Whitlock
Russell Dorsey	Yahoo! Sports	CHI	Varland	Smith	Baker	Latz	Chapman
Bradford Doolittle	ESPN	CHI	Smith	Varland	Chapman	Baker	Taylor
Christopher Assenheimer	The Chronicle-Telegram	CLE	Varland	Smith	Baker	Bednar	Chapman
Joe Reedy	Associated Press	CLE	Smith	Baker	Varland	Chapman	Hader
Dawn Klemish	MLB.com	DET	Baker	Smith	Varland	Chapman	Bednar
Will Burchfield	97.1 The Ticket	DET	Varland	Baker	Smith	Latz	Hader
Javier Gonzalez	Pelota Cubana USA	HOU	Baker	Smith	Varland	Hader	Chapman
Alyson Footer	MLB.com	HOU	Smith	Whitlock	Baker	Varland	Chapman
Joe Posnanski	JoeBlogs	KC	Smith	Varland	Baker	Headrick	Taylor
Sam McDowell	The Kansas City Star	KC	Varland	Smith	Baker	Headrick	Hader
Brent Maguire	MLB.com	LA	Varland	Smith	Baker	Latz	Hader
Jim Alexander	Southern California News Group	LA	Baker	Bednar	Smith	Chapman	Hader
Aaron Gleeman	AaronGleeman.com	MIN	Varland	Smith	Baker	Hader	Bednar
Pat Borzi	MinnPost.com	MIN	Baker	Smith	Varland	Chapman	Headrick
Bryan Hoch	MLB.com	NY	Smith	Baker	Varland	Chapman	Headrick
Randy Miller	NJ.com	NY	Varland	Baker	Smith	Chapman	Hader
Bob Condotta	The Seattle Times.	SEA	Varland	Smith	Headrick	Latz	Whitlock
Maury Brown	At Large	SEA	Varland	Smith	Headrick	Latz	Hader
Andrew Baggarly	The Athletic	SF/ATH	Varland	Baker	Smith	Rogers	Taylor
Chris Biderman	Sacramento Bee	SF/ATH	Varland	Smith	Baker	Chapman	Bednar
John Romano	Tampa Bay Times	TB	Baker	Varland	Smith	Latz	Chapman
Enrique Rojas	ESPN Deportes	TB	Smith	Baker	Chapman	Hader	Latz
TR Sullivan	At large	TEX	Baker	Smith	Chapman	Bednar	Varland
Schuyler Dixon	The Associated Press	TEX	Hader	Baker	Smith	Chapman	Latz
Ian Harrison	Associated Press	TOR	Varland	Smith	Baker	Bednar	Chapman
Ben Nicholson-Smith	Sportsnet.ca	TOR	Varland	Smith	Baker	Bednar	Miles