Before the Save Rule - Relief in the Complete Game Era
While saves were officially introduced as a statistic in NPB in 1974, professional baseball before that was an era where complete games were the norm. It was not uncommon for ace pitchers in the 1960s to record over 30 complete games per season, and relief pitchers were relegated to the role of 'a landing spot for pitchers who could not cut it as starters.' For example, Kazuhisa Inao of the Nishitetsu Lions recorded 42 complete games in 1961, and pitching a complete game was considered the greatest contribution a starting pitcher could make to the team. Relief appearances were synonymous with mop-up duty or conditioning outings for starters, and there was virtually no recognition of relief pitching as a specialized profession. However, even in this era, some managers recognized the importance of relief pitching. Kazuto Tsuruoka, manager of the Nankai Hawks, actively employed late-game pitching changes and became a pioneer in relief pitcher specialization. Tsuruoka held the belief that 'it is more rational to suppress batters with a fresh arm from the seventh inning onward, when the starter is fatigued.' He put this then-unorthodox strategy into practice. While this concept can be seen as a prototype for the modern division of labor, the prevailing mindset in baseball at the time was that 'a pitcher is not a true professional unless he pitches complete games,' and Tsuruoka's tactics were not widely emulated. From the late 1960s through the 1970s, the role of relief pitchers gradually gained importance from the perspective of increasing game counts and reducing pitcher workload. When both the Central and Pacific Leagues settled on a 130-game schedule in 1966, it became physically impossible for ace pitchers to complete every game, and bullpen development emerged as a factor that could determine wins and losses. The decline in complete games and increase in relief appearances began to emerge as a clear trend during this period. In 1968, Yutaka Enatsu recorded 401 strikeouts in a single season, a record that remains unbroken to this day. Yet even a superhuman pitcher like Enatsu would suffer from shoulder wear in the latter half of his career. It was an era when the limits of the complete-game ideology were becoming visible through the physical toll on individual pitchers. Within this context, the introduction of the save rule in 1974 was an inevitable outcome. With saves officially recognized as a statistic, the contributions of relief pitchers became quantifiable for the first time, establishing a foundation for proper evaluation. From the very first year of the rule's adoption, teams began consciously reconsidering how they deployed relief pitchers, and this movement spread throughout the league.
Establishing the Closer - 1980s to 1990s
In the 1980s, the specialized role of 'closer' became firmly established in NPB. Symbolizing this change was Yutaka Enatsu's conversion to the closer role. When Enatsu - who boasted overwhelming credentials as a starter with 206 career wins and a single-season record of 401 strikeouts - converted to closer with Nippon-Ham in 1981 and recorded 25 saves to win the saves title, it sent shockwaves through the baseball world. The fact that 'a first-rate starting pitcher moved to the closer role' instantly elevated the status of the position. Enatsu embodied the belief that the mound in the ninth inning carries a tension entirely different from starting, where a single mistake pitch leads directly to defeat, and only a pitcher who can thrive under that pressure is fit for the role. His transition articulated the unique mental demands required of closers. In the late 1980s, the trend of each team installing a dedicated closer accelerated. Pitchers such as Kazuhiko Ushijima of the Chunichi Dragons and Kazuyuki Yamamoto of the Hanshin Tigers were given fixed roles as closers, and 'who pitches the ninth' became a critical consideration in team construction. Closers during this period still frequently pitched two or more innings, differing from the modern 'ninth-inning-only' deployment, but the perception of the closer as a specialist entrusted with the final stage of a game steadily took hold. In the 1990s, Kazuhiro Sasaki of the Yokohama BayStars reigned as the absolute closer with the nickname 'Daimajin' (Great Devil), definitively proving that closers were indispensable to team victories. Sasaki's primary weapon was a forkball clocked at up to 158 km/h, and batters were unable to handle it despite knowing it was coming. As the driving force behind the BayStars' 1998 Japan Series championship, Sasaki posted a staggering 45 saves with a 0.64 ERA that season. His career total of 252 saves was an NPB record at the time, and his mere presence on the mound in the ninth inning was enough to demoralize opposing teams. During this period, securing a dedicated closer became the top priority for each team, and closer salaries surged accordingly. Closer salaries, which had previously been less than half of what starting pitchers earned, reached parity with or even exceeded ace starter salaries by the late 1990s. The term 'guardian deity' became established during this era, and the closer transcended being merely a position to become a symbolic figure for the team.
Development of Bullpen Specialization - The Rise of Setup Men
From the 2000s onward, NPB's relief operations became further specialized. Beyond just closers, the importance of 'setup men' handling the seventh and eighth innings was recognized, and relief pitching patterns known as 'winning formulas' were established across teams. The manager who most effectively put this concept into practice in NPB was Hiromitsu Ochiai of the Chunichi Dragons. The relief corps Ochiai constructed in 2004 featured a rock-solid pitching pattern: Eiji Ochiai in the seventh, Shinya Okamoto in the eighth, and Hitoki Iwase in the ninth. This 'winning formula' gave the entire team the confidence that a lead after six innings would almost certainly translate into a victory. Powered by this bullpen strategy, the 2004 Dragons won the league championship, achieving the remarkable feat of a title in Ochiai's first year as manager. Iwase went on to serve as the Dragons' closer for many years afterward, establishing the NPB record of 407 career saves. Built over a career spanning nearly two decades with a slider delivered from his left arm as his primary weapon, this record stands as a symbol of the specialization and longevity of the closer role. Setup men's salaries also rose, and what was once merely a 'closer backup' position came to be valued as an independent specialty. By the late 2000s, it was no longer unusual for setup men to earn over 100 million yen annually, and bidding wars for setup men erupted in the free agent market. Koji Fujikawa's 'fireball straight' of the Hanshin Tigers became synonymous with the eighth inning, and the JFK relay pattern - Jeff Williams, Koji Fujikawa, and Tomoyuki Kubota - anchored the Tigers throughout the 2000s. Statistically, teams that lock down the three innings from the seventh through ninth with specialist pitchers show a significantly higher winning percentage compared to those that do not. NPB data from the 2010s indicates that teams with a functioning winning formula averaged a winning percentage of around .540, while teams with unstable bullpens often hovered around .480. This gap translates to roughly 10 wins per season - a margin more than sufficient to determine the outcome of a pennant race. The development of bullpen specialization represents a change that symbolizes NPB's tactical refinement and has formed the foundation of pitching management in modern baseball.
Modern Bullpen Management and Future Challenges
In modern NPB, bullpen management has become increasingly sophisticated. Beyond traditional 'winning formulas,' flexible pitching strategies adapted to game situations are now required. Advances in data analysis have made matchup-based deployment - grounded in batter-by-batter performance records and pitch-type-specific batting averages against - commonplace, making managerial pitching decisions more complex than ever before. Particularly noteworthy is the potential introduction of the 'opener' strategy, which spread in MLB, to NPB. This tactic, formally adopted by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018, has a relief pitcher start the first inning instead of the starting pitcher, with the intended starter entering from the second inning onward. Because the first inning carries a high probability of facing the opponent's heart of the order, the rationale is to deploy a reliever who can go all-out for a short stint, then hand the ball to the starter from the second inning. Following the Rays' success, multiple MLB teams adopted the strategy with measurable results. However, NPB's strong tradition of valuing complete-game starting pitchers has prevented full-scale adoption of the opener strategy. NPB starting pitchers face an implicit expectation of pitching 'at least six innings,' and a tactic that sends a reliever to the mound from the first inning risks clashing with starters' pride and the internal hierarchy of the team. Additionally, NPB rosters are smaller than their MLB counterparts, leaving less bullpen depth, which means that making the opener a regular practice could lead to reliever fatigue. The overuse of relief pitchers has also become a serious concern. Since the 2010s, the number of relievers exceeding 70 appearances per season has increased, and a string of shoulder and elbow injuries caused by consecutive outings has followed. This is especially acute in the postseason - the Japan Series and Climax Series - where consecutive appearances on top of accumulated regular-season fatigue are unavoidable, and cases of pitchers missing the following season due to injury are all too common. In response, some teams have internally adopted a policy of requiring at least one day of rest between appearances, and discussions about adjusting the number of pitchers on the active roster are underway. Furthermore, the concept of a 'bullpen day' - managing an entire game with relievers only, without a designated starter - has also become a topic of discussion in recent years. While this approach has gained traction in MLB as an emergency measure during rotation gaps or when injuries pile up, the limited total number of pitchers in NPB makes implementation a significant challenge. Balancing efficient bullpen utilization with pitcher health management is one of the most important challenges facing modern NPB. A multifaceted approach is required, encompassing data-driven pitching decisions, stricter pitch count management, and the development of robust reliever pipelines. The closer's role has undergone a dramatic transformation - from an 'unnecessary position' in the complete-game era to the 'most critical role' that holds the team's fate in its hands. This evolution is a testament to the continuous tactical advancement of baseball as a sport, and innovation in bullpen management will undoubtedly continue well into the future.