The New York Yankees split a doubleheader with the first-place Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, winning the first game 2-0 behind eight shutout innings from Carlos Rodón and the 35th save of the season by closer David Bednar.
By losing the second game 6-1, however, the Yankees were eliminated from the race for the American League East pennant, and the Rays clinched it. The Yankees are now locked into the AL’s top Wild Card spot, and will most likely face the Boston Red Sox in a best-of-three series at Yankee Stadium starting Sept. 29.
With the regular season winding down, the Yankees’ front office now must decide what to do with Bednar, who played a key role in the Yankees’ run to the postseason but becomes eligible for free agency when the signing period opens on Nov. 5.
Bednar recorded the second-best save total of his career, but the achievement hasn’t yet earned him a contract commitment from Yankees general manager Brian Cashman.
With the bullpen thin on proven arms and October now locked in, letting a closer walk to the open market without so much as an extension conversation raises questions about who closes games for New York after this year.
Bednar Built an Unlikely Path to Closer Duty
David Jeffrey Bednar was born Oct. 10, 1994, in Pittsburgh and grew up nearby in Mars, Pennsylvania. San Diego took the 6-foot-1, 250-pound right-hander in the 35th round of the 2016 draft out of Lafayette College, hardly the pedigree of a future big-league closer.
Bednar debuted with the Padres on Sept. 1, 2019, then landed in Pittsburgh a little more than a year later as part of a three-team trade involving the Mets. He turned that opportunity into back-to-back All-Star nods and a league-leading 39 saves in 2023, becoming the closer in a rebuilding Pirates bullpen.
A rocky 2024 and a brief demotion to Triple-A in 2025 threatened to derail that run, but New York bet on a bounce-back. The Yankees acquired the two-time All-Star reliever on July 31, 2025, sending Pittsburgh minor-league catchers Rafael Flores and Edgleen Pérez and outfielder Brian Sánchez in return. Bednar answered by posting a 2.19 ERA with 10 saves in 22 games down the stretch in 2025.
Yankees Weigh Bednar’s Free Agency Future
Bednar signed a one-year, $9 million contract in January to avoid arbitration, his final season of club control before hitting the open market. He’s made good on it, posting a 2.54 ERA and 35 saves through 62 appearances this season, the second-highest total of his career behind his 39-save 2023 campaign, with 74 strikeouts over 67 1/3 innings.
Bednar carries a 1.83 ERA over his last 30 outings, a run interrupted only by a Sept. 16 blown save at Minnesota in which both runs he allowed were unearned.
Speculation surfaced in June that Bednar could be predicted to lose the closer role to Fernando Cruz, but he held the job through the stretch run regardless.
No extension talks have surfaced publicly. Bleacher Report‘s Joel Reuter called Bednar one of the most reliable closers in baseball and floated a hypothetical three-year, $45 million deal as a “top priority” reunion. MLB Trade Rumors, which included Bednar on its list of 2026-27 MLB free agents, gave him only an honorable mention on its rankings of the winter’s top relievers.
Bednar should be eligible for a qualifying offer, having spent the entire 2026 season with New York and never having received one before. The amount of the MLB qualifying offer is estimated to be set at a projected $23.1 million this offseason, though relievers rarely draw the tag at that price since multiyear closer deals typically land below it.
Yankees 35-Save Closer Set to Become Free Agent on Nov. 5