Prior to Game 2 of the World Series Wednesday the Reliever of the Year awards were given out in a press conference. The Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of the Year Award was given to New York Yankees closer Andrew Miller.

This season was Andrew Miller’s first season with the Yankees after signing a 4 year 3$6 million that will keep him in a Yankees uniform until 2018. This season Miller went 3-2 with a 2.04 ERA and 36 saves.  He missed almost a month due to a forearm injury this year but still had lots of success striking out 100 batters while only walking 20. He and Dellin Betances formed arguably the greatest back end of a bullpen in baseball since John Wettland and Mariano Rivera.  This season Andrew Miller converted 36 out of 38 save opportunities, including 24 straight while having a dominant 14.9 strikeouts per 9 innings. Miller’s WHIP this season was .859 and had a 2.2 WAR.

Andrew Miller was joined in the press conference by commissioner Rob Manfred, Mariano Rivera, NL Reliever of the Year winner Mark Melancon, and the NL award namesake Trevor Hoffman, who is 2nd in the all time saves list behind Rivera. As well they were joined by the Hartford President Doug Elliot, as the award is sponsored by the Hartford.  

Miller talked to the press after receiving the award saying, "I've been lucky. The Yankees are about as good an organization as you can find. Their reputation is impeccable. Having the opportunity to play there is better than I ever dreamed of...This is an incredible honor, something I never dreamed of. He talked about winning an award named after the greatest closer of all time and Yankees legend Mariano Rivera, "To be associated with anything with Mariano's name on it, probably more than I deserve. Nobody has a better reputation, and especially off the field, than him. It's something I'll cherish it.”

He also talked about his battery mate Dellin Betances by saying, “We had a pretty good team this year and I think our bullpen was a huge strength of that and I was fortunate enough to follow somebody better than Dellin Betances. He’s not sitting up here getting credit for this but he deserves it more than anybody. It was a lot of fun being part of that group and they were special and I couldn’t do this without them.”  Mariano Rivera talked about how proud he was that the winner of this award was coming from the New York Yankees.  

The award was voted on by legendary relief pitchers Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Dennis Eckersley, Lee Smith, Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter, John Franco and Billy Wagner.