Bryan Baker has gone from a Buffalo Bisons reliever to the Tampa Bay Rays closer in the 2026 World Series, and his rise now sits at the center of Tampa Bay’s championship run. Baker finished the year with 41 saves, tied for the most in Major League Baseball, after being acquired by the Rays before the trade deadline during the 2025 season.
That kind of finish was hard to imagine when Baker made his Bisons debut on July 14, 2019, at McCoy Stadium and saved the game against the Pawtucket Red Sox. Buffalo first brought him in during the 2018 season, and he later logged 18 appearances that year before adding 39 more relief outings in the 2021 campaign. Over two years with Buffalo, Baker went 7-2 with a 2.13 ERA and collected 14 saves, including 11 in 13 tries during 2021. The Blue Jays selected his contract on September 1, 2019, and five days later he made his Major League debut with a scoreless inning against the Oakland Athletics.
The path did not stay linear. Baker was claimed on waivers by the Baltimore Orioles and spent the next three-and-a-half years between Baltimore and the Norfolk Tides before Toronto sent him to Tampa Bay. This season, the Rays used him at the highest leverage point and got the result they wanted. Baker was named a 2026 American League All-Star, represented Tampa Bay in the Midsummer Classic and even recorded the final out after former Bisons teammate Otto Lopez singled for the National League.
His route also mirrors the larger Buffalo connection running through the Rays. Kyle Snyder, who has served as Tampa Bay’s pitching coach since the 2018 season, also pitched his final affiliated season in Buffalo. Beau was on the Bisons pitching staff during the 2024 campaign, while Joshua Palacios spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons in Buffalo’s outfield. The organization’s roster has been shaped by that pipeline, but Baker is the clearest proof of how far it can reach when a minor league arm becomes the reliever trusted to finish games on the sport’s biggest stage.
Tampa Bay now takes that track record into the rest of the 2026 World Series against the Milwaukee Brewers for the Commissioner’s Trophy. Baker has already answered the biggest test of his season; what remains is whether the same arm that closed out games all year can help carry the Rays through the final series of the year.
