Glen Perkins continued his climb up the Minnesota Twins all-time career saves list Thursday.
Perkins passed his coach, Eddie Guardado, to move into third place on the team’s all-time list. Perkins closed out the Twins 3-0 victory over the Angels – his 29th save of the season and the 117th of his career.
Kudos @glenperkins! His 117 total saves are enough to pass Eddie Guardado to move into 3rd on the #MNTwins all-time list.
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) July 23, 2015
Guardado had a front row seat to see Perkins move past him on the list. Guardado is in his first season as the Twins bullpen coach, so the Pioneer Press notes that Perkins had a special gift for him after passing him on the list.
Perkins signed a baseball saying, “Eddie – Sit in the back seat. #117 Glen Perkins.”
Glen Perkins has gone from failed starter to 3rd on #MNTwins career saves list and one of the best closers in baseball
— Ted (@tlschwerz) July 23, 2015
Perkins is a three-time All-Star, and has closed out each of the last two All-Star games. Perkins converted on 28 straight save opportunities to start the season, before he finally blew a save on Saturday night in Oakland.
“It’s always good to have somebody like that and be around when they passed you up on the all-time list,” Guardado told the newspaper. “To coach him and see him doing what he’s doing is awesome. I got no problem sitting in the back seat as long as we’re going in the right direction.”
Guardado isn’t alone either. Perkins had already passed a who’s-who of Twins closers on the career saves list this year: Al Worthington, Jeff Reardon and Ron Davis.
Only Joe Nathan (260) and Rick Aguilera (254) have more career saves than Perkins.
While Perkins won’t surpass either of them anytime soon, he may be eying up a few of the single season marks if he continues on his pace
Guardado’s best single-season mark was 45 saves in 2002, while Nathan recorded 47 saves in 2009. Perkins’ career high is 36, but with 29 now he’s on a pace to beat all of those this season.
