ANAHEIM, Calif. — With surprisingly little hype and fanfare given the magnitude of the achievement, Mariano Rivera is on the verge of another milestone. After he earns just a few more saves, he will take his place as the career leader in that category, a fitting honor for the man widely considered the greatest closer ever.

But as Rivera approaches 600 saves, and the 602nd that will make him the leader, there is little national focus on his accomplishment. The baseball world seems to be taking the event for granted, perhaps because Rivera was long ago crowned the unofficial king of closers.

Part of the explanation is that the save is a relatively new statistic, having been added to the baseball lexicon in 1969. It does not carry the cachet of home runs or hits, so the attention surrounding Rivera’s quest to become the saves leader is mild compared with Derek Jeter’s drive to become the 28th player with 3,000 hits, or even Jim Thome’s quest to become the eighth player with 600 home runs.

But many hits and homers can come in losses or are rendered meaningless in blowouts, and every save signifies a victory.