Now that I've had more time to reflect on it, if I had to be more specific, I'd rank Rivera in the 15th-20th range, along with Blyleven, Niekro, and Mussina, excellent pitchers with excellent careers and definitely worthy of the Hall in my book, but clearly a step down from Seaver, Grove, et al. in the top 10.
There's no reason in principle that a closer couldn't be considered the greatest pitcher of all time, but he'd just have to put up even better numbers than Mariano did. If a hypothetical closer converted 95% of 800 save opportunities over 20 years with an ERA+ of 250 and a 0.8 WHIP, I'd declare him a greater pitcher than Walter Johnson. It's possible we'll see that someday, but that's significantly better than Mariano, and I think I'm more likely to see someone put together a 57 game hitting streak this year than I am to see a closer that good in the next 40 years or however long I may live.
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