rolling retirees: 2018 and beyond

the first overall pick in the 2006 draft, luke hochevar

not a great career, but at least better than mark appel's

i don't know much about him, but why did the royals push him through their minor league system so quickly despite him never putting up good numbers?

there was some weird shit surrounding his drafting -- dodgers took him in the first round in '05, he agreed to sign then changed his mind, then played indy ball in early '06. he didn't sign with the royals until he was almost 23. high-end college pitchers are *supposed* to move quickly, and he made his big league debut a week short of turning 24, but . . . yeah i dunno. probably some combination of the royals being terrible at player development + the fact that hochevar insisted on an MLB contract and was therefore already on the 40-man roster

sometimes when a guy like that retires i like to see how much money he raked in for his career.

answer: just shy of 25 million

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24380190/brandon-mccarthy-atlanta-braves-retire-end-season

ryan howard

Had no idea he wasn't already retired.

maybe he was hoping to pull a matt holliday but no one called

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm_RhIrU4AAMM3k.jpg:small

They said it could never be done

a 6.66 K/9 would have been the icing on the cake but I shouldn’t quibble

david wright, after one final home series

Online prices for his presumed last start on 9/29 have skyrocketed in the last few minutes. (I already am going to the NY Film Festival that night.)

actually, not technically retiring but being medically sidelined a la prince fielder

Gulp.

https://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2018/09/victor_martinez_retirement_1.html

reliever brad ziegler

a little surprising as he was still doing alright and getting saves this year.

Ike Davis has retired https://t.co/ciETMhLWTd

— HardballTalk (@HardballTalk) November 6, 2018

noted former pirate

Joe Mauer

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25228494/joe-mauer-retire-15-seasons-minnesota-twins

Utley.

At one point I would have thought both those guys were headed for the hall.

they still might be

It's really too bad that the Twins never won anything with Mauer, they had some good teams but seemed to choke against the Yankees every year. Even with all his injuries he had a hell of a career.

our beloved adrian beltre

:( :( :(

nooooooo

bartolo : is now the last active* player who played in the majors in the 20th century

huh.

P sure Armando Benitez is playing in Mexico still

catcher dan butler, after 768 minor league games

played in seven games for the red sox in 2014 and two more this year, going 5-for-25 with three doubles and throwing out three of eight attempted base stealers. he was never drafted

THANK YOU... pic.twitter.com/CzhaoU9YUH

— Mike Napoli (@MikeNapoli25) December 8, 2018

Only reached 140 games twice--I don't know if he was the most productive long-term part-time hitter of the past couple of decades, but he must be close (including one monster season in 2011: .320/.414/.631, 30 HR and 5.5 WAR in 113 games).

I really wish the Jays had hung onto him after the Wells deal, instead of flipping him for a reliever who’s name time has forgotten.

reliever tom wilhelmsen, officially

outfielder colby rasmus, unofficially

Alfredo Amezaga (who will join Atlanta as a coach)

awesome

http://mlb.mlb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=l135&t=p_pbp&pid=150119

Jaime Garcia, 32 years old

https://www.mlb.com/cardinals/news/jaime-garcia-expected-to-retire-from-mlb/c-302541372

you wouldn't know from looking at his stats, but he really did have some exceptional stuff. sometimes it really seemed like he was throwing a wiffle ball out there. alas, he was almost always injured or recovering from an injury.

i just learned that he and Fernando Valenzuela were the only two pitchers born in Mexico to start in a world series.

former red sox third baseman of the future will middlebrooks

Willie Midds was basically a nicer, crappier Shea Hillenbrand

I didn't know Ricky Romero had been out there the past five years, trying to make it back.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/toronto-blue-jays-ricky-romero-retirement/

also shawn tolleson -- spent the last two years trying to come back from TJ but decided it wasn't going to work out

Dillon Gee, who spent the 2018 season with the Chunichi Dragons

jarrod saltalamacchia

cc sabathia will retire at the end of the season

doug fister

^his jersey will live on ironically at gay fetish events

?! I hardly knew her!

Bruce Bochy at end of season

Bruce Bochy announces he will retire after the 2019 season pic.twitter.com/TWiBLgL3Oh

— Kerry Crowley (@KO_Crowley) February 18, 2019

Ichiro has retired

Two time world series winner Alex Wood.

anthony rizzo!

it sucked that he was vocal against the covid vaccine, especially as a cancer survivor, but i always like him as a cub and he was a much more personable "face of the team" guy than kris bryant

whoa! the ultimate 'stands on top of the plate' guy

I believe I'm a minority of one who thought he deserved a little bit more blame for the botched World Series play last year.

Clayton Kershaw (after this season).

Good.

Same word I'd use, although I'm pretty sure we mean different things.

Emmanuel Clase?

Meaning he retired, or he was "retired" in the deadbeat-gambler/Goodfellas sense?

(A very tastless joke I only make because I know that's not true.)

Hector Gomez is reporting that Emmanuel Clase may never pitch in the MLB again following his gambling scandal. The evidence against him is allegedly too damning.

It appears that he's not allowed to play the Dominican Winter leagues as well.

Kyle Hendricks.

didn't expect this: Erik Swanson. only 32, but coming off two injury-filled, less than stellar seasons (incl missing time after his son was hot by a car). but was lights out before that. thought he was the next closer after his first season with the jays when they got him for Teo

david robertson, after 17 seasons

JAWS has him 17th among relievers

Jason Heyward

:/ liked that dude but he never lived up to his rookie season

ya, never quite met his potential, but still a solid career. 41.5 career WAR. dude was baseline good at everything except hitting for average. good glove, a little power, a little speed, great eye at the plate.

41 war is exceptional for not living up to one's rookie season!

he just never developed his swing into unleashing what he was capable of doing, he was really too much of a ground ball hitter and he clearly had so much untapped strength which only showed up intermittently. worth every penny of his Cubs contract for that locker room speech in Game 7 of the 2016 WS obv.

more Kevin Kiermaier than Larry Walker, unfortunately.

i don't know if the data hold this up but in my mind, it felt like every season he was with the cubs his offense improved slightly, so there was always a mild optimism that he might eventually return to being a good hitter. but yeah was always an excellent defender and OTM about the rain delay speech

41 war is exceptional for not living up to one's rookie season!

it is! starting at age 20 helped, too.

he had 34.1 career fWAR, but 25 of that came by the end of his age 25 season. i think that’s why it’s weird to think of him as someone with good career numbers - over the last 10 years he’s been pretty forgettable

temu andruw

lol

chris taylor, 35

played at least 90 games at: 2B, SS, LF, CF, 3B

career .248/.327/.419, 110 HR, 91 SB, 102 OPS+, 16.2 bWAR

twice a world series champ; NLCS MVP in 2017

striking eyes

He’s unretired! He changed his mind!

as hall-of-fame pittsburgh steelers head coach chuck noll allegedly used to tell players who were being cut from the team: 'son, it's time to get on with your life's work.'