rolling retirees: 2018 and beyond

Really enjoyed that, thanks for sharing

*not* qualifying kershaw did him a favor, i suspect (other than that it's vaguely insulting)

-if healthy, he *might* be worth $18.4M for one year on the free agent market, but it's questionable, as is his arm
-could be wrong, but i doubt he needs the money
-so i assume he wants years
-had he been qualified, other teams would have had to give up a top draft pick to sign an aging unhealthy pitcher
-now he can sign a lengthier, lower-per-year deal with anyone, with no penalties
-if he really wants to stay with the dodgers, he -- unlike, say, greinke -- will totally take a lesser offer as long as it has the years

otoh god only knows what free agent compensation will be like after rob manfred destroys baseball

Joakim Soria

for some reason i have always thought Soria was 35 and on the brink of retirement. since like 2010. i have no idea why. but he's 37 now, and now retired.

dude had a hell of a career for a reliever.

https://theathletic.com/news/royals-reliever-wade-davis-retires-leaves-as-world-series-champ-and-3-time-all-star/C50bQGC2cmTc/

Dominant in 2014-15: 139.1 IP, 0.97 ERA, 71 hits, 7.3 bWAR.

i wonder what his career would have been like if he'd been used as a reliever from the get-go.

Mysterious Fish, the greatest Japanese baseball mascot of all-time, just announced his retirement. RIP to a legend. cc: @mondomascots https://t.co/zkMRgWcoW5 pic.twitter.com/l0bVn8jAFx

— Eric Casey (@EricCasey) December 5, 2021

andrew romine, who put up 0.6 bWAR over parts of 11 seasons

That’s a type of accomplishment I guess.

as mark twain wrote, you have to be kind of good to suck badly that bad for that long

on the bright side, he's the best player in his family. brother austin is at -0.5 over parts of 10 seasons and their dad kevin was -1.4 over parts of seven

i wonder if they like to talk WAR around the kitchen table during the holidays

kyle seager, age 34

wow, what? wasn't expecting that.

three-time detroit tiger cameron maybin

jon lester

melky cabrera

Travis Snider, who last played in MLB in 2015.

top-10 prospect in 2008-9; career bWAR of 4.3. solid season with the pirates in 2014 tho!

The guy was an absolute beast in the minor. Vlad-like stats and then totally crumbled in the majors. Probably the biggest bust in jays history?

People sometimes ask me.. What is it like to play "Pro Baseball"?

Retirement has brought up a lot of different emotions and memories for me. It's given space to think.

16 seasons in professional baseball. Here is a thread on where it has taken me..

— Travis Snider (@Lunchboxhero45) January 15, 2022

I have felt on top of the world. I have felt all alone.

This fucking sport, amirite?

francisco liriano, 38

at three years and $39m, he was the recipient of what is still the pittsburgh pirates’ largest-ever free agent deal; a year and a half into it they had to give the blue jays two prospects just to take him off their hands

One of those prospects, Reese McGuire, was pretty great his first two seasons/150 AB; nothing since, although still with the Jays.

and better known for something else

Parking lot? I'd forgotten!

Longtime big-league first baseman Adrián González, who played for the Rangers, Padres, Red Sox, Dodgers, and Mets across 15 MLB seasons, officially announced his retirement today on his personal Instagram.

Gonzalez last played in the majors in 2018, but he was active as recently as this past season, playing 43 games with the Mexican League’s Mariachis de Guadalajara and posting a .340/.412/.531 batting line in 187 trips to the plate. He also represented Mexico in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), where he collected three hits and a walk in 12 plate appearances.

ryan zimmerman

dude had himself a career. all time Nationals leader in at bats, Runs, RBIs, Hits, doubles, home runs, total bases, xbh and GIDP!

interesting list

All-time walk-off HR:
13 - Jim Thome
12 - Jimmie Foxx, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Albert Pujols, Frank Robinson, Babe Ruth
11 – David Ortiz, Tony Perez, Ryan Zimmerman

That's 10 Hall of Famers, plus Zim. And if his shoulder troubles of 2012-14 don't force him to move to 1B ...

— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) February 15, 2022

...he still wouldn't have been a hall of famer

haha, yeah. plus there are quite a few players who might have been hall of famers if it wasn't for those few years and that one injury that derailed the career...

zimmerman was good, though, and it is an interesting list.

dwight gooden stands out. even WITH all of his troubles he has a case for HOF

as an aside, i think players that were suspended for recreational drug use should get bonus points for the hall of fame. that's like playing on Nightmare difficulty in doom

LHP and union man andrew miller

Fun player for a guy who’s super square

when he was good, his arm release was 16 feet to the side of the mound, a slider would miss a leftie's hip by a quarter inch and then catch the very opposite edge of the strike zone as they weren't sure whether to get out of the way, swing, or take

todd frazier

jake arrieta

most famous guy born in my hometown (even as an infant, he had the instincts to move far away a few months later)

his 2014-15 run was amazing, and of course being part of the 2016 cubs team

his career arch was a weird one...
BAL (4 yrs): hot garbage
CHC (6 yrs): absolute god
PHI (3 yrs): average
SD (1 yr): disaster

i guess it follows a typical trend – but that bad-to-good-to-bad line was so incredibly extreme

he was tapering off his last couple of seasons in chicago. but yeah he was amazing in the mid-2010s.

i was trying to find when he tweeted the picture of himself naked wearing an apron (?) but all my searches are dominated by when he was naked in the ESPN body issue.

Yeah when i think of jake arietta i think of sam miller sheepishly describing him as “built”

when i think of jake arrieta -- perhaps even more so than when i think of anthony recker -- i think of dr morbius

David Wright was the ultimate Morbs player

joe panik

Hang the DJ.

That double pay in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series will live for infinity for us Giant fans. Good luck in life Joe.

Panik on the street's of London...

I was a pretty big Smiths fan and even saw them three times but always hated that song. Yes, they were bonkers live, an experience of a lifetime.