rolling retirees: 2018 and beyond

daniel bard has had enough

Bard would appear in just 13 innings over that four-year span, allowing 35 earned runs while walking 46 and hitting 16 batters. Yet he continued to motor on, trying anything and everything to get back to the big leagues.

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/1/4/16797700/daniel-bard-retirement

I remember seeing him at NYY in a late sept/early october game when we first came up and the air went out of the stadium when his name was announced.

rolling unretirees

Good to be back in the cage again. The comeback is real. pic.twitter.com/uA8FMjyTjv

— Rafael Palmeiro (@Rafael_Palmeiro) January 5, 2018

former pirate great justin morneau

https://www.twincities.com/2018/01/08/report-justin-morneau-set-to-retire-rejoin-twins-as-special-assistant

minnesota native and 12-year twin glen perkins

mark appel, the top pick in the 2013 draft

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2757009-why-mark-appel-perhaps-the-biggest-bust-in-mlb-history-is-retiring-at-26

backup catcher eric fryer

xp long way down from the #1 pick

He's excited to play Settlers of Catan or one of his 30 other board games with John, with whom he shares a one-floor home

Ex-A’s ace Jarrod Parker tells the @sfchronicle he is officially retiring; a look at his life after promising career derailed by injuries: https://t.co/SFb6gVc6K7 via @sfchronicle

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) February 13, 2018

2009 AL ROY Andrew Bailey

former mets great mike pelfrey

12 seasons, 68-103, 4.68 ERA, 1.510 WHIP, 4.8 bWAR, $41m in salary

nice work if you can get it

about all you can say is that he didn't give up many homers

stephen drew

wes wilson, a backup catcher who hit .207/.260/.259 in 226 games over seven seasons in the yankee system

hadn’t really thought about it, but i guess matt holliday is probably done. good career; too bad he pulled a mantle and slipped under .300

batting average, feh

Aaron Laffey retired after Wednesday night's game. He had an 18.00 ERA in three starts with the 51s.

— Betsy Helfand (@betsyhelfand) June 7, 2018

MLB career K/9: 4.5

1,262,200 in career earnings if fangraphs is right

After suffering two concussions in the last eight months while playing in the Detroit Tigers organization, Blaise Salter has voluntarily retired from professional baseball because he fears the long-term risks that could come from brain injuries.

He’s afraid of ending up like his grandfather, Tigers great Bill Freehan, who has Alzheimer’s disease. Salter's only 24 years old.

While this close, loving family is fiercely private and sensitive about Freehan’s condition, Salter acknowledges his grandfather’s condition played a direct role in his decision.

“We are so close,” Salter said. “Seeing him the way his health has been, it’s definitely been an eye opener for me. I saw it firsthand how concussions have affected his life. Obviously, he had way more than I did, with the lack of equipment back in the day. To see that, I really thought about my life. I wanted to do anything I could, to prevent that from happening.”

There is evidence linking brain injuries to a higher risk of developing brain conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

It is not clear how many concussions Freehan suffered during his 15-year Tigers' career, but his family suspects concussions played a role in his condition.

And it was enough for Salter to walk away from baseball.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/jeff-seidel/2018/06/07/detroit-tigers-bill-freehan-alzheimers-blaise-salter/682734002/

http://larrybrownsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Jayson-Werth-hairy-bobblehead.jpg

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23927548/jayson-werth-says-done-playing-pro-baseball

presumably Chase Utley

https://sports.yahoo.com/chase-utley-hold-press-conference-171946434.html

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.

troy tulowitzki

finishes with *exactly* the same bWAR as . . . nomar

damn.

that is an amazing factoid, too

Probably my least favourite Blue Jay ever. Spent as much time as a Jay engaging in baseball-related activities as he did playing baseball. And more time complaining.

Our coaching staff just added an All-Star, y’all. Let’s go. https://t.co/1U4WdB42gd 🤘

— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) July 25, 2019

i love the understated headline there by texassports.com

but that's what you get when you leave it up to the editorial team of The Ex-Ass Ports, Inc

ilb twitter fave ty kelly

Now that I don’t play professional baseball anymore, I’d just like all the current players and fans to know that the game was better when I used to play.

— Ty Kelly (@tykelly11) August 25, 2019

pic.twitter.com/czVJztm9iY

— David Freese (@david23freese) October 12, 2019

noted canadian michael saunders, who will take over as manager of the appalachian league's danville braves

utility guy kristopher negrón, after 170 big league games and 1439 in the minors

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/12/steve-pearce-unofficially-retired.html

he ran out of AL East teams to play for

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28342169/14-year-vet-ian-kinsler-retires-one-hit-shy-2000

pour one out for the poor man's Bobby Grich

Whither Warstic?

good player

ryan braun now the active tribe leader in stolen bases

Curtis Granderson

(aka "Craig Gunderson" -- Lou Piniella, 2006)

Granderson was really damned good. He came up around the same time as Grady Sizemore and everyone of course thought Grady was going to be a superstar for 15 more seasons, and Grandy was overlooked for a bit longer than he should have been. Even though despite Sizemore's first several incredible years, the best season either of them had was Granderson's 2007 (38 doubles, 23 triples, 23 HR, 122 runs scored, .913 ops, 7.6 bWAR). Decent positive value through his Mets years, solid defense, and apparently an extremely good dude.

i always liked him. good luck grandy

an extremely good dude

otm

kendrys morales

not officially retired but:

Ben Zobrist hasn’t announced anything but is at home and has no plans to play. Very nice career: started versatility trend and was rewarded for it, won 2 rings

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 12, 2020

he had a great run with the Cubs obv, though last season was a tough one for him w/whatever was going on at home. he was great in 2018, i imagine he still has some ability left in the tank but maybe not the desire.

i'd still rather have him at 2b in 2020 than daniel descalso or whoever the cubs are planning to play there now

cubs dot com depth chart has nico hoerner (followed by bote) as the leading 2b candidate. he's supposed to be good but has very limited pro experience (or power)

nick hundley

jeremy hellickson

martin prado (a few days ago)

rolling unretirees: daniel bard is in camp with the rockies

lonnie chisenhall, 31

tom koehler

One of the greats

I'd call this another rolling unretiree, except I'm not sure if ever retired. It's a rolling non-retiree, or something:

http://www.tsn.ca/report-jose-bautista-working-out-as-pitcher-1.1451332

Seriously?

I hope he comes back just to bean astros.

feel like we may have seen the last of melky cabrera. he was actually pretty good in april/may last year but then fell off a cliff, and he can't really play the field anymore

steve pearce, officially

denard span

Highest ever HBP rate, min. 1,000 PA

Brandon Guyer: .057
Hughie Jennings: .051
Derek Dietrich: .048
F.P. Santangelo: .040
Ron Hunt: .039
Carlos Quentin: .039
Craig Wilson: .039 https://t.co/L1fYBd4PE0

— Matthew Pouliot (@matthewpouliot) July 6, 2020

That’s kind of rosenthal to cite his BA against lefties

Chris Iannetta accepted a spot on the Yankees’ taxi squad, but made it clear to the team that he would retire if they asked him to go to the minor leagues. The Yankees designated Iannetta for assignment on August 1 and so the veteran catcher has said goodbye to baseball after a 16-year career.

The Detroit Tigers announced on Saturday that manager Ron Gardenhire is retiring immediately and will not return for a fourth season.

Gardenhire, who turns 63 in October, is 132-241 (.354 winning percentage) in two-plus seasons with the Tigers. He signed a three-year deal when he was hired before the 2018 season, the first full year the team embraced the rebuild.

Lloyd McClendon will manage the team the remainder of the season.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2020/09/19/detroit-tigers-ron-gardenhire-not-return-manager/5841294002/

BREAKING: Hearing that Alex Gordon is officially retiring. Club announcement likely will come soon.

— Jeffrey Flanagan (@FlannyMLB) September 24, 2020

Nothing can really prepare you for this part of your career when you have to say: I am retiring from baseball.

Forever thankful and Gr8ful. pic.twitter.com/XoYTsLkOlu

— Hunter Pence (@hunterpence) September 26, 2020

:(

kind of a weird era but you post a highlight video along with your own announcement, but i will miss u hunter pence

HUNTER PENCE IS FREE!

Keep baseball weird

hisashi iwakuma

legendary backup catcher erik kratz

played for nine MLB teams and 16 different minor league teams

wow, good for him. a journeyman no one's ever heard of, but he got to hit 31 HRs in MLB games and probably is in a heated pool right now

i meant all that in a positive way - it reads extremely cynically