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.

David Phelps!!

His second full season, I should say--and great for the 2012 Giants WS team.

One of Cabrera's associates purchased a website for $10,000 and falsified its contents in a way that would have allowed Cabrera to challenge his suspension by claiming that the positive test was caused by a substance sold through that website, but MLB officials and federal investigators used forensics to trace the website back to Cabrera.

Forgot all about the PEDs...Now I remember all the raised eyebrows at Melky Cabrera suddenly hitting .350.

I will never forget. The jays got a great deal on him for two seasons and he wasn’t bad!

https://i.postimg.cc/5ydj20Hz/6-B70-A601-90-E5-4603-825-A-19-B8-C086-B01-C.jpg

aw i liked him on the cubs, he was a good leadoff guy. i remember after 2015 everyone thought he was going to the orioles but then he came back to the cubs on a surprise one-year contract, which ended up being a good move for him and the team

i didn't realize how much of a surprise that was, when he returned to the cubs for 2016! here's footage:

A little more footage from #Cubs SURPRISE this morning at camp. pic.twitter.com/7X1skZmOSD

— Kelly Crull (@Kelly_Crull) February 25, 2016

his surprise signing/spring training appearance was very crucial, like he had to come back for A Reason. v symbolic of that whole 2016 for me. after 2015 being a shockingly good year, it felt like a stepping-it-up moment.

darren o'day announced his retirement. pretty solid career, great run w/ the o's on their early-mid teens playoff teams (6th in career appearances). loved that sidearm motion.

last active player drafted by the expos . . . tom brady

jason kipnis

neither is unexpected, but lorenzo cain and mitch moreland are retiring. moreland more of a confirmation after not playing last year, and cain will retire this summer in kansas city, despite starting and ending his career in milkwaukee.

i always liked cain - fun player

considering how solid and well rounded a player he was at his peak, I'm surprised he was only an all star twice. great combo of hit/on-base, speed, glove with a dash of power.

The classic Amos Otis/Bernie Williams does-everything-well (but-nothing-spectacular) player who's underrated as a result. Ends his career with over 5.0 bWAR/162 games.

should have probably should have won some more gold gloves. he had a bunch of fielding bible awards.

from 2012-2015, matt harvey went 25-18, 2.53, 427 IP, 449 K, ERA+ 146 and made $1.719m

from 2016 on, matt harvey went 25-48, 5.92, 539 IP, 418 K, ERA+ 72 and made $26.2m

i mean i'm glad matt harvey got paid, but the trend line is not unlike that of an NFL running back (which is a whole other example of massive exploitation). and maybe starters aren't actually that different from RBs

cole hamels, hall of the pretty good-er

60~ war in 13~ seasons, I’d give him hall of very VERY good personally

i almost said 'pretty *damn* good-er' but chose not to because phillies

Sad he couldn’t get it back together, would have been an amazing story to see him have a verlander-esquire revival with the Padres

At a certain point, I started to group Hamels, Jon Lester, and John Lackey together; I figured one would break through and make the HOF. The two Jo(h)ns pair up well, but Hamels was clearly better.

In honor of the two Jo(h)ns:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZGSYjRsf5k

i regret having (even vaguely?) cast shade upon cole hamels, because jon lackey is maybe my least favorite player of this millennium

incredible prick, spent his entire career being like first of all the umps are fucking me, and secondly, my teammates suck because they don't catch every single ball

honestly fuck that guy forever

Excuse me for saying so, but one of the rare occasions where you absolutely can judge a book by its cover. First time I saw his face my immediate thoughts were something along the lines of “I bet that bloke is absolutely 0 fun to be around”

Bartolo Colon retiring next month as a Met. Should have retired him at this year home run derby with a special side-show event titled “He drives it, deep left field”. Still mad the league got rid of pitchers hitting, they should have got rid of the DH instead.

Don't remember a thing about him other than a general consistency in his year-over-year record...which was less impressive than I'd remembered looking at it now.

You could throw Colon and Buehrle and even, to a degree, Sabathia in there. They were all kind of old-school.

Speaking of great home runs, the image of Hamel that sticks in my mind the most (sadly) is the shot of him sitting alone, stoic expression, as the camera shakes back and froth from the Roger Centre rumble following Bautista’s home run. He obviously had much better things to be remembered by, but that shot is a work of art and a great encapsulation of why baseball is the best sport

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/8uqipCV1ifImqE6orZx4BNfPAlEZLys8rwLz7TjlDxK7OsUTQnBxitWtvU5g9vOm9eW4p2K09c4JG1bvRcwvv_AK4z57WKdqC1X3htMM1-TmHvsglqKoOm7-pwCVTgRt5Y8sIv_B

Followed by this Mona Lisa expression

https://imgur.com/a/RNrQHpA

https://i.imgur.com/GB6Qo2e.jpg

BREAKING: Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg will retire. The World Series MVP and former No. 1 pick in the draft, who couldn't overcome complications from thoracic outlet syndrome, is tentatively planning a September announcement. (w @dougherty_jesse)https://t.co/DM33q5F4J5

— Barry Svrluga (@barrysvrluga) August 24, 2023

All gave some, some gave all.

He's giving up a lot of money by retiring, That run in 2019 was really special though.

warning, stats:

he retires with 1470 IP and a career FIP of 3.02. for pitchers with 1400+ IP since integration, that's the 12th best FIP. the top 15 is a fun list (i think):

koufax
bob veale
kershaw
j.r. richard
gibson
pedro
sale
rollie fingers
dean chance
nolan
drysdale
strasberg
seaver
marichal
hoyt wilhelm

i still keep fucking up the hide function, my apologies. i tried

https://i.imgur.com/sub9ItL.png

??? It worked.

I thought at first this thread would be about ILXers who have retired.

Pretty sure he keeps the money because it’s an injury retirement. Saw a sad tweet about him not being able to hold his kids or even open doors with the injury. Wish him all the best

I used Bob Veale in Immaculate Grid yesterday--benefitted from his era, but really good forgotten pitcher.

Adam Jones

https://x.com/sixers/status/1695435045291401653?s=46&t=56pvpJvqL5GRtMdLh4N49g

Lol whoops

It the Orioles were to get to the WS, they should bring back Jones and Markakis and any other stalwarts from the '00 teams for a pre-game ceremony, when they never reached .500 even once. Jones was a very good, consistent player.

Bartolo Colon is officially retiring as a Met.

Sean Doolittle

pic.twitter.com/De0lzs0TQs

— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) September 22, 2023

Nelson Cruz. Announced on Adam Jones podcast.

Perfect (ironic) timing: one day after the Rangers win. He was central to 2011, mostly for his phenomenal hitting, a little bit to a ball he probably should have caught. (Again, NoTime--I was wrong!)

didn’t the 09 ws end with him striking out looking?

sorry, 2010

Swinging I would have said? He did however score the only Rangers run in that game, a bottom of the 7th homer off Timmy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk5pGUEOMn8

Here's the non-catch from 2011 (scored a triple for Freese). Hard to say--a lot of guys would have caught it, but not everyone by any means. I don't feel like going back into the thread, but the joke is that I said it would be remembered for a long time, something that would stay with Cruz for his career. At the time, Nelson Cruz was 31 years old and had hit 106 career home runs.

He went on to hit 358 more. And no one talks about the play anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEEOZpdp9bo