rolling retirees: 2018 and beyond

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

howie kendrick

That salami he smacked off Kelly was unforgettable.

Looking at his career box, has to be one of the most consistent hitters of recent times--had a great 2019 season that jumps out, but everything else more or less resides in this range that's just consistently solid. I never really followed him, but he was great to watch during the Senators' WS run.

good player, world series mvp, great career

always weird to look at a solid player's JAWS and see that they're nowhere close to the Hall but are nevertheless like the 56th-greatest second baseman of all time

daniel murphy

goodnight, ya jerk

dustin pedroia

Definitely one for a parallel People You Thought Were Retired but Aren't thread. He looked like a very good HOF bet coming out of 2016.

you think? he was never the same player he was in those first two years where he won ROY & MVP. just kind of a gradual decline with more and more injuries pilling up.

i'm trying to think who else won MVP right after a ROY debut. i know there's at least one or two more.

i looked it up. one i really should have remembered and the other i don't blame myself for forgetting.

All speculation now, but I think he was headed there, yeah. At the end of his age-32 season:

-- an MVP and a ROY
-- two WS titles
-- perceived as the "team leader" (along with Ortiz) on the second one
-- a middle infielder with 1,700 hits, 130 HR, and a .300 lifetime BA; probably headed for 2,500+/200+
-- 50 bWAR, probably headed for 65-70

Cano was regarded as the best second baseman in the game during his decade-long peak, but he was next best, I think (I may be forgetting someone).

(xpost) That's a good trivia question...Pujols arrived during Bonds's heyday, so I don't think it was him.

did jacoby ellsbury ever officially retire?

You're right, Clem – he didn't "decline" so much as kind of have a moderately up-down, all-star calibre streak for a while there before the injuries piled up.

did jacoby ellsbury ever officially retire?

― mookieproof, Monday, February 1, 2021 9:38 AM (twenty-eight minutes ago)

No because he is still is eligible for a $5M buyout for 2021 (the final year of his contract).

i'm trying to think who else won MVP right after a ROY debut. i know there's at least one or two more.

― FRAUDULENT STEAKS (The Cursed Return of the Dastardly Thermo Thinwall), Monday, February 1, 2021 8:31 AM (one hour ago)

I guessed 3 (the most recent ones), but missed a super obvious one.

Pedroia was durable until the knee injury in 2017 and was averaging about 5.5 WAR per year. He was definitely building a solid HOF case. Regardless, he had a great career.

Take away those scare-quotes around team leader--force of habit from all those years of Morbius looking over my shoulder.