rolling retirees: 2018 and beyond

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.

this remains one of the better fielding plays i've ever seen

ICYMI, this is what Joe Panik did last night in Sacramento. #SFGiants pic.twitter.com/ZtIonPMvUP

— Minor League Baseball (@MiLB) September 4, 2015

That was an outstanding play, I have never seen that before. He's was a great second baseman but his bat only lasted like rwo seasons. The Giants had to move on.

The only Smiths song I love!

(I believe he played in Toronto for six or seven minutes.)

Ya they got a decent return for him too iirc - Dickerson and Cimber

i've been watching a dickerson this year. he got yepez'd

The only Smiths song I love!

Tastes, huh. To me it was the first song where it was the Smiths by the numbers. No originality to it and he is being a huge dick (with those lyrics). This was the same band that did brilliant songs like "Still Ill" and "The Queen is Dead?" No wonder they broke up, garbage.

retire, morrissey

he played about 20 miles away from me last weekend in Pasadena for two nights via Cruel World. Yes, he needs to go away.

he got yepez'd

I do not know what this means.

yeah, as soon as i posted that i felt dumb, because why would you! there's just some rookie on the cardinals, juan yepez, whose performance so far means that dickerson loses his DH platoon spot with Pujols (who has been alright so far this season but is going to play often no matter what, because march to 700)

russell martin, officially

really good player; put up 5.7 bWAR in just 111 games with the pirates in 2014 and has to be among the best free agent signings they ever made (which is admittedly a low bar to clear)

fourth all-time in bWAR by a canadian

I’m like 99% sure I know who the top three are.

j.a. (pronounced ‘jay’) happ

Martin caught 30 out of Happ's 33 starts the year he went 20-4.

have to assume that rick porcello is done; he hasn’t pitched since being garbage for the mets in 2020. still only 33!

has to be among the least impressive guys to win 150 games and a cy young

edwin jackson, officially

14 teams in 17 seasons , 4.78 ERA, 88 ERA+, 8.9 bWAR, $79 million in salary!

A’s C Stephen Vogt will retire after 10 big league seasons, leaving a lasting mark from Tampa Bay to the Bay Area, beyond. Grateful to cover him for a decade and to share his story. On Tuesday it was Vogt w/emotional message to team after beating Mariners.https://t.co/aFoyr5VgQG

— Janie McCauley (@JanieMcCAP) September 22, 2022

This is really for an un-retiree thread, but none exists:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/35220178/lhp-cole-hamels-feels-healthy-surgeries-eyes-comeback

He pitched pretty well in 2019, but this sounds a little sketchy.

rick porcello has, in fact, announced his retirement

Dude won a Cy young - never made an all star game.

Melky Cabrera!

https://www.mlb.com/news/melky-cabrera-retires-from-mlb#:~:text=Melky%20Cabrera%2C%20an%20outfielder%20in,'09%2C%20when%20he%20hit%20.

He was damn good his one full season in Toronto.