rolling retirees: 2018 and beyond

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

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