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.

xp that was the cardinals devil magic that he withheld at a crucial time. but i was glad to see it was still in there!

forgot about this truly all-time matt carpenter moment. this is peak matt carpenter experience

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGsfhjYLQF0

tony kemp

kolten wong

jean segura

Jake Diekman

josh harrison

whit merrifield

unofficially: i recently noticed that adalberto mondesi hasn't played in the minors or foreign leagues since he played 15 games for KC then tore his ACL in 2022.

he was hot shit there for a little while; too bad he didn't even get to the majors until he was 27 (and therefore never made more than $7m a year)

you look at his numbers and it's sort of wild he only topped 4 WAR once in his career.
led the league in hits twice, SB three times, doubles once, triples once, topped out at 19 home runs one year and had a few season in the teens for HR. if he'd played in the 80's he would have been a legend.

NOT 40yo97do free agent David Robertson:

1.7 bWAR/1.8 fWAR for the 2024 Texas Rangers (34H, 2SV, 3W-3L, 99K/72IP, 33.4%K-rate)

Trying to think who else is out there in limbo-land...

Lance Lynn? JD Martinez?

Lance Lynn said he was retiring I thought

says who?

Lance Lynn

― triste et cassé (gyac), Tuesday, April 1, 2025 8:41 AM (three months ago)

Kyle Gibson, who won 112 games when I was busy looking over there.

a candidate for 'worst single-game performance to end a career'

not that i have any idea how to produce such a list, even if i wanted to

(also a candidate for worst free-agent signing for a team that was supposed to contend in 2025)

His exit ERA (16.78) must be up there too.

12.1 IP...29 hits!

2.92 WHIP means you're essentially loading the bases every inning... well, except opponents were also slugging .938 off him.

1.431 OPS allowed is wild. As expected (see Verlander thread): fWAR is much, much kinder to this atrocious flameout of a career than bWAR.

Someone who is yet to retire: 45yo Rich Hill starting tomorrow for the Royals against the Cubs lets goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Jesse Chavez (41), the most traded player in MLB history, has retired. FIVE (5) separate stints with the Braves.

also nick ahmed, 35

old-school genuinely bad (big-league) hitter, but turned strong defense into a 12-year career

2018 & 2019, his two gold glove seasons, he had a WAR of 3.8 & 4 while batting an OPB+ of 88 (and not even really stealing bases)

Two time world series winner Alex Wood.

anthony rizzo!

it sucked that he was vocal against the covid vaccine, especially as a cancer survivor, but i always like him as a cub and he was a much more personable "face of the team" guy than kris bryant

whoa! the ultimate 'stands on top of the plate' guy

I believe I'm a minority of one who thought he deserved a little bit more blame for the botched World Series play last year.

Clayton Kershaw (after this season).

Good.

Same word I'd use, although I'm pretty sure we mean different things.

Emmanuel Clase?

Meaning he retired, or he was "retired" in the deadbeat-gambler/Goodfellas sense?

(A very tastless joke I only make because I know that's not true.)

Hector Gomez is reporting that Emmanuel Clase may never pitch in the MLB again following his gambling scandal. The evidence against him is allegedly too damning.

It appears that he's not allowed to play the Dominican Winter leagues as well.

Kyle Hendricks.

didn't expect this: Erik Swanson. only 32, but coming off two injury-filled, less than stellar seasons (incl missing time after his son was hot by a car). but was lights out before that. thought he was the next closer after his first season with the jays when they got him for Teo

david robertson, after 17 seasons

JAWS has him 17th among relievers

Jason Heyward

:/ liked that dude but he never lived up to his rookie season

ya, never quite met his potential, but still a solid career. 41.5 career WAR. dude was baseline good at everything except hitting for average. good glove, a little power, a little speed, great eye at the plate.

41 war is exceptional for not living up to one's rookie season!

he just never developed his swing into unleashing what he was capable of doing, he was really too much of a ground ball hitter and he clearly had so much untapped strength which only showed up intermittently. worth every penny of his Cubs contract for that locker room speech in Game 7 of the 2016 WS obv.

more Kevin Kiermaier than Larry Walker, unfortunately.

i don't know if the data hold this up but in my mind, it felt like every season he was with the cubs his offense improved slightly, so there was always a mild optimism that he might eventually return to being a good hitter. but yeah was always an excellent defender and OTM about the rain delay speech

41 war is exceptional for not living up to one's rookie season!

it is! starting at age 20 helped, too.

he had 34.1 career fWAR, but 25 of that came by the end of his age 25 season. i think that’s why it’s weird to think of him as someone with good career numbers - over the last 10 years he’s been pretty forgettable

temu andruw

lol

chris taylor, 35

played at least 90 games at: 2B, SS, LF, CF, 3B

career .248/.327/.419, 110 HR, 91 SB, 102 OPS+, 16.2 bWAR

twice a world series champ; NLCS MVP in 2017

striking eyes

He’s unretired! He changed his mind!

as hall-of-fame pittsburgh steelers head coach chuck noll allegedly used to tell players who were being cut from the team: 'son, it's time to get on with your life's work.'