Jeremy Bonderman is seriously considering retiring at age 28 after the season, reports Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. Bonderman will be a free agent, and he could hang up the spikes if he doesn't get an acceptable offer to return to the Tigers or sign with a team somewhat near his Pasco, Washington home.
Bonderman says he's saved a lot of money, so he has the ability to retire. He's earned over $40MM in his career, most of it coming from a four-year deal signed in '06. Bonderman should find interest if he decides to continue pitching. He's shown good health, decent peripherals, and flashes of his former velocity this year.
wish I could have made $40MM by the time I was 28.
No joke. After seeing some of the other career earnings for these retiring players, Bonderman’s really kind of jumped out.
Maybe he’d give the Mariners a hometown discount. I think he’d be a nice addition.
It’s a perfectly acceptable position. Not everyone needs to play until their arm falls off. If you have the money stashed away and you no longer feel the inclination to play any more, why not retire? If you are smart about how you handle that money, it’s good for a number of generations. Enjoy life, buy a nice house and raise your kids.
+1. To each his own. It would be silly to begrudge the guy doing what he wants. That said, if it were me I’d have to think long and hard about walking away from the kind of money he’s looking at, even if he never again approaches what he’s making now. Even if I hated baseball I’d probably have to play because there isn’t much else I could do that would earn that kind of money. Besides, retiring at 28 leaves a lot of time to do nothing, I’d hate to turn 45 and realize I was out of money and suddenly have to find work. Oh well, if he’s setup to retire and that’s what he wants to do, more power to him.
More than likely he already has a good investor on his side and he’ll put some money in good investments.
Wow, didn’t see that coming
The guy can still bring some gas–maybe reinvent as a 8th inning guy?
Was just thinking the same thing. However, is the 1-2 million he makes per year as a reliever worth it? If this press release is true, then I doubt he pitches again unless its for a contending team. He obviously feels like he has done everything he could and has the money to call it quits, so I doubt he goes to AAA or a bottom barrel team to “re-invent” himself.
I bet Bonderman could make 1-2MM a year for the next 10 years as a LOOGY/middle reliever for just about any team in the bigs. But does he want to bounce from team to team making not much more than he already has for the most enjoyable years of his life? Question only he can answer and I hope the best for him.
I guess depending on how well he has managed his money, is it worth all the work to be away from family to make that? Like you said only he can answer it.
Bonderman couldn’t technically be a LOOGY. You know, the whole right-handedness and all.
Oh yeah, that’s Nate Robertson I’m thinking of. I get those two mixed up.
It’s hard to be a right handed LOOGY
He could be the first ROOGY maybe?
I think Armando Galarraga could pull that off.
Jim Joyce would just rob him of that opportunity.
More power to him if he really wants to retire. If you don’t enjoy playing and have more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, why keep playing? It’s more likely, though, that this is a bargaining tactic.
This smells like a move on his agent’s end. He throws out the retirement card, some team will offer just a couple more $$$ to get him to rethink, he smiles behind closed doors.
Oswalt was also suppose to retire – He saved money blah blah blah. All of this is a smokescreen.
I could actually believe it with Bonderman.
Oswalt talked about retiring after his current contract, not during it. And Oswalt really doesn’t need any more money. He lives in rural Mississippi. He has enough money to buy his hometown and the five surrounding counties.
Oswalt talked about retiring after his current contract, not during it. And Oswalt really doesn’t need any more money. He lives in rural Mississippi. He has enough money to buy his hometown and the five surrounding counties.
I wish I could retire at 28…to live off the interest of the $$$ hes made..hes set for life…Id retire
Goodbye…you won’t be missed.
lol at “i saved a lot of money”. I thought all atheletes thought they were Montgomery Brewster.
If Bonderman’s career has been half as frustrating to him as it’s been to fans, I can understand the temptation to walk away.
Nice to hear an athlete is smart and saving money instead of buying the most expensive and dumbest things they can get their hands on, like a lot of football players.
If he feels like he can retire, than more power to him. He can probably still get a modest 1 or 2 year deal, and I feel like Detroit would probably bring him back if he wanted to.
Basketball players too. Antoine Walker and Derrick Coleman have both pissed away twice as much money as Jeremy Bonderman has earned. Hard to do.
Yeah, baseball players don’t do that. That’s why so many of them retire at 28.
Yeah, baseball players don’t do that. That’s why so many of them retire at 28.
Kind of surprised to hear retirement talk, but if you’ve been through what he’s been through since ’07 it kind of makes sense. I can imagine that’s very frustrating and he does have a young family to think about. I still think he comes back, either with the Tigers or someone else, for one or two years.
I always liked Bonderman, he wasn’t afraid to hit guys purposely as “retaliation”, or when he felt a player was especially douchey/overrated
//or when he felt a player was especially douchey/overrated//
Really?
Who’s even going to offer this guy a contract now that he’s considering retirement? I don’t want to sign a guy who’s heart has to be called into question.
This is simply a negotiation tactic.
This is simply a negotiation tactic.
The one thing Bonderman has on his side is age. I’m still amazed that Dye would rather not play than accept a lesser offer though.
I can believe it. Dye’s made enough money that he’s entitled to demand X amount before he puts in the effort or relocates his family. I’m not saying he’s entitled to actually get that amount.
All he has is a bat and all he wants is to be on a winning team, so something has to give.
Dye has a ring and a world series MVP to his name, if he plays he wants it to be worth his while.
Something doesn’t have to give. If he’ll only play for a championship caliber team, and no championship caliber team thinks it’s Jermaine Dye away from winning, then he’ll just stay at home. That seems fairly likely to me.
Something doesn’t have to give. If he’ll only play for a championship caliber team, and no championship caliber team thinks it’s Jermaine Dye away from winning, then he’ll just stay at home. That seems fairly likely to me.
He knows he cannot play the outfield anymore and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t want to be a mentor just yet. Sounds like he wants to be a DH on a winning team to me. Adn just because he has one ring doesn’t mean that he is satisified.
But Jermaine wants to play so I’m thinking he will try the OF and realize he is not that good of an OF. He is still a good hitter and everyone knows that. He will be on a team, the question is which one.
Dye’s slash line from July 19th on, last season:
.176/.287/.278
And he’s been “trying” the OF his entire career and has consistently been one of the worst in all of baseball from 2006-2009. I wouldn’t be so sure that a team is going to pick him up, especially not having faced major league pitching for the past 5 months.