January 11th: Mora has not retired and he intends to play in 2012, agent Eric Goldschmidt told Ken Rosenthal and Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports.
December 29th: Utilityman Melvin Mora has announced his retirement, reports Rafael Rojas Cremonesi of Meridiano Deportes (via Twitter). The 39-year-old Mora was released by the Diamondbacks in June and had hoped to play for the Orioles or another east coast team in 2012, but instead has hung up the cleats after 13 Major League seasons.
Mora signed an amateur contract with the Astros in 1991 and finally reached the Majors in 1999 as a New York Met. He made an immediate impression in his rookie year, posting a 1.143 OPS in 16 plate appearances in the 1999 NLCS as the Mets lost in six games to the Braves.
After being dealt to the Orioles in July 2000 as part of a four-player package for Mike Bordick, Mora became a Baltimore fixture for much of the decade. Mora was a two-time All-Star for the O's, hitting .294/.366/.469 between 2003-08 (including a league-best .419 OBP in 2004) and settling in as the Orioles' third baseman in 2004 after playing all over the diamond in his first four seasons with the team. The O's declined his contract option after the 2009 campaign and Mora went on to play a season each with the Rockies and D'backs.
Mora retires with 1503 hits, 171 homers, and a .277/.350/.431 slash line in 1556 Major League games. According to Baseball Reference, Mora made just under $40.5MM during his career.
Just call him Brett Mora, or Melvin Farve.
That wouldn’t be fair to Melvin, he has never sent any inappropriate photos (that we know of). We can call him Melvin Testaverde or Vinny Mora perhaps, but those also sound equally as awful or unfunny as Brett Mora or Melvin Favre…
*Favre.
Learn his name.
[Insert Brett Favre joke]
[Insert wrong spelling of Brett Favre]
[Presses edit and fixes mistake and wishes that Favre had a last name that sounded like it was spelled]
Don’t sweat it, Topps couldn’t even spell it correctly…
so which way do you think it went,
a) premature reporting and a crappy agent who wasn’t paying attn.
b) he didn’t want to retire, but didn’t get any offers, so he just retired, then came back when an offer arose.
c) wanted to retire, but the allure of one more year pulled him back in.
d) surprise paternity suit
Melvin Mora said he was retiring. He did it in venezuelan television before the last game of the regular season with tears in his eye.
Venezuelan television doesn’t count. He might as well have announced it on Wonkavision.
Many teams are looking for INF depth . But who is gonna take a chance on him ?
not us hopefully
I think he is even too old to play for Chinese Taipei.
Stories like this make me not want to comment on MLBTR anymore.
I’ve decided to resume making comments on MLBTR
Well played.
30+, best days clearly in the rearview, and most of all….Latin!!!
Rube Amaro is dialing Mora’s agent as we speak with a two….no THREE year deal.
He can intend on playing all he wants, the question is who wants him?
My softball team. Think he can pitch?
Just kidding I was a big fan of his
cue the “cue the ________ jokes” jokes
Who other than Omar Min, oh wait. Well there’s always Bill Smi, nope, not him either. I guess there’s only one more place for him to go.
Welcome to Chicago, Mr. Mora!
This is the best terrible joke I’ve seen in a long time.
Actually, the Padres may be looking for a 3B this offseason…
Minaya is working for the Padres…
smh.
Crossing fingers.