The Angels have released left-hander Mark Mulder, tweets Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. Mulder's comeback attempt was cut short by a freak injury in which he ruptured his Achilles tendon during agility drills.
The former All-Star signed a minor league deal with the Angels in January that would have allowed him to earn as much as $6MM in incentives. Mulder was a workhorse from 2001 to 2005 for the Athletics and Cardinals, averaging 211 innings per season with a 3.65 ERA. However, shoulder issues limited him to just 106 innings from 2006 to 2008, his last year in the big leagues. He had worked as an analyst with ESPN since 2011.
Aaron Steen contributed to this post.
Too bad, really would have been a great story and the Angels really needed a successful reclamation project.
Ouch! Not very agile, apparently.
Unfortunate circumstance for MM. He seemed to be coming along pretty well, considering how long he’d been out of the game.
Sad ending to his career. My wife always had a crush on him. I guess its back to the announcing booth for him.
Sad, but inevitable.
Bummer. He was proving to be a very unique test case with pitchers coming back after a very extended layoff period.
I wouldn’t say sad, but definitely unfortunate. I’m not quite sure what the Angels expected, though. It seemed pretty obvious he wasn’t going to come back and be a successful pitcher.
If he came back again he still wouldn’t be as old as Tim Hudson. Why not give it another go next spring.
Worst comeback attempt ever.