Veteran lefty Jeff Francis will retire after parts of 11 seasons in the Major Leagues, he tells MLB.com’s Thomas Harding.
Selected ninth overall by the Rockies in the 2002 draft, Francis, now 34 years old, would make his Major League debut just over two years later in 2004. While the 4.77 ERA that Francis logged in his first stint with the Rockies (882 2/3 inning from 2004-10) doesn’t necessarily look impressive, that translated to league-average production (100 ERA+) when adjusted for the fact that Francis’ home games in that time came at Coors Field and in a much greater offensive environment than that of today’s game.
Francis tossed 183 innings for the Royals in 2011 before returning to the Rockies in 2012-13 and ultimately splitting the 2014-15 campaigns between the Reds, Yankees, Athletics and Blue Jays. Though he played for several clubs over the course of his career, Colorado holds a special place in his heart, Francis explains to Harding. He spoke particularly highly of the 2007 Rockies that rode an incredible streak — 21 wins in 22 games — to a Game 163 tiebreaker, an NLDS victory and a National League Championship.
“It was special to be able to be a champion,” said Francis. “I know we didn’t win it all, but that was a team that came together, even though I don’t know what was expected of us. We did special things in dramatic fashion. We felt unstoppable. It was almost as if the drama was too much to think about. Looking back, I’m sure there was a lot of pressure, but I don’t think we felt it. We just rode a wave and took it as far as we could.”
Francis will bring his career to a close with a 72-82 record, a 4.97 ERA, 869 strikeouts and 384 walks in 1291 innings. All told, Francis took home more than $20MM between his yearly salaries and hefty $1.85MM signing bonus out of the draft. MLBTR extends its best wishes to Francis in his post-playing days.
He’ll never get the career acknowledgement that he deserves, but Francis was always one of my favorites. He is one of those guys that was always much better than the stats reflected. Hopefully he can become a pitching coach and maintain a presence in the game, because he is truly a good guy.
Yeah, I use to hate it when the Padres faced him.
He’s one of those guys who announcers describe as “knowing how to pitch”. He didn’t have fantastic stuff, but he knew how to move the ball around, change speeds, and make the most of what he did have.
He had great luck that’s for sure.
He’s never had an era under 4.16 and lasted 11 years in the majors.
He must have been an cybermetric darling or something because no ones
lasted this long with 8 seasons of era over 5.
Jeff Francis was a solid MLB citizen. I’m sure he could have held on a few more seasons as a bullpen specialist, had he wanted. But I guess you know when the time is right. Jeff can leave this game with his head held high. But don’t worry, Jeff Francis will be someone’s pitching coach before too long.