Red Sox reliever Koji Uehara said today that he has no current plans for retirement, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reports (links to Twitter). He added that his surgically-repaired wrist is doing well and hasn’t prevented him from beginning a throwing program.
Though he’s coming off of injury, entering the final year of his contract, and set to turn 41 the day before Opening Day, Uehara indicated that he still has an open-ended timeline ahead of him. “I will keep pitching unless I am terrible and no team wants me,” Uehara said with a laugh.
Ultimately, Uehara has every confidence in his ability to perform into his fifth decade. “Age is a number,” he said. “Bring me a present that day.” On the whole, the statistics certainly support that (brilliantly-stated) attitude from the Japanese star.
Outside a bit of a rough stretch last June, Uehara put up a strong overall campaign after signing a two-year, $18MM deal just before the start of 2014-15 free agency. He ended the year with a 2.23 ERA over 40 1/3 innings, with 10.5 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9. That K:BB ratio fell well below his typical rate — which has paced the rest of the league by a comical margin. But he still fell within the top twenty pen men in the game by that measure as well as by K%-BB%.
Boston won’t be asking quite as much from the standout veteran this year as it has in the past, as Craig Kimbrel is set to move into the closer’s role. But he’s still a key piece of the pen, and continued dominance from both of those pitchers could give the club one of the game’s best late-inning combos. Of course, this season will also set Uehara’s trajectory as he nears open-market eligibility for the offseason to come.
“Age is just a number, just bring me a present that day.”
That is an awesome quote, love it, and like this guy’s attitude!!
With him and KKimbrel, The Condor, lol Boston should be happy with their bullpen this year, and they should secure many more victories after being up past 7…Best of luck to Boston and their fans…Also as a Braves fan, you will definitely love Kimbrel!!
He (Kimbrel) is a beast. I’m a bit surprised he didn’t have a Kimbrel type season though in San Diego. I think he’ll do just fine in Boston though.
I’m surprised MLB Network’s “shredder” only had him as the 10th best reliever in baseball (Right Now)
shredder is sabremetric based. of course the top tens are baffling.
Kimbrel’s 2015 season is often misstated. Consider these splits (admittedly, the “split date” is arbitrary):
2014 Season: 61.2 IP, 11 ER, 95 K, 26 BB, 28.9 K%, 1.61 ERA, 0.91 WHIP
Apr 7 – May 19: 15.2 IP, 10 ER, 23 K, 5 BB, 34.8 K%, 5.74 ERA, 1.34 WHIP
May 20 – Oct 1: 43.2 IP, 7 ER, 64 K, 17 BB, 37.0 K%, 1.44 ERA, 0.94 WHIP
Bad first third of the year, Kimbrel-esque final two-thirds.
I like those quotes. 🙂
I can’t get enough of Koji. I hope he pitches into his 50s. Why not? If you still enjoy it which I have no doubts Koji is in love with the game, and you can put up quality innings give it a shot. Especially with Carson and Craig being a great ying to his yang it could work well.
I’d say he has a spot until he says he can’t pitch anymore, ala Tim Wakefield