SUNDAY: The Braves have placed Pierzynski on the 15-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring, per a team announcement. Based on Saturday’s retirement rumblings, it’s possible he has played his last game.
SATURDAY, 10:52pm: In yet another twist, Pierzynski has left the door for retirement open, telling reporters, “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring, but if that’s it, then it was fun” (Twitter link via O’Brien).
10:37pm: False alarm: Pierzynski is not retiring, reports O’Brien (Twitter link). Starter Julio Teheran handed out cigars to celebrate the recent birth of his son.
10:03pm: Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski has decided to retire, according to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). Pierzynski was hugging teammates and handing out cigars after the Braves’ win over the Mets on Saturday, per O’Brien.
The polarizing Pierzynski, 39, played for seven teams in parts of 18 major league campaigns. His final season didn’t go well, as he batted just .219/.243/.304 in 259 plate appearances, but he was a quality contributor as recently as last year. In his first of two years in Atlanta, Pierzynski slashed .300/.339/.430 over 436 trips to the plate, leading the club to re-sign him last offseason to a one-year deal with a $3MM base salary.
Before joining the Braves, Pierzynski divided an unproductive 2014 between St. Louis and Boston. He previously played for the Rangers, White Sox, Giants and Twins, and will be best remembered for his time in Chicago. During his tenure with the White Sox from 2005-12, Pierzynski helped the club to a World Series title in his first year in Chicago, caught a no-hitter from Mark Buehrle and Philip Humber’s perfect game, played in no fewer than 128 games in each individual season, and earned his second and final career All-Star nod in 2006. That year, Pierzynski drew the ire of Cubs catcher Michael Barrett, who punched Pierzynski after a home plate collision and incited a brawl between the teams during a May matchup.
The year before he arrived in Chicago, Pierzynski spent 2004 in San Francisco, which acquired him in one of the most lopsided trades in recent memory. To land Pierzynski, the Giants sent southpaw Francisco Liriano, all-time great closer Joe Nathan and right-hander Boof Bonser to the Twins. While the Twins reaped the rewards of that return for several years, Pierzynski disappointed in San Francisco and then signed as a free agent with the White Sox.
Pierzynski, whom the Twins selected in the third round of the 1994 draft, hit .280/.318/.420 with 188 home runs in 7,813 career trips to the plate and was worth in the neighborhood of 23.0 WAR, according to both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference – the latter of which lists his career earnings as upward of $61MM. MLBTR congratulates Pierzynski on a fine career.
Wow
Enjoy retirement brother, great catcher
Satan’s favorite catcher. ‘Bout right.
Who are AL teams going to boo now?
Good luck A.J. I enjoyed the way you played the game.
Being a Braves fan thnx AJ helping out our team
he is just retiring today can’t make it til the end of the month
One of the most hated players of the 2000’s, for a myriad of reasons. Good riddance.
Why was he hated so much? I wasn’t living here in the 2000’s so I couldn’t keep up with MLB. I know SF fans hate him for some reason.
Rubbed teammates the wrong way. Basically the Red Sox released him because he was so disliked off the field. A bit of an arrogant guy with a chip on his shoulder, especially if he wasn’t starting daily.
Good Hitter, Close but not a HOF , in todays Game, If he Played what Yogi Berra had to play against he be in the Hall
I hate getting into HOF discussions, but I’m not sure how you could say he’s close. Jason Kendall and Benito Santiago immediately come to mind as comparable if not better players, and they didn’t sniff the HOF. I’m pretty ambivalent about Pierzynski as a player. But I think it’s fair to say he will go down as a guy who had a long, decent, and respectable career. But he’s not remotely close to being one of the all time greats.
Not to mention a lousy defensive catcher who couldn’t throw at all for well over half of his career. His arm was on par with Varitek his last few years and Posada, except AJ had no positive defensive attributes PERIOD.
AJ Pierzynski? He’s not even remotely close, sorry. Won’t get a single vote I suspect. He has 23 bWAR over 19 seasons – about a third of what a HOFer needs. His 2000 hits are a nice show of longevity, but I would compare his career less to the HOF and more to guys like Mark Grudzielanek. They both have a good BA, 2000 hits, and light-to-medium power.
I don’t think Pierzynski is close to the Hall, but comparing him to a second baseman isn’t a great argument. Because of the demands of the position, 2000 hits for a catcher is a much better indicator of skill than 2000 hits for a second baseman.
Just to illustrate : there are 9 catchers with at least 2000 hits in baseball history. There are none with 3000 hits – Ivan Rodriguez is the closest with 2844.
Contrast that to second basemen – there are 28 of them with at least 2000 hits, and four with over 3000 (Collins, Lajoie, Biggio, Carew although Carew played slightly more games at 1st than at 2nd)
Pierzynski’s offensive contributions are actually fairly impressive for a catcher, but his flaws – poor defense, limited power, no on-base skills, and he was never liked much within the game or by the media – will probably take him off the ballot after one trip.
I’m sorry but the only way A.J. gets in to the HOF is as a paying customer.
If AJ does retire, I’m so glad he has done it with us. He was a great player for us (mostly last year), and gave the Braves Clubhouse a unique presence. I think many Braves players learned from AJ; his hard work ethic, and grindy attitude. The Baseball season is a long one, and having a spirit like AJ on your team can make all the difference. So glad to have witnessed a great Catchers career, cover to cover.
Crackerjack reporting, DoB. Somebody hand this Twitter trigger-happy man a Peabody.
Same guy that said Griffey to the Braves was a done deal, a few years back. He’s desperate to be the guy to break news before anyone else.
He’s a dbag, but an incredibly durable and talented one.
Irony that he would end his career on the DL.
This article is incorrect. Bonser was sent to the Twins as part of the trade.
Haven’t had a good cather since he left the White Sox
Not only was it Bonser, Nathan and Liriano for AJ, there was a 4th Giant thrown in: his name, I believe was a pitcher named Daniel Mora. I don’t believe he ever made the majors.
I don’t know how this ends up, but at the end of the game it surely looked as if something different was going on (and I’m not talking about the walk off either). It looked on TV that even the ball from AJP’s last hit was saved.
I know watching the game live after AJ’s last hit I was like “what is going on?”. Is the dude retiring? It just didn’t look like normal celebration (even though his hit set the Braves up in great position for the win). Even then I thought it might be Pierzynski going out early. Who knows what happens but when I saw this article it didn’t surprise me at all.
The end of the game was VERY odd. I was at Turner Field and after they showed the celebration and everyone mobbing Adonis, the cameras all turned to AJ and they showed him on the big screen hugging teammates and left him up there until he headed into the club house. He was covered in water and dirt like he had the base winning hit.