Reliever Caleb Cotham has decided to hang up his spikes, he announced on Twitter. Cotham, 29, had recently agreed to a minor-league deal with the Mariners.
Cotham isn’t being forced out of the game due to a catastrophic injury, though he has had his share of injury woes both recently and in the past. Instead, it seems, he’s not interested in continuing to endure the toll of the grind.
“For me it is time to explore how I can give back and offer value to the game of baseball in ways other than playing,” Cotham writes. “My love for the game has never been higher, I am just no longer willing to pay the emotional/physical price to rehab/play at the highest level.”
There’s no doubting the pressures and demands placed upon a player in Cotham’s situation. Over the past two years, he has bounced between the upper minors and the majors. While he was able to earn 35 MLB appearances, Cotham allowed 27 earned runs in that span and faced an uphill path to the Mariners’ active roster this year.
Cotham first cracked the bigs with the Yankees after a breakthrough 2015 season in which he threw 57 innings of 2.21 ERA ball with 9.6 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in the upper minors. He ended up being dealt to the Reds as part of the return for Aroldis Chapman.
While he made the Opening Day roster with Cincinnati, Cotham contributed to the team’s historically dreadful relief work. He was ultimately sidelined with shoulder inflammation and then suffered a season-ending knee injury upon his return to the minors. (That string of ailments surely brought back unwanted memories; originally a fifth-round pick out of Vanderbilt, Cotham threw only 31 innings from 2009 through 2011 owing to knee and shoulder surgery.) The Reds outrighted him off of their 40-man roster in late October.
Best of luck in life after baseball Mr. Cotham!
See ya man. Happy retirement.
Who the heck is Caleb Cotham? And who cares?
A guy that plays baseball.
Caleb Cotham cares.
he’s infinitely better at baseball than you are.
Yeah but prolly not better than me at softball
Oh who cares. what’s with the constant one-upping?
Who the hell is amyj21? And who cares about someone with an attitude who can’t read?
Point is who know who this guy was before this post Lester? My other point was…who gives a crap if some nobody retires?
You’ve again demonstrated your unfounded elitism.
“Point is who know this guy was before this post”
For one, MLB organizations that scouted and the one that drafted him knew.
Teammates that played with him in the minors and majors knew.
Folks that work for MLBTR that posted the article you clicked and commented on knew.
In the grand scheme of things the people that matter knew, and you, the actual nobody, didn’t.
Gosh your real smart mister and I’m a little intimidated by your words. Your right, I am a nobody in the grand scheme of things. However, nobody is posting an article on me because I’m not news worthy. Just like Caleb Cotham isn’t news worthy.
Says the person that frequents MLBTR and comments on non news worthy postings.
Be more specific about which words in the English language are causing you anguish. I’ll stop using them.
If you read the article it would have told you who Caleb Cotham is. And I care. But I still don’t like it when people reply with, “he’s still way better than you ever will be.” Because I don’t understand how that has to do with anything.
24,
People reply that way because this site is full of Done Nothings that get on here and talk about players from a position of authority.
The entire paradigm of this site is based on how good someone is at baseball. Anonymously commenting about baseball players and their baseball acumen also provides commenters here immunity from criticism of their own abilities in baseball? How and why? I would honestly like to know.
At what point did anonymous opinion rise to a level of importance if the source of that opinion isn’t important to the discussion?
Person A “You’re really bad at that”
Person B “Oh yeah? Do it better”
That’s a conversation ender, because if you aren’t better your criticisms are about as important as your ability to get the task done.
Welcome to internet comment sections, where the best and brightest come to shine, working to make positivity and common ground the true theme of every thread.
It does have to do with something because asking who someone is in a condescending manner is a passive-aggressive way of saying “this guy sucks and is insignificant in the world of baseball”, so reminding the commenter that he or she is even more insignificant in the world of baseball is a fair rebuttal.
Serious question: who are you, and why does your opinion matter more than Caleb’s retirement?
Apparently you. You read the article and commented.
according to baseball reference, Caleb has amassed a total of 1 year and 42 days in the big leagues.
Assuming he was paid at league minimum, which is 500,000 per season (or 183 days), Caleb would’ve made $614,754 in 2015/2016.
On top of that, Caleb was a 5th round pick back in the 2009 draft and received $675,000, which was considerably over the recommendation (back in 2009, teams were not subject to any real penalties for overspending on the draft)
For an AAAA player, he’s made over $1.28 million (over a span of 8 years); that’s not bad at all.
That’s $160,000 a year… I’ll take it
I think it’s interesting that when people talk about the salaries of pro athletes they somehow assume they don’t pay taxes on their income, bonuses, etc, and also pay their agents a few percentage points off the top. Cotham made a nice income for 8 years but it’s not like he’s set for life.
I thought he was a sneaky good throw in to the chapman deal by Cincinnati. I guess that didn’t turn out to good but best of luck to him anyways
There was no good in that deal. Was all organizational filler. Was awful the moment the trade was made and even worse a few months later when the Yankees got an actual prospect for him
I know it was an awful deal for the Reds but jagielo was a decent prospect until having a bad year last year and rookie Davis is still promising. But again it was awful and you’re correct that is magnified after the Yankees acquired Torres.
his name was Caleb Cotham
Was? His name still is Caleb Cotham
It’s from a movie
Good luck CC
Because playing baseball is what Cotham deserves, but not what he needs right now.
In a way I feel like a guy with enough talent to get drafted by the NYY and be included in the Chapman trade should not give up so soon.
But I digress. I don’t know this guys life story or what he’s been through. Early retirement doesn’t mean he’s giving up. The physical and mental toll are enormous. But you have to keep pushing to be good or even great. I wish I heard he was retiring to be closer to his family or something. He’s just tired of trying so hard. I can’t knock him, but I will say there are people with no talent and a ton of heart who would kill to be in his position and wouldn’t stop trying until the wheels fall off.