Six-time All-Star Joe Nathan will formally announce his retirement in a press conference at Target Field on Friday, the Twins announced. The Twins will not only host Nathan’s press conference, they’ll honor arguably the best reliever in franchise history in a pregame ceremony prior to Friday’s game against the Royals.
Nathan, 42, broke into the Majors as a 24-year-old with the Giants in 1999, but he didn’t establish himself as a quality big league reliever until his age-28 season in San Francisco. Few would’ve predicted that he’d go on to solidify himself as one of the best relievers on the planet in the years to come, but the Twins were the beneficiary of Nathan’s late-blooming right arm. Minnesota acquired Nathan, Francisco Liriano and right-hander Boof Bonser from the Giants in exchange for the final year of A.J. Pierzynski’s contract in a swap that would help to serve as a foundational move for a sustained run of division contenders in the final years of the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
Nathan spent eight years in a Twins uniform (though his 2010 season was lost to Tommy John surgery), during which time he posted a sensational 2.16 ERA with averages of 10.9 strikeouts and 2.6 walks per nine innings pitched. From 2004-09, in particular, Nathan dominated to the tune of a 1.87 ERA with an average of 41 saves per season. Overall, Nathan saved 260 games for the Twins from 2004-11, helping Minnesota to the postseason in 2004, 2006 and 2009 (in addition to a Game 163 playoff against the White Sox in 2008).
Following his time in Minnesota, he enjoyed two excellent seasons with the Rangers before signing one last significant contract: a two-year deal with the Tigers. Nathan struggled in his first season in Detroit, then missed nearly the entire second season of that pact due to another Tommy John surgery.
Undeterred by another UCL tear at the age of 40, Nathan rehabbed his elbow and worked his way back to the big leagues at the tail end of the 2016 season, tossing a combined 6 1/3 scoreless innings for the Cubs and the Giants. He inked a minor league deal with the Nationals this winter but wasn’t able to crack the team’s big league roster in Spring Training. After two months pitching for Washington’s Triple-A affiliate, Nathan requested his release.
Nathan’s career will officially come to a close with a 64-34 record and 377 saves. He’ll retire with a lifetime 2.87 ERA, 9.5 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, roughly 27 wins above replacement under his belt (per rWAR and RA9-WAR) and more than $86MM in career earnings. Twins fans will remember Nathan for his quirks on the mound, his leadership on the pitching staff and one of the most prolonged stretches of dominance of any pitcher in Twins history. Congratulations to Joe on an outstanding career.
Great career Joe, good luck in retirement
Way to ring every drop outta the, “I’m coming back….umptienth time” drama….nice career, sucks u hurt ur arm at end.
377 saves is respectable. Joe Nathan respresented Stony Brook University well after getting drafted from there in sixth round.
Good luck to my former classmate, Kevin Krause, also from Stony Brook playing in the Pirates system. Nothing but respect for you brother, I hope you achieve the success and longevity that Joe Nathan had !!
@LASam It “sucks” that you made this poor comment, but it aptly demonstrates the lack of respect you have and the type of ‘fan’ you are.
Interesting. He retires with 27 WAR and Hoffman retired with 28.4 WAR, and Hoffman is seen by many as a n0-doubt Hall of Famer while Nathan will probably fall off the ballot after one try. I don’t know what information that really imparts, but it definitely shows that saves are terribly overvalued, right?
Yeah with all that success, he was truly underrated, you never know he may get in.
Yeah, well, I don’t think WAR is a great measurement for relievers.
Yes, Hoffman benefits from the overrating of saves, but Hoffman as 601 compared with Nathan’s 377. Saves are meaningless unless a guy has a truly overwhelming amount. Nathan played 16 seasons, but 3 of those years were for a combined total of 10.1 innings. Nathan had 9 seasons of a good to excellent reliever. That just isn’t enough for most Hall voters or even Hall observers.
I wonder if Hoffman and Rivera will be the last HOF relievers? They averaged about 1.1 innings per appearance. Craig Kimbrel and most of his contemporaries average less than one inning per appearance. I wonder if voters will penalize pitchers for that.
Well, yeah, saves are meaningless, but wins aren’t.
Nathan only pitched 160 less innings in his career than Hoffman did, so he was more valuable on a per-inning basis than Hoffman was, but we assign a massive amount of extra value to Hoffman because of the way his manager decided to use him.
I honestly don’t think that Hoffman and Rivera will be the last relievers, unfortunately, because with the level of specialization we’re seeing pitchers come up as closers. (Both Hoffman and Rivera were tried as starters very early in their careers, Rivera in the majors even). Somebody is going to end up with 800 career innings but 750 saves or something stupid like that in the future.
If you support Nathan’s HOF case, you should probably not talk about his career inning total. I think that voters don’t want to let anyone in with less than 1000 innings. Bruce Sutter has the fewest at 1042. Hoffman has 1089, Nathan has 923 and Wagner has 903. It is hard to support a guy who has over 100 fewer innings pitched than the guy with the fewest.
I think with the way closers are currently used, we’ll never see another reliever win the Cy Young Award, and after Hoffman and Rivera, I think we’re done seeing HOF relievers. People respect Gossage, Fingers, and Sutter because they very often pitched multiple innings. Hoffman and Rivera were not strictly 1 inning relievers, especially Rivera. Both had well more innings pitched than appearances. Later closers, like Kimbrel almost always finish with fewer innings than appearances, which I think doesn’t look good for HOF chances.
It is also possible that within the next decade there is a seismic shift in pitching usages. Maybe the 3-3-3 rotation idea catches on.
A lot of Hoffman’s case is based on narrative, which might seem irrelevant, but it is the Hall of FAME, and having cute little things which people remember about you helps your case.
1. One team: Actually, Hoffman played for 3 teams, but the vast majority of his career was with San Diego. Nathan played for 5 teams in 16 years. 7 years with Minnesota, and a bit over half of his career innings for the Twins. When you think of great Twins, people probably don’t think of Nathan.
2. Mystique: Hoffman has Hells Bells, Nathan has…? Hoffman and Rivera are like the last of the relievers who have some semblance of the old school, multi inning firemen. Hoffman once went 4 innings of relief in 1997. Rivera is superior to Hoffman by every standard.
3. Signature pitch: Hoffman has the changeup, Nathan has…?
4. Saves total: Hoffman has 601. He was the first to 500 and 600. He once held the MLB record and will possibly forever have the NL record. Nathan ranks 8th all time, and will probably not be top 10 when he hits the ballot.
I’m arguing against Nathan, Hoffman or any contemporary closer, frankly.
I’m sure when Hoffman makes the HOF, sone voter will cite those 4 innings he threw once in ’97. I’m joking, of course; as a Padres fan I’m excited Hoffman will be in the Hall. As a baseball and HOF fan, I don’t like it.
I am also a Padre fan and we are pretty much on the same page. What would have been better for San Diego, 16 years of Hoffman, or 16 more years of Gary Sheffield? And I know that Sheffield would have been unlikely to stay in San Diego through 2008.
I don’t think using WAR to evaluate relievers is all that great. If Nathan would have had maybe 2-3 more healthy, productive seasons, he’d probably have at least a case for himself
Yeah probably. Right now, Nathan has 9 quality seasons, 377 saves, and 923 innings pitched. The fewest HOF innings pitched is Bruce Sutter at 1042. Hoffman has 1089.
If Nathan has 11 quality seasons, 447 saves, and 1043 innings pitched, that looks a lot better and makes a more compelling HOF case.
Nathan’s biggest issue with regards to the HOF is that he didn’t pad his peak seasons with “OK” seasons. He more or less came out of nowhere as a dominant closer, and as quickly as he appeared, he got hurt and basically fell off the face of the earth.
If Mariano and Hoffman are no-discussion HOFers, Nathan should at least have a bit of serious discussion. Ultimately he was one of the greatest of his era, but… of all time? I don’t think he gets there.
Forget Joe Nathan. Lee Smith has him in his rear view mirror in every category, yet will be looking at the Old Timer’s committee years from now for his chance.
Relievers just don’t get a fair shake, other than did the early guys Sutter, Wilhelm and Gossage. Eckersley was a good starter before turning reliever. Different situation there.
Lee converted 82.7% of his safe opportunties.
He blew a whopping total of 103 saves!
He wasnt traded for the last year of Pierzynski’s control, he was non tendered by San Francisco. That’s how well liked he was.
Your incorrect sir
I am indeed correct. The Giants non tendered him and signed Mike Matheny to a 3 year deal. That’s how good my memory is. Additional trivia, the Twins asked the padres for Adam Eaton or Jake Peavy in exchange for Pierzynski, but the padres opted to trade Mark Kotsay for Ramon Hernandez instead.
I’ll second that. You are wrong. Nathan was part of the Pierzynski trade.
Nathan was definitely a part of the Pierzynski deal, he was actually the main piece of that deal.
espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=1661751
Pierzynski was non-tendered by San Francisco, not Joe Nathan. What I meant was that SF didn’t acquire a rental Pierzynski like the article states, they decided to release him.
Haven’t heard the name “Boof Bonser” in a while.
Terry Curly Ryan stated, Boof was the main pieces of the Trade, without Boof, he wouldnt make the deal….
November 14, 2003: Traded by the San Francisco Giants with Boof Bonser and Francisco Liriano to the Minnesota Twins for A.J. Pierzynski and cash.
Via BaseballReferance
Man, u stole my thunder, remember the mega Boof deal like it was ystrdy…..
Brian Sabean’s finest hour.
(Cough)
I always enjoyed watching him especially with the Twins. He was a fantastic pitcher. Maybe it’s just me but I felt that he was a bit underrated playing there. Regardless, a well deserved retirement and a great career. This is another one of those retirements that makes me feel old lol.
Yeah, I just checked his stats, and he was a lot better than I expected.
Between Joe, Matt Morris and Rob Bell, the OCL had a good four year run.
Congrats Joe from PJHS!
Beltran, Beltre and Colón only remaining players who played in MLB in the ’90s
Yep, who’s going to enter the 4 decade club? It appears only Beltre has a chance, as he will be only 40 on opening day 2020 (almost 41). The 4 decade club usually has more members. I remember in 2009 rooting for Stephen Strasburg to make a September appearance, but alas it was not to be.
Surprisingly, Tomo Ohka tried to make a comeback this year. He was cut in Spring Training by the Orioles.
In pure terms of percentage of saves converted here is how Nathan ranks with the 2 big names in Saves:
Nathan: 89.1%.
Rivera:: 89.1%
Hoffman: 88.8%.
Pretty spiffy !
He was really the best closer not named Mariano Rivera for a few years… and you could argue one or two of those he was arguably even a little better than that.
He probably won’t make the Hall of Fame, but he still had an excellent career. Good luck, Joe.
the horse whisperer, Thanks for the great memories, and good luck in your next chapter of life
Since Joe pitched briefly for the 2016 Cubs, did he get a World Series ring? I thought he pitched well and was surprised that they released him.
It was an honor to meet Joe Nathan back in 2007. Best of luck in retirement! I hope it goes well! You were a star and you always will be a star! You deserve it! Congratulations!
I was skeptical when the Rangers signed him for two years after one of the worst seasons of his career, but I’m glad they took a chance on him. He was fun to watch and a boon to the team for the two years that they had him.. Good luck Joe, and congratulations on an excellent career.