Veteran righty Brandon McCarthy says he’ll wrap up his playing career at the end of the season, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman writes. This is his 13th campaign in the majors.
McCarthy, 35, is still hoping to make it back from a knee injury that has sidelined him for a major portion of the 2018 campaign. Indeed, he says he’d have undergone season-ending surgery on the joint if he planned to continue pitching into the future.
Unsurprisingly, with just six weeks left in the regular season, McCarthy is only considering returning as a reliever. He’s also modifying his delivery in an effort to work through the knee problem. Whether or not it works out, it seems the towering veteran is committed to giving it one final go before finishing out his four-year, $48MM contract and riding off into the sunset.
It’s certainly possible McCarthy could be a useful asset for the Atlanta organization down the stretch. With a division title on the line, the club will need every good arm it can muster. And once the calendar flips to September, it won’t have to worry about active roster limitations.
It’s easy to look at McCarthy’s 4.92 ERA from 78 2/3 innings this year and question whether he has much left. But that only tells part of the story. After opening the year with a significant velocity loss, the speed readings ticked northward. McCarthy has generated a sturdy 48.0% groundball rate with 7.4 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9. He has surely been at least somewhat unlucky to surrender a .332 BABIP and 21.7% HR/FB rate (more than double his career level); indeed, both xFIP (3.75) and SIERA (4.09) viewed him as a still-productive hurler.
In any event, it remains to be seen whether McCarthy can come back from injury one final time. Doing so has, unfortunately, been a significant aspect of his career. The former 17th-rounder has only once taken the ball for all 32 starts in a season, in a 2014 campaign in which he recorded exactly two hundred frames. That’s just one of five years in which he reached triple-digit innings tallies.
As things stand, McCarthy owns a 4.20 ERA with 6.7 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 through 1,223 2/3 lifetime MLB innings. Between his debut with the White Sox in 2005 and his current run in Atlanta, he has seen action with the Dodgers, Rangers, Diamondbacks, Athletics, and Yankees, never stopping in one place for more than three seasons.
No matter how things finish out for McCarthy late this season, he’ll wrap up a productive career as a highly respected veteran. Given his well-earned reputation for wit and wisdom, McCarthy seems sure to make a mark in the game — or some other arena — in the future.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
13 years in the Majors. Definitely something to be proud of. One of the underrated inning eaters in the Majors
McCarthy deserves some respect just for working his way back from so many injuries. He’s never been a stud but has always been a contributor as much as he’s been able to play. Some guys make good careers out of being a role player, no shame at all in that.
Innings eaters?????
This guy made a career out of being on the DL.
He had one year, combined, where he threw 200 innings. The rest of his years were an assortment of ailments each and. every year.
And as for his kudos for coming back, you would too if clubs kept frivolously throwing money at him to try again.
Why is this getting down voted? Like it or not people he nailed it.
Big mistake to sign him for four years. Always hurt, rarely a contributor
Towering? yes, that one is correct. He is tall. and always on the DL…
197 career starts and he averaged close to 6 innings per start. He wasn’t durable, he wasn’t an ace……but he was an innings eater when healthy. Bmac is what he is….an injury prone pitcher who is a solid mid rotation starter when healthy. He was never drastically overpaid on contracts due to prior performance. He had a nice career for himself. You just come off as extremely butthurt for some reason.
Nobody calls someone who averages that few innings a year an “innings eater”
Innings eater?????
This guy made a career out of being on the DL.
He had one year, combined, where he threw 200 innings. The rest of his years were an assortment of ailments each and. every year.
And as for his kudos for coming back, you would too if clubs kept frivolously throwing money at him to try again.
Innings eater? He only threw over 100 innings 5 times in 13 years. It is right there in the article.
This is an amazing baseball career… in terms of being just good enough at the right times that he was able to turn a 69-75 record in to $70,000,000 in career earnings..well done Mr. McCarthy.. enjoy..and my you live along and happy life.
Yea, total highway-robbery! Wake up MLB and install a salary cap.
A salary cap would destroy baseball
Has it destroyed the other major sports?
Salary caps only use are to take money from the players so the owners get to keep more of it. The players deserve the money way more then the owners. And there is more parity in the MLB now then in the NFL
A salary cap? Because players get injured? That seems pretty inhumane. There’s no MLB player worth nearly as much money as any MLB owner. And salary caps do nothing beneficial for competitive balance or ticket prices.
lol
Salary caps allow the smaller market teams to compete on a much more level basis in the NHL and the NFL than MLB.It is a much fairer way to approach the likelihood of any team at least having a chance to reach the finals in their sport.
It is true that the recent 8-10 years have been dominated by a handful of teams in each of these two sports,but many others have at least got to the finals.
In baseball,the only small market team to win the WS since 1991 has been Kansas City in 2015.
There should be no competitive disadvantage given to the well run organizations though other than the current reverse drafting order.
What are you talking about? Since 2007, 15 different Teams have been to the World Series.
In that same timeframe in the NFL, 15 different Teams have been to the Superbowl.
I get that you have a narrative you want to push, but the facts don’t back it up.
Why is it fair to punish the big market teams for having money? It’s not. the Yankees Dodgers and Red Sox shouldn’t be punished because they have lots of fans.these days the same 4 teams rule over the NFL 9 out of 10 times
Thanks for making my point.The only small market teams in the WS since then have been Tampa,Kansas City,and Cleveland.
The three smallest market teams that I see in the NFL are Green Bay,Buffalo,and Jacksonville.Although the last two have had some hard times lately,they both made the playoffs last year.
I do not have a narrative to push,but you may.
I saw a poster about a year ago wish the Pirates good luck since as a small market team they had a very small chance of ever getting to the WS.I do not see how anyone can deny my point unless they have their own agenda when some teams can routinely spend 3-4 times the amounts on salaried employees.That is how a team gets the superstars that are necessary to compete on the ultimate stage which is only two teams.
Try looking at the facts on a factual basis.
The pirates are bad because there run by idiots not because they are small market in fact if you look at how much money they make and then how much they put into the team it’s a massive difference. And the Pittsburgh Steelers dominate there division in the NFL so if the pirates are small market then the Steelers are to
Thank you also for making my point about the NFL and the equity of the teams.
The well run teams should be the winners no matter how big their markets are..
The Pirates are not run by idiots,although they were for about 20 years.
The playing field is not level when 1/4-1/3 of the teams cannot afford the superstars that produce the wins in the playoffs.
“I do not have a narrative to push,but you may” the narrative he like a few who post on here will grasp at straws to defend MLB, no matter what the facts say. The NFL for example doesn’t have the ridiculous guaranteed salary to deal with. In the NFL a team can be 4-12 one year and the next win their division, every team has the same money to spend. What would it be like if the Pirates or Reds had the same amount of money to spend as the Red Sox.
It is not fair to punish the large market teams.
Do you think that those teams would have lots of fans if they lost more games than they won?
It is also not fair to punish the fans in the smaller cities who do not have the resources to sign the superstars that get them into the playoffs and win there.
There seem to be a few very well run teams in the NFL that win consistently over the last 10-15 years.That league seems to only have a few small market teams,but they are able to generally compete reasonably well,with a shot at making the playoffs.At least there is a level playing field.
You realize the Steelers are amongst the top spenders in the NFL right? Pittsburgh may not be the biggest market but it’s definitely not small. And yes the pirates are run by complete idiots
Like I said earlier the players deserve the massive money over the owners the player are out there putting the bodies on the line more so in the NFL. Look at profits for the Reds or Padres they may not make as much as Boston but they could sign people they just choose to keep it and line there pockets
Not sure how much you know about multi multi million dollar operations that are run today but if they are run by idiots they go out of business quickly.
Not sure what you mean by the Steelers being one of the top spenders but I do know that they have been one of best run organizations for many many years.
In this article McCarthy has been paid over $70 million dollars for “putting his body on the line”.He will walk away very very happily at the end of the year.No one forced him to do that-he mainly used his God-given ability.Good for him.
Some of the NFL players are lucky to be able to walk away from their contact sport.How many of them top $70M?
Who do you think ultimately ends up paying those “massive amounts of money”?it isn’t the owners or the players in any sport.
The owner of Pittsburgh pockets all the money he can the isn’t required for basic operating expenses. Instead of investing it back into the team like the Dodgers Red Sox or Yankees
We do not know the % of profits that are put back into each team.The amount of money that each of the three teams that you mention is so grossly more than the Pirates make that they have the gross amounts that they can reinvest in paying the superstars on each the teams.
I am not sticking up for Nutting,but he is a very good businessman who made his money in business and he treats the Pirates like one.
There are not a lot of owners like Mr Z was in Detroit who had so much money and such a will to win that he could sink part of his fortune in trying to win the World Series.
Yes
I mean, ten different teams have played in the last five world series, meanwhile in the NFL, with its salary cap that “ensures competitivwe balance” one team has been to like 6 Super Bowls in the last ten years and another team went 0-16 last season.
Yes sir and each of those years he spent considerable time on the DL. and never really came close to pitching for an entire season.
Innings Eater indeed…..
My lifetime ERA would be 4.20, too.
Better ERA on grass or turf?
The Pirates were seriously considering him for a three year contract I believe after the 2014 season,but the Dodgers gave him more years.He has been a good pitcher,but a poster boy for the problems with giving even good pitchers medium term contracts.
He had the best Twitter feed when he was on the A’s. Him and his wife are hilarious.
Seemed like a good guy too. Good luck to you and your family!
He’s great on twitter and Instagram
Remember when Dodger fans thought he was a number 2, LOL that was a funny time
The guy had injury issues, but didn’t lack ability.
Ability certainly should come under scrutiny when you can’t use that ability without injuring yourself.
This guy couldn’t walk out of the club house without getting hurt.
Remember when Padre fans weren’t bitter and jealous of Dodger fans? Neither do I.
Bitter and jealous from….missing the playoffs? Having to rebuild from scratch after spending nearly 2 billion in the past 6 years? In October both teams be watching the playoffs from home. So I am personally more jealous of the D-backs who made a few smart trades to bolster their team…and not jealous of the Dodgers (because who is at this point?) who just traded everything of value in their farm system to miss the playoffs.
I used to live in your fair city. You guys blamed your own smog on LA. You got so mad that Vin Scully announced the ’84 World Series that Ted Leitner had to lecture you guys about accepting his presence. And you lying through your sad Padre teeth about Dodger fans….
And you know so much about the Dodgers farm system, too. Womp womp, bottom dweller. Another year of raging insignificance.
Sad!
Ok that’s cool, but I live in vegas
Wow. You’re even more insignificant than your immediate impression. Mazel mazel.
Congrats on a solid career! Very underrated and good guy.
Hey, I have no grudge here but to refer to his career as “solid” …the only thing solid was how much coin he made….I read earlier in these comments that he made $70 million….that’s $1 Million per win…..oh, oh, here comes the metric police who will tell me what a tremendous career he had and that its not all about wins….New Flash, it does matter because any ability he has is wasted in the trainers room.
Your 4 comments arguing with people certainly seem like you have a bit of a grudge…
Agreed
I know, right?
What’s a “new flash”?
Oh, you think wins matter. Sorry, that’s where you lose all credibility. Go comment on ESPN, you’ll find more of your kind there.
If you are arguing that wins matter in 2018 I don’t really know how to help you.
No kidding, look at DeGrom.
I’m surprised they didn’t mention he almost died because of baseball. I’ll always remember the drive to his head where he needed brain surgery. They didn’t know if he’d survive much less would ever play again.
That’s definitely what I remember him for. Making it back from something like that is an achievement in itself. That was a gruesome ordeal.
Social media champ!
A good pitcher, I liked him..
Best of luck Brandon!
He’s off to be a political hack. You should read his Twitter feed.
My favorite memory of him was in 2006 when Ozzie Guillen single-handedly blaimed him for the White Sox missing the playoffs haha