Former Rangers closer Shawn Tolleson announced his retirement from baseball on Wednesday. The right-hander had previously signed a minor league contract with Texas and planned to head to Major League Spring Training and compete for a job. However, the Rangers’ release today revealed that he’s experienced a setback in his rehab from Tommy John surgery. Said Tolleson in a statement, via the Rangers:
My intention was to compete for a position on the Rangers’ Major League pitching staff in 2019. With that no longer being a possibility, I have decided this is the right time to retire from professional baseball and move on to the next chapter of my life. I want to thank the Texas Rangers organization for all of their assistance in my rehab over the last year. It was a dream come true to pitch for my hometown team for three years, and my family and I will always be grateful for that opportunity.
From 2014-15, Tolleson was a high-quality late-inning option for the Rangers — first as a setup man and then as a closer. Over the course of those two seasons, he worked to a 2.88 ERA with 9.1 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 144 innings — highlighted by a terrific 35-save campaign in 2015 that earned him a 10th-place finish in American League Cy Young voting.
Back injuries limited Tolleson to 36 1/3 innings in 2016, though, during which time he struggled to a 7.68 ERA. Following that rough campaign, he signed on with the Rays but required Tommy John surgery in Spring Training. He’d go on to miss each of the next two season as he recovered.
Tolleson’s career will be far more abbreviated than he or any of his three big league organizations would’ve otherwise hoped, but he’ll nevertheless retire with a lifetime 3.92 ERA, a 14-8 record, 46 saves, 8.8 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 spread across parts of five big league seasons between the Dodgers and his hometown Rangers.
It’s too bad when a quality career is cut short by injury.
thats a shame, i figured he could have had a nice bounceback in the near future.
TJ doesn’t have a 100% success rate, and that’s a shame.
It’s not even close to 100%….”one out of two major league pitchers who has Tommy John surgery will throw fewer than 100 innings the rest of his big league career” and “one out of every five major pitchers who undergoes the operation never throws another pitch at that level”
Granted, many of them might throw fewer than 100 innings the rest of their careers even without getting hurt. It’s hard enough to progress and adapt and stay successful when you’re healthy. For a lot of players being down and out for a year plus puts it over the top.
There’s a lot more to it than “many of them might throw fewer than 100 innings the rest of their careers even without getting hurt.” The quote are from John Roegele’s article/study link to tht.fangraphs.com
There is also the American Journal of Sports Medicine study a few years ago..they studied 147 TJS pitchers…..
20% never returned
13% returned to pitch fewer than 10 games
67% managed to pitch 10 games in a season after TJS
50% ended up on the DL with arm/shoulder troubles
Average ERA before 4.23….after…4.67 – BAA before .249…..and after .257 – WHIP before… 1.368 and after…. 1.432 – % of pitches in the strike zone….51.9 – and after…. 49.6…. Innings pitched before 94.3…. and after…. 77.3 – % of fastball thrown before 63.9 and after 59 – Avg. fastball velocity before 91.2…and after 90.8
TJS is not guaranteed and on average performance goes down if the pitcher can return.
The fans will remember him best as the waiver wire pickup who helped me win my saves category.
I was just thinking that…. “isn’t he the waiver wire pickup who helped Frisco500 win the saves category?”
Lmao dead
He will take a year or two off an get the bug again. Many of them just miss the game too much and just love to play. There are a ton of guys who know they have no chance to get back to the majors or get to the majors but play in the minors so they can field a team.
I always thought he would do well and I was surprised to see the Dodgers give up on him especially as he was best friends with Kersh.
I couldn’t walk away from the game like this. Too much in the tank. Hopefully whatever the setback is he can rehab back somehow. Rooting for him
I couldn’t walk away either, because I’m a talentless nobody and never made it there to begin with.
That’s a shame. I remember that he was fantastic in 2014 and 2015, and in the playoffs against my Jays in the latter year. Best of luck to him. Maybe if things go well he’ll attempt a comeback in another year or two. It’s not like he’s 35 (he’ll be 31 in a few days) or anything so it could be possible; take Jonny Venters for example.
Shawn: For whom the bell Tolleson
Who?
Who? Just class man, with respect career, move on nicely. Made money playing beautiful game for youth. Entertain us, a lot! That is who!
Shawn Tolleson
surprised the buccos werent interested as a low cost project signing…