Former major league right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez is calling it a career at the age of 36, Bob Nightengale of USA Today relays.
Jimenez began his big league tenure with the Rockies in 2006 and, despite calling the hitter-friendly Coors Field his home, eventually became one of the league’s top hurlers. At his best, Jimenez pitched to a 2.88 ERA across 221 2/3 innings in 2010, a year in which he threw a no-hitter. That was the second straight 200-inning season and the lone All-Star campaign for Jimenez, whom the Rockies traded to the Indians in July 2011.
The Jimenez acquisition didn’t work out as planned for the Indians, with whom he tossed 424 2/3 innings of 4.45 ERA ball through 2013. Jimenez still scored a four-year, $50MM guarantee from the Orioles during the ensuing offseason, but that deal didn’t give the O’s the value they wanted when they signed him. While Jimenez did eat up 594 1/3 frames with Baltimore, he only managed a 5.22 ERA as a member of the team.
The Orioles will end up as the last major league team for Jimenez, who hasn’t pitched in the bigs since he took the hill for them on Sept. 22, 2017. Jimenez has since tried to keep his MLB career going, including via a non-guaranteed deal with the Rockies this past offseason, but he’ll now hang it up as the owner of a 4.34 ERA with 8.28 K/9, 4.08 BB/9 and a 47.1 percent groundball rate in 1,870 innings and 329 appearances (315 starts). MLBTR congratulates Jimenez on a very respectable career and wishes him well in retirement.
Salute to him on a long career. Hope he enjoys retirement, he has earned it
I bet the Orioles would like a do over on that contract that Ubaldo took them for.
It’s pretty far down on the Orioles list of shameful contracts.
Chris Davis and Albert Belle would like a word
At least Belle was injury related. Jimenez and Davis were highway robberies.
Agreed anti belt – One could make a compelling case that the Davis contract is the worst is the history on the game.
The thing is the day he signed it people knew it was a bad contract. I wish Boras would negotiate my salary
Probably, Fred. Whatever. Guy had a decent career at the highest level in the world. Wish him well and move on.
Nobody put a gun to their head
Whenever someone like this retires we have to ask was he the most dominant pitcher over a 1 year span of all time?
One season? No. But add up all his best starts before hit free agency until you reach a full year’s worth of starts? Then maybe, just maybe….still no.
He wasn’t even the most dominant pitcher during that year. He was very good during his time though and was exciting to watch. One of the best rockies pitchers of all time
He was the most dominant pitcher of the first half of that year. He fell off a bit in the second half of the season.
He has an ERA of #DIV/0 going back to 2018, absolutely nobody could hit him.
I don’t understand what you’re asking here. 2010 was his best season. He wasn’t particularly great over the latter half of 2009 and he blew up at the beginning of 2011.
If you’re asking about specific stretches, his start to 2010 was amazing. Through 14 starts, he had a 1.15 ERA with 88 Ks in 101 1/3 innings. Then he got lit up in five of his next six starts (30 ER, 31 H, 19 BB in 33 innings).
But as a specific stretch, no it wasn’t the best. As an obvious example, he doesn’t beat Hershiser’s final 9 starts of 1988: 8 CGs (would have been 9 if the Dodgers had scored in his final start; he pitched 10 innings of shutout ball), 6 shutouts, 4 ER in 82 innings (0.44 ERA).
It’s a joke. With past hall of fame standards out the window because of the game changing, we need to evaluate pitchers differently going forward.
Like did he have a good year a few times? Was he polite? Did he throw the ball in way that was appealing to the eye? Can he read well? You know the hard hitting stuff for us baseball nerds
Your joke is bad, and you should feel bad!
Ok then…was he the best pitcher over a 3-4 game stretch?
as good as it gets for someone pitching at Coors in 2010
I don’t know timmy was pretty legendary for a bit there and likely outpaced him
Remember watching him throw the No hitter against the Braves hitting 100mph, great performance! Strange how a lot of times pitchers fall off so dramatically after Perfect Games or No Hitters, he still had a solid career…
After 2010 his career was total trash. Getting people out became a major hurdle for him lol. He was already retired not throwing for 3 years.
2013 was far from trash. Everything after? Yes, yes indeed.
2015 wasn’t bad but it was the polish on that turd contract
Jiménez made a name for himself as a starting pitcher in Colorado and should be proud of his career. Best luck going forward.
When you haven’t pitched in the majors for 2 years straight you were already retired. Lol. No announcement needed. I doubt anyone noticed he wasn’t pitching.
What was he doing for the last three years?
Your mom
Got eeem
Lol. So simple yet still funny.
I punch down baby!
Classic! Mom jokes will never get old.
unlike your mom.
I also like to throw in a “my mom!” here and there to confuse the opps
Classic Muscle Man approach.
First time I saw that I couldn’t stop laughing. I had never thought to switch it up.
I really hope one day he will gt past the hard feelings toward the Rockies organization and take his place in the team HOF. I know he re-signed with them this year, but the same attitude showed itself upon his release. Good career, could have been better with a better outlook though.
I remember he had a first half one year that was otherworldly. I think he went 12-0 with a sub 1.0 ERA, or something close. But a flash in the pan, and the rest of his career was … fine.
Looked it up. It was 2010:
Jiménez was the third pitcher in MLB history to win 11 out of his first 12 games and have an ERA below 1.00 (0.93).[20] He had the lowest ERA (0.78) in MLB history through 11 starts. In his one loss, he went seven innings, giving up two hits and one earned run in a 2–0 road loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers
The first half of 2010 could arguably be the greatest 1st half of a season ever, especially considering his home field disadvantage.
He won 19 in 2010, a Rockies record. Would have been 20 if Clint Barmes hadn’t dropped a pop fly with 2 out in the 9th on a windy day in September.
Will always appreciate Ubaldo for being part of the best moments in Rockies history. Started the blackout game to knock off the Phils in 2007. Best of luck Ubaldo!
3.67 era at Coors field in 412 innings. Hold you head high on that Ubaldo. Rocky Mountain high.
Ironically, he ended up being the best FA starting pitcher signed by Duquette for the O’s.
Arguably, that says more about the GM then it does the pitcher but I digress.
Really solid career, and as many have said here it was impressive just how well he did while pitching for Colorado. When Cleveland traded a bunch of prospects (including two big ones at the time in Alex White and Drew Pomeranz) it looked like it was going to be a really memorable trade for a long time lol. White never panned out and had a brief and rough MLB career; Pomeranz has put together a nice career albeit a little underwhelming relative to the lofty expectations that he once had.
As a Jays fan, though, what will always come to mind first for me when thinking of Ubaldo won’t be his great early career, the no-hitter or the big trade to Cleveland. It’ll be of him giving up an 11th inning homer to Edwin Encarnacion which won the Jays the 2016 Wild Card Game while Zack Britton and his 0.64 ERA sat in the bullpen. There was no reason for Jimenez to even be in that situation especially with the top third of the Jays’ potent lineup, and I still feel bad for the guy.
As an O’s fan, that memory haunts me to this day.
Ranks right up there with that slob Jeffrey Maier
It’s worth mentioning that Ubaldo got that contract with the Orioles because of how good he was down the stretch in 2013 with the Indians. He wasn’t great for the Indians overall, but they don’t make the Wild Card game that year without him being as good as he was.
That’s a bummer
Class act! Enjoy retirement
Had one of the most distinguished deliveries of all time. Batters couldn’t see the ball until a millisecond before it left his hand. Made it almost impossible to guess what he was throwing. HOF? Not even close. A respectable career with a few years that were extremely dominate? Absolutely, and a hat tip for getting numbers even close to respectable at Coors! Cy Youngs numbers could’ve been “middle of the pack” there! Here’s to a decent career and success in life after baseball!
His stuff was top notch early in his career. Imagine if he wasn’t pitching in CO what his #’s look like. 94-100 with wipeout off speed. Congrats on retirement.
He was incredible up until the day he was dealt from Colorado to Cleveland. Even after the trade was announced he still pitched, was demolished and never really put it back together again.
I’ll always remember when my friend and I got our tickets signed by him when he was with the Indians. He ran by and we asked to sign, and he said he’d get it after bp (he was shagging fly balls). BP ended and he was running in towards the dugout. You could tell he forgot about us but my friend waved at him and he had this “oh yeah” look on his face. He went out of his way to come back over and sign for us. Even though he didn’t turn out at all for the Orioles, I still rooted for him just because of that
That reminds me of a time me and 2 of my friends had tickets right by the bullpen back in 2007 at Comerica Park for the Tigers vs Cards weekend series. We were talking with Joel Zumaya all day long (during BP and the entire game). He used Beechnut chew and mixed it together with Big League Chew and that’s what he chewed all game long. We asked him what it was he was doing and when he heard me say I chewed as well, he gave me a big ole chaw of Beechnut and a packet of BL Chew and told me to give it a try. Was cool as hell and really not that bad of a mixture to chew on. Very cool weekend in the D!
That’s awesome! Love hearing player/fan interactions
The Rockies for a few years had pretty clever TV promos. One year it had players doing ads for fake products. So cut to Ubaldo with his head all lathered up, saying:
You baldo? Try Hair-be-there!
I remember watching his no-hitter on TV. He was having control issues and walked 6 or 7. Pitched the last several innings completely from the stretch because he was having problems throwing strikes from the windup. Some OF (I think Dexter Fowler) made a nice catch in the 7th or 8th to save the no-hitter.
Once a friend mentioned him while I was distracted and I misheard “Ubaldo Jimenez” as “a bottle of mayonnaise”. From then we both just called him “Mayo”.
Good luck in retirement, Mayo.
After Hudson news today, cards might want to give him a look in the bullpen. Maybe he retired one day too early lol
Why was he on the bump while Britton was sitting in the bullpen? …..The struggles of being an O’s fan.