Right-hander Jared Hughes has announced his retirement after 10 Major League seasons. “I’ve hung up my cleats. It was time,” the 35-year-old Hughes said on his Instagram page, joking that “they were worn out from all the sprinting.”
Originally a fourth-round pick for the Pirates in the 2006 draft, Hughes spent his first six big league seasons pitching in Pittsburgh’s bullpen, contributing heavily to their playoff teams in 2014 and 2015 (Hughes had a 2.12 ERA in 131 1/3 innings and 139 appearances over those two seasons). He then bounced around to the Brewers, Reds, Phillies, and Mets over his final four years, finishing with a 4.84 ERA over 22 1/3 frames for New York in 2020.
One of the sport’s premier grounder specialists, Hughes posted a 61.3% groundball rate over his 541 1/3 career innings — since the start of the 2011 season, he owned the third-highest grounder rate of any pitcher with at least 500 innings pitched. This helped Hughes achieve consistent success throughout his career despite the lack of the blazing fastball or big strikeout numbers one might expect from someone who cut an imposing 6’7″ frame on the mound. Hughes’ on-field numbers often outpaced his advanced metrics, and his impressive 2.96 career ERA is significantly better than his career 3.79 SIERA.
MLBTR offers Hughes our congratulations on a fine career, and we wish him the best in his post-playing endeavors.
Enjoy your retirement. He was a great pirate along with Melancon and Tony Watson. It was a good bullpen that pirates had.
Little known fact. Monte Harrison and Matt Hall were high school teammates.
And Monte Harrison has a brother or family member in the NBA.
Little known fact: Monte Harrison is one of the best athletes in all of MLB who can’t hit a baseball
Is this the same Jared Hughes who came sprinting into an inning for the Phillies and JT Realmuto is like this guy. He’s all wore out on the mound huffing and puffing then serves up a game tying home run to a Mets player. Jomboy did a breakdown on it, if so man those wore out cleats had me laughing for months. Thank you Jared Hughes, enjoy your retirement.
A good sense of humor and an unfortunate victim of the Realmuto meme, even though JT wasn’t shaking his head at Hughes, you can’t escape the meme.
Saw that video the other day. lol. Realmuto and Kapler’s expressions are classic. Only in baseball.
he didnt have s*** on Todd Coffeys sprinting lol
Todd Coffey is a goat
Are you sure? I’m pretty sure JT said he was shaking his head at Jared…
@cheeryvladdy No. He said quite the opposite in fact. JT was pissed at the current in game situation. Jared came running in and the cameras focused on JT. The two things were unrelated. Jared did end up having a bad outing though. So it looks even worse.
Here’s one of many sources talking about it: philliesnation.com/2020/04/jared-hughes-tells-funn…
Loved him as a met. One of the weirdest players I saw on the team full of weird characters lol.
@MetsFan22 Quirks and personalities are great for baseball. I’m not sure how old you are, but do you remember Turk Wendall? A decent Met reliever from 97-01. He wore a shark-tooth necklace, and was very superstitious. Had lots of great quirks. Made the game fun to watch.
He was pretty cool. He jumped over the baselines and frequently brushed his teeth.
Turk Wendell with the Cubs used to eat black licorice and then brush his teeth in the dugout every half inning when he was pitching. Saw him do that many times on WGN, especially when my hometown Pirates were at Wrigley. His 1992 Upper Deck baseball card shows him brushing his teeth in the dugout.
he has a positive win loss record thats a successful career to me
Someone forget to tell you that pitcher wins and losses have little to nothing to do with effectiveness?
Win-loss is more effective when evaluating relievers versus starters. Also, and I’m an analytics guy don’t get me wrong, but it’s not win-loss has nothing to do with effectiveness, it just isn’t anywhere near the best barometer for measuring a pitcher’s success.
Rememberthwcoop…someone forget to tell you that if someone says “to me” they are expressing a personal opinion freely, and that doing so maybe isnt an invitation for correction.
Sub 3.00 career ERA … that’s worthy of saying he was a good pitcher.
4.05 xFIP and 4.17 FIP he was a very lucky pitcher
Amazing career, see you in Cooperstown Mr. Hughes.
Tickets are $24.99
Loved watching him run out from the bullpen.
So, those spikes did get a little running action.
His staring down of batters was so entertaining to watch.
Jared Hughes was an entertaining pitcher. I’m glad he had as good a career as he did. Such a cool dude.
Met him several times in Bradenton over the years. Just a great guy, always polite with the fans, just happy to be a major league player. We need more of his attitude. Enjoy retirement Jared.
Isn’t it weird how slowly but surely; the pack gets replaced and replenished? Jared Hughes might seem like a small player, but his exit and another player’s arrival marks the new generation coming to the show.
It’s a reminder that life is fleeting and we’re getting older.
(Eyeroll)
Good for him. He’s got his pension!
Wish the Mets resigned him, better than who they have, was overworked but reliable
If a couple things go right, that are very feasible, the Mets will have a fine pen. There are better guys to take risks on. If Diaz continues to get better they will be fine.
He looks like a cross between Mike D and Gilligan.
Jared Hughes we hardly knew you
Seriously Jared, who the eff are you?
He was a great bullpen piece with a career sub 3.00 ERA for many years
Missed him. Well bon voyage good sir.
A very solid career, but an even more solid guy. Always humble, took the time to speak to and interact with the fans, and active in whichever local community he was in. A key part of the Bucs pen for their contending years – enjoy life beyond the lines Jared!
I’m pretty sure the Pirates weren’t a playoff team in 2016.
Will have plenty of time to now catch his breath.
Thanks Jared. Enjoyed your year in MKE. Wish they would have resigned you. Best wishes.
underappreciated for sure
So, apparently 2021 is the year for the Hugheses to retire. Any others left in MLB? Deadline is coming up.
A career ERA under 3…… bravo.
This says a lot:
mlb.com/news/jared-hughes-nominated-for-2016-cleme…