Retirement

Wade Davis Announces Retirement

By Steve Adams | November 24, 2021 at 10:50am CDT

Three-time All-Star and 2015 World Series champion Wade Davis announced his retirement after a 13-year MLB career Wednesday (via a tweet from the Royals).

Davis, 36, began his pro career as a third-round pick by the Devil Rays back in 2004. He ranked not only among Tampa Bay’s top prospects but among the best farmhands in all of baseball from 2007-10, while developing as a rotation hopeful in a perennially strong Tampa Bay system.

After a strong run through the minors, Davis debuted as a 23-year-old in 2009, going on to enjoy some success as a member of the Rays’ rotation for the next couple of seasons. From 2009-11, Davis started 64 games and pitched to a 4.22 ERA out of the Tampa rotation — albeit with lackluster strikeout and walk rates, as well as less-flattering marks from fielding-independent pitching metrics.

A move to the bullpen in 2012 brought about a sub-3.00 ERA and nearly doubled Davis’ strikeout rate, but the Royals still had designs on moving him back into the rotation when acquiring Davis and teammate James Shields in what remains one of the more surprising and impactful blockbuster trades in recent memory. Shields, controlled two years at the time, and Davis (controlled for three) went to the Royals in exchange for then-prospects Wil Myers, Jake Odorizzi, Mike Montgomery and Patrick Leonard. It was a massive deal that had long-term implications for both clubs — a trade that set the stage for Kansas City’s eventual back-to-back World Series appearances.

Davis didn’t fare too well in his return to starting pitching, as his first season with Kansas City culminated in a 5.32 ERA in 135 2/3 innings. The Royals put Davis back in the ’pen following those struggles, and Davis joined Greg Holland, Kelvin Herrera and (in 2015) Ryan Madson in anchoring some of the most imposing bullpens of the past decade. The dominant relief corps that Kansas City rode to a 2014 World Series loss and a 2015 World Series title, in many ways, helped to drive the emphasis teams place on cultivating a deep collection of power-armed relievers for ideal postseason usage.

Davis not only thrived in his return to the bullpen — he broke out as one of the best relief pitchers on the planet. He posted a flat 1.00 ERA with a 39.1% strikeout rate in 2014 — a brilliant strikeout rate even by today’s standards but a nearly unparalleled mark back in ’14, when the leaguewide strikeout rate was nearly four percent lower than at its recent peak in 2020. Davis finished eighth in Cy Young voting that season and somehow followed up with an even better year in 2015, when he posted a sub-1.00 ERA and landed sixth in AL Cy Young voting.

Davis’ dominance extended well beyond the regular season in that pair of World Series campaigns with Kansas City. He was almost comedically overpowering in the postseason, performing on a completely different level than the opposing lineups through which he breezed. In 25 innings of postseason play from 2014-15, Davis allowed one earned run on just 14 hits with a staggering 38-to-5 K/BB ratio.

The Royals embarked on something of a rebuild in the 2016-17 offseason, as most of their World Series core reached or was nearing free agency. That prompted the Royals to flip Davis to the reigning World Champion Cubs, netting eventual American League home run leader Jorge Soler in return. Davis’ dominance largely continued in Chicago. In all, from 2014-17, Davis made three All-Star teams while pitching to a 1.45 ERA with 79 saves and a 33.1% strikeout rate in 241 1/3 regular-season innings (plus plenty of postseason mastery).

It was wholly unsurprising that he was in demand as a free agent that winter, and the Rockies rewarded Davis with a three-year, $52MM contract that established a new average annual salary record for a reliever at $17.33MM. Davis led the National League with 43 saves in 2018, his first season with the Rox, but things unraveled thereafter. Oblique and shoulder injuries weighed Davis down in subsequent seasons, and the Rockies released him in Sept. 2020 with just weeks remaining on that three-year pact.

The 2021 season marked something of a full-circle campaign for Davis, who returned to the Royals on a minor league deal and broke camp in the team’s bullpen. Forearm and continued shoulder troubles sent Davis to the injured list on multiple occasions, however, and his once-96.5 mph heater sat at a greatly diminished 92.8 mph. Davis managed 42 2/3 innings in relief, but he was hit hard and finished out the season with a 6.75 ERA.

All told, Davis will conclude his career at 63-55 with 141 saves, 270 games finished, a 3.94 ERA and 929 strikeouts in 990 1/3 regular-season innings. He tacked on an additional 40 innings of 1.80 ERA ball, four wins, eight saves and 57 strikeouts in a sensational postseason career. Davis made more than $87MM in a 13-year career and will forever be remembered by Royals faithful for the indelible role he played in Kansas City’s baseball renaissance in 2014-15.

Photo courtesy of Imagn/USA Today Sports.

Sean Kazmar Jr. Retires

By Anthony Franco | November 12, 2021 at 10:35pm CDT

Former major league infielder Sean Kazmar Jr. is retiring from professional baseball, according to an announcement from the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett. The 37-year-old appeared in seventeen minor league seasons, the last eight of which came in the Atlanta system.

Kazmar was the prototypical organizational veteran, remarkably going more than a decade in between big league appearances. He broke into the majors in August 2008, not long after his 24th birthday. He made nineteen appearances with the Padres down the stretch that season, then spent the entire 2009-19 campaigns in Triple-A. Kazmar first joined the Braves’ organization in 2013 and played with Gwinnett exclusively through 2019, not appearing in 2020 because of the canceled minor league season.

That perseverance eventually paid off, as Kazmar made it back to the big leagues this past season. The Braves selected his contract in mid-April, although his second and final major league stint proved brief. Kazmar got into three games, making two plate appearances, before being outrighted off the 40-man roster. He spent the final few months of the season back with the Stripers.

Kazmar’s major league career consists of just 48 plate appearances, in which time he managed eight hits and five walks. Merely playing at the professional level for seventeen seasons is itself quite the accomplishment, though. And Kazmar’s return to the majors — however brief — was one of the better stories of the first few months of the season, no doubt made sweeter by the team’s eventual World Series win.

Brett Cecil Announces Retirement

By Steve Adams | November 12, 2021 at 8:30am CDT

Left-handed reliever Brett Cecil took to Instagram this week to announce his retirement from baseball. In a lengthy statement, Cecil thanked his family, his representatives at ACES and both Major League teams for which he pitched: the Blue Jays and the Cardinals.

Cecil, 35, hasn’t pitched in the Majors since the 2018 season, although that’s not for lack of effort. The southpaw signed a four-year contract with the Cardinals in the 2016-17 offseason and turned in a solid first year in St. Louis before injuries completely derailed his time with the organization. A shoulder strain landed Cecil on the injured list after his first appearance of the 2018 season. He missed more than a month with that injury and spent another month on the shelf due to a foot strain later that year.

The 2019 season was a complete wash for Cecil, who underwent surgery to alleviate carpal tunnel syndrome in his pitching hand early in the year. He wasn’t able to make it back to the mound in ’19, and his 2020 season never got off the ground. Cecil suffered what the team termed a “significant” hamstring strain in Spring Training, not long before the league shutdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He’d made it back to the mound and was reportedly exploring a new sidearm delivery when MLB clubs began their “Summer Camp” in advance of the shortened season. The Cardinals cut him loose prior to the new Opening Day in what would have been the final season of that four-year, $30.5MM contract, however. He did not sign with a team for the 2021 season.

Cecil’s run in St. Louis clearly didn’t go as hoped, but the injury-plagued nature of that contract tends to overshadow the quality results he’d enjoyed in Toronto prior to signing that deal. Cecil had a bit of success as a starter with the Jays in 2010-11, pitching to a 4.43 ERA in 296 1/3 innings over the life of 48 starts. That two-year period even included a pair of complete games — one of them his lone MLB shutout. The left-hander’s career truly took off with a full-time move to the bullpen, however.

From 2013-16, Cecil pitched to a 2.90 ERA with a sizable 51.2% ground-ball rate, a massive 30.5% strikeout rate and a solid 8.3% walk rate. He was more effective against lefties than righties, as one would expect, but he more than held righties in check during that four-year run. Cecil posted a 3.88 ERA in his first season with the Cardinals, as his strikeout rate dipped a bit, but he remained a strong ground-ball pitcher with a terrific walk rate.

Cecil will retire from baseball with parts of 10 seasons in the Major Leagues, during which time he went 44-47 with a 4.29 ERA, 12 saves and 67 holds in 756 innings. A series of injuries cut short what looked to be a burgeoning run as one of the game’s better left-handed relievers, but two solid seasons as a starting pitcher and a five-year bullpen peak that saw him post a combined 3.14 ERA and fan 29% of his opponents from 2013-17 nevertheless makes for a fine big league career.

Joakim Soria Retires

By Darragh McDonald | November 10, 2021 at 11:34pm CDT

Right-handed pitcher Joakim Soria is retiring, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, relaying word from Soria’s agent. The 37-year-old pitched for nine different teams over 14 MLB seasons.

Soria made his MLB debut for the Kansas City Royals back in 2007, throwing 69 innings with an ERA of 2.48 and notching 17 saves. He became a mainstay of the Royals’ bullpen through the 2011 campaign. In those five seasons, he pitched 315 1/3 innings with an ERA of 2.40 and racked up 160 saves. He was an All-Star twice, in 2008 and 2010.

That would prove to be the best stretch of Soria’s career, although he continued to be an effective reliever for another decade, pitching for the Rangers, Tigers and Pirates, returning to the Royals, and then stints with White Sox, Brewers and Athletics. In 2021, he started the season with the Diamondbacks and was later traded to the Blue Jays.

Over his entire career, he threw 763 innings with an ERA of 3.11, along with 831 strikeouts and 229 saves. MLBTR congratulates Soria on a fine career and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors.

Buster Posey Announces Retirement

By Mark Polishuk | November 4, 2021 at 5:38pm CDT

After 12 Major League seasons, Buster Posey has called it a career. Alongside his wife Kristen, the longtime Giants catcher announced his retirement in a press conference Thursday afternoon.

Going into the offseason, the only question surrounding Posey seemed to be whether the Giants would simply exercise their $22MM club option on the catcher for next season, or if the two sides would work out a longer-term extension. Posey hit .304/.390/.499 with 18 home runs in 454 plate appearances in 2021, rebounding to prime form after opting out of the 2020 season, and struggling through a 2019 season in the aftermath of hip surgery.

Instead, Posey will now hang up his cleats, ending an outstanding run as a Bay Area icon. Drafted with the fifth overall pick of the 2008 draft, Posey made his big league debut in 2009 and then won Rookie Of The Year honors in 2010, helping lead the Giants to their first World Series title since 1954.

That was the first of three championship rings for Posey, as he became the face of this era of Giants baseball. Posey’s long list of achievements includes the 2012 NL MVP Award, seven All-Star selections, four Silver Slugger Awards, and a Gold Glove in 2016. He retires with 158 home runs and a career slash line of .302/.372/.460 over 5607 plate appearances, and is likely heading for a Hall Of Fame induction in five years’ time.

While Posey’s outstanding 2021 leaves the impression that he has plenty left in the tank, it shouldn’t be ignored that at this time last year, a retirement following the 2021 campaign seemed quite plausible, or even likely. The hip surgery was the latest in a series of notable injuries for Posey throughout his career, including leg and ankle injuries suffered in a collision with Scott Cousins in 2011 (the impetus for MLB changing its rules about baserunners can make contact with catchers while trying to score). Most troubling, Posey also suffered multiple concussions over the course of his 12 years, and there was long speculation that the Giants would eventually move him over to a semi-permanent first base role.

Posey is only 34 years old, but with all of his accumulated wear-and-tear, it could be that he simply preferred to leave on the high note of a great personal season and the Giants’ 107-win campaign. Posey and his wife are also the parents of four children, including adopted twin girls born prematurely last summer (which Posey said factored into his decision to opt out of the 2020 season). There is certainly nothing left to prove for Posey, and he can now enjoy a well-deserved retirement and more time with his family.

While Posey’s role in Giants history can’t truly be replaced, the team hopes it already has a worthy heir apparent in Joey Bart, the second overall pick of the 2018 draft. Posey’s return to form created some questions about how exactly San Francisco would juggle playing time behind the plate, yet now the catching situation looks like it will consist of Bart and incumbent veteran Curt Casali. The Giants could quite possibly target another veteran to compete with Casali in Spring Training and provide more backing in case Bart (who has played in only 35 Major League games) needs more time to get acclimated.

San Francisco also now has at least $22MM in extra payroll space next season, not that the team didn’t already have plenty of spending capacity. The Giants’ surprising 107-win year has left the team well ahead of schedule in their rebuild, and the focus will squarely be on contending for a World Series title in 2022. While truly big expenditures haven’t been part of the strategy thus far for president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, he will have every avenue open to him this winter, whether it be major free agent signings, big-ticket trade acquisitions, re-signing notable in-house free agents like Brandon Belt, or all of the above.

Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic first reported Posey’s decision to retire.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Bubba Starling Announces Retirement

By James Hicks and Steve Adams | October 26, 2021 at 12:26pm CDT

Outfielder Bubba Starling, a former two-sport star and top prospect, has announced his retirement via Facebook post, reports Alec Lewis of the Athletic. Mooted as a potential top overall pick in the 2011 draft, Starling never quite blossomed after the Royals nabbed him with the fifth overall selection. Starling retires with a career line of .204/.246/.298 line across 261 plate appearances in parts of two big league seasons.

Starling was long touted as a future building block for the Royals. Also a star quarterback in high school football star who’d committed to the University of Nebraska, he was seen as a raw bundle of virtually unparalleled athleticism in his draft class. He ripped through the Rookie-level Appalachian League in his first pro season (2012), and for the first two years of his pro career was widely considered among the game’s most promising farmhands.

Starling’s bat began to stall out in the low minors, however, and his offensive output never fully caught up with his off-the-charts raw tools. He looked to perhaps be turning a corner when he hit .310/.358/.448 through 72 games with Triple-A Omaha in 2019 and received his first call to the big leagues, but Starling produced a .204/.246/.298 batting line through 261 plate appearances in parts of two Major League seasons. Though his big league dreams may not have been realized, Starling did suit up as a member of Team USA’s Olympic roster this year, going 2-for-7 with a pair of RBIs and helping the United States to a Silver Medal.

While this week’s announcement closes the door on a tantalizing talent that captured the intrigue of Royals fans — and baseball fans at large — credit goes to Starling for grinding out a decade-long career in pro ball. The determination required to grind through eight seasons of sky-high expectations and make a Major League debut in 2019 is commendable in and of itself, and at 29 years of age, he could well have other opportunities in the game available to him in the coming years, should he choose to go that route.

Organizational Notes: Wiley, Rockies, Padres, Rays, Prieto

By Mark Polishuk | October 23, 2021 at 2:57pm CDT

Rockies director of pitching operations Mark Wiley is retiring, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding reports. Wiley has worked in his current position since 2012, though he previously worked for Colorado’s organization as a player personnel director (in 2000) and as a front office assistant (2006-07). Wiley might be best known for his seven stints as a big league pitching coach, serving in the role on two separate occasions with each of the Orioles, Indians, and Marlins, and coaching once with the Royals.

All in all, the 73-year-old Wiley has been in baseball for 52 years in many different roles. Apart from his pitching coach gigs and his three jobs with the Rockies, Wiley has also worked as a scout, a minor league manager and coach, special assistant to former Marlins GM Michael Hill, and he had an 11-year playing career that included 21 Major League games. We at MLBTR wish Wiley all the best in retirement, and congratulate him on a fine career.

Carlos Gomez Officially Announces Retirement

By Anthony Franco | September 24, 2021 at 6:43pm CDT

Former major league outfielder Carlos Gómez officially announced his retirement this afternoon in a ceremony at Milwaukee’s American Family Field (video via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com). The announcement finalizes the end of a 13-year major league career.

Of course, there hasn’t been much doubt that Gómez’s playing days had already concluded. The 35-year-old last played in the majors in 2019, and he hasn’t played professionally since wrapping up a stint with the Aguilas Cibaenas in the Dominican Winter League between 2019-20. Reports out of the Dominican Republic in January 2020 indicated Gómez’s playing days were likely coming to an end, but he hadn’t publicly finalized that decision until today.

Gómez ceremoniously hung up his spikes as a Brewer, with whom he had the best run of his career. Acquired from the Twins over the 2009-10 offseason, the electric center fielder spent the next four and a half seasons with the Brew Crew. At his peak, Gómez was one of the sport’s top power-speed threats. Between 2013 and 2014, the right-handed hitter posted a .284/.347/.491 line with 47 home runs. He chipped in 74 stolen bases over those two seasons while playing Gold Glove-caliber defense.

Gómez earned down-ballot MVP support in both of those campaigns, and few players could match his well-rounded skillset. Over that two-year stretch, Gómez ranked seventh among all position players in FanGraphs’ version of wins above replacement, trailing only Mike Trout, Andrew McCutchen, teammate Jonathan Lucroy, Buster Posey, Miguel Cabrera and Josh Donaldson.

Milwaukee traded Gómez to the Astros at the 2015 deadline for then-prospects Brett Phillips, Domingo Santana, Josh Hader and Adrian Houser. It proved an opportune time for the Brewers to add an influx of young talent still helping the team immensely today, as Gómez’s productivity was never quite the same from that point forward. As he entered his 30’s, Gómez bounced around the league with a few clubs. He ended his playing days with the Mets, ironically the team that initially signed him as a 16-year-old back in 2002.

Gómez appeared in the majors with six different clubs over the course of his career, although he’ll be best known for his peak in Milwaukee. He appeared in 1461 MLB games and hit .252/.313/.411 with 145 home runs, 236 doubles and 41 triples. Gómez stole 268 bases, scored 675 runs and drove in 546. He appeared in two All-Star Games and won a Gold Glove during his aforementioned star-level peak. FanGraphs and Baseball Reference each valued his career at around 25 WAR. MLBTR congratulates Gómez on a very fine career and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors.

Alex Avila To Retire After 2021 Season

By Mark Polishuk | September 19, 2021 at 9:53am CDT

Nationals catcher Alex Avila will retire at the end of the season, The Athletic’s Maria Torres reports (Twitter link). While Avila plans to remain involved with the sport and “doesn’t intend to stay out of the game for long,” the veteran backstop will be hanging up his glove after 13 Major League seasons.

Breaking into pro ball as a fifth-round pick for the Tigers in the 2008 draft, Avila is best remembered for his eight seasons in Detroit, highlighted by a Silver Slugger performance in 2011. Avila hit .295/.389/.506 with 19 homers over 551 plate appearances in that breakout year, earning an All-Star nod and a 12th-place finish in AL MVP voting.

While Avila never again quite reached those heights, he has often provided good offensive production from the catcher position throughout his career, offering on-base skills and a bit of power (while also struggling to avoid strikeouts). Over his 3626 career PA, Avila has a .233/.348/.393 slash line and 105 home runs, good for an above-average 101 OPS+ and 104 wRC+.

Defensively, Avila has been one of baseball’s best at preventing stolen bases, throwing out 30.13% (213 of 707) of baserunners trying to steal. He has also been a solid pitch-framer for much of his career, and he been widely praised as a game manager and handler of pitchers.

This reputation has helped Avila catch on with six different teams (the Tigers, White Sox, Cubs, Diamondbacks, Twins, and Nationals) over the course of his career, mostly recently his one-year free agent deal with Washington. Avila has made only 99 PA over 29 games, as calf injuries kept him on the injured list for almost two months, and he also missed time at the start of the year on the COVID-19 list. Injuries have been a significant part of Avila’s career, including multiple concussions and leg problems.

Only 34 years old, Avila now moves onto the next phase of his baseball career, and could very well continue his family’s history of off-the-field success. His father Al Avila is the Tigers’ general manager, and his grandfather Ralph was a longtime Dodgers scout who was a key figure in the development of the Dominican baseball pipeline.

We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Avila on a fine career, and wish him the best in his next endeavors.

Ryan Braun Announces Retirement

By Steve Adams | September 14, 2021 at 10:59pm CDT

Longtime Brewers slugger Ryan Braun formally announced his retirement as a player Tuesday, thanking Brewers fans and the organization in a video announcement shared by the team (on Twitter). Braun didn’t sign with a club last offseason but hadn’t formally retired prior to today.

Now 37 years old, Braun was selected by Milwaukee with the No. 5 overall draft pick out of the University of Miami back in 2005. He was immediately tabbed as one of the game’s top-ranked prospects and would go on to make his big league debut not even two years after being drafted.

Braun hit the ground running, as he led the National League in slugging percentage as a rookie and batted .324/.370/.634 overall en route to narrowly edging out Troy Tulowitzki for National League Rookie of the Year honors. Braun hit 30-plus home runs in each of his first three big league seasons, despite not making his MLB debut until late May in 2007, and received All-Star nods and Silver Slugger Awards each season from 2008-12.

It’s impossible to look back at Braun’s career without remembering the controversy surrounding his 2011 MVP Award. Braun batted .332/.397/.597 with 33 home runs, 38 doubles, six triples and 33 stolen bases that season, eventually being named Most Valuable Player over then-Dodgers superstar Matt Kemp. It was a clear two-horse race, with Braun receiving 20 first-place votes and Kemp, who’d posted a very similar .324/.399/.586 batting line, receiving 10. (Prince Fielder and Justin Upton each received lone first-place votes as well.)

At the time, “Braun or Kemp?” was the type of spirited debate sports fans have relished for years: two elite players at the top of their game posted similar seasons… who was better? Who was more valuable? Not even two months later, that changed. An ESPN report revealed that Braun had tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone, and he was reported to be facing a 50-game suspension.

As with the majority of players who test positive for performance-enhancing drugs, Braun appealed the suspension and fought the punishment. In an extreme rarity, however, he indeed had the suspension overturned on something of a technicality. The test collector who’d picked up Braun’s urine sample did not deliver the sample to the lab on time, prompting Braun to question the legitimacy of the result and the collection process.

“There were a lot of things that we learned about the collector, about the collection process, about the way that the entire thing worked, that made us very concerned and very suspicious about what could have actually happened,” Braun said following the appeal.

The identity of the collector, Dino Laurenzi Jr., was leaked and his reputation tarnished — even in spite of a lengthy, detailed statement explaining the delayed nature of the delivery which Laurenzi claimed was in line with MLB protocols.

Less than two years later, Braun was again linked to performance-enhancing drugs — this time for his involvement with the infamous Biogenesis clinic scandal in 2013. Braun eventually received a 65-game suspension — down from the original 100 the league reportedly sought — and did not appeal. He later apologized both privately and publicly to Laurenzi, stating that he “deeply” regretted his comments and his actions in light of the original positive test.

Braun’s production following his suspension notably remained strong — albeit not at its prior levels. Detractors will naturally point to the PED correlation, although Braun would hardly be the first high-level slugger to settle in as an above-average but no-longer-elite bat in his early to mid-30s. From 2014-20, Braun batted .276/.338/.492 and tacked on another 141 home runs to his career totals.

All told, Braun will be remembered fondly by many Brewer fans who were willing to move past the PED scandals but will of course be viewed in a different light by the majority of other fans. He spent 14 years in a Brewers uniform, batting .296/.358/.532 with 1963 hits, 352 home runs, 408 doubles, 49 triples, 216 stolen bases, 1080 runs scored and 1154 runs batted in. Baseball-Reference valued his career at 47.1 wins above replacement, while FanGraphs pegs him at 43.9 WAR.

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