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Andrew Romine Announces Retirement

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Andrew Romine has announced his retirement from baseball with a post on Instagram.

Romine was a fifth round pick out of Arizona State University by the Angels back in 2007.  The 34-year-old infielder played 11 years in the Majors, appearing in 609 big league games for the Angels, Tigers, Mariners, Rangers, and Cubs. His most prolific period came in Detroit, where he was a regular from 2014 to 2017.

Romine wasn’t exactly a thunderbolt at the plate, but he was a capable defender and a plus on the base paths. Defensively, Romine can claim the rare distinction of having literally done it all. He appeared in at least one game at all nine defensive positions, though he was primarily an infielder. He took the mound eight times, and for one third of an inning back in 2017, he even suited up behind the plate for the Tigers.

This past season, Andrew appeared in 26 games, slashing .183/.234/.267 in 64 plate appearances with the Cubs. Never known as a slugger, Romine put his stamp on the season back on August 6th, hitting a 3-run, game-tying home run off Craig Kimbrel in the bottom of the ninth inning. Though the Cubs ultimately lost that game, it was just Kimbrel’s third appearance on the south side and the beginning of a difficult half season with the White Sox. It was just Romine’s 11th career home run across a total 1,391 career plate appearances.

For Romine, the blast was a thrilling moment in an eventful final season in the bigs. Romine got to play alongside his younger brother, Austin Romine, in Chicago. The brothers played alongside one another for the first time in their professional lives.

The MLBTR staff would like to extend a heartfelt congratulations to Andrew for a successful pro career and wish him the best of luck in whatever comes next.

Ben Rowen Retires, Accepts Front Office Position With Angels

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Former big league reliever Ben Rowen has retired from playing, he tells Sam Blum of the Athletic. Last month, the 33-year-old accepted an advance scouting position with the Angels, the club with which he played in 2021.

Rowen appeared in parts of three MLB seasons, scattered over a seven-year span. His most extensive big league action came this past season, when he worked 11 1/3 innings over eight appearances with Anaheim before being designated for assignment in early May. After passing through outright waivers, the submariner pitched the rest of the season with Triple-A Salt Lake. He posted a 6.82 ERA across 30 1/3 innings with the Bees and elected minor league free agency at the end of the season.

Rather than pursuing another minor league deal, Rowen determined it best to begin his post-playing days. He tells Blum his new role functions as a sort of hybrid coaching/front office position. While he’s reporting to front office personnel, he’s expected to work closely with pitching coach Matt Wise and bullpen coach Dom Chiti in developing plans of attack for Angels’ hurlers based on their strengths and the weaknesses of opposing hitters.

Rowen, a former 22nd-round draft pick out of Virginia Tech, ultimately pitched professionally for twelve years. He split his MLB time between the Rangers, Brewers and Angels, tossing 23 innings of 6.26 ERA ball with 17 strikeouts and six walks. MLBTR wishes Rowen all the best in his post-playing endeavors.

Tim Federowicz Retires

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Former big league catcher Tim Federowicz announced this evening that he’s retiring (on Twitter) after a 14-year professional career. That included parts of eight seasons in the big leagues, as the right-handed hitting backstop logged MLB action each season from 2011-19 aside from 2015.

Federowicz functioned as a second or third catcher for essentially the entirety of his big league tenure. His 173 plate appearances with the 2013 Dodgers marked a career-high, the only season in which he tallied at least 100 trips to the dish. Yet Federowicz consistently hung around as a priority depth option for clubs. That’s a testament both to his well-regarded work with pitching staffs and an impressive .293/.364/.483 line over parts of ten seasons in Triple-A.

Over the course of his career, Federowicz appeared with the Dodgers, Cubs, Giants, Astros, Reds and Rangers. He steps away as a .192/.241/.328 hitter in 443 plate appearances spread over 163 big league games. He hit twelve home runs and threw out a solid 30.7% of attempted base-stealers. In addition to his time in affiliated ball, Federowicz earned a Silver Medal as part of the U.S. National Team at this past summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

The 34-year-old is set to jump right into the next phase of his career, as Federowicz announced he’ll take over as manager of the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma in 2022. MLBTR wishes Federowicz the best in his post-playing days.

Christian Colon Retires

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Former major league infielder Christian Colon is set to retire from baseball, MLBTR has learned. He will hang up his spikes after playing in the big leagues for three different teams across six seasons.  Colon hopes to continue his life in baseball as a coach and one day manage in the big leagues.

Colon was selected by the Padres in the 10th round of the 2007 draft, out of Canyon High School in Anaheim, California. Just 18 years old at the time, Colon instead opted to attend California State University, Fullerton. Three years later, in the 2010 draft, the Kansas City Royals selected Colon in the first round, fourth overall.

The Royals were deep in the midst of a rebuild at the time, with 2010 marking their seventh consecutive losing season, in what would eventually be a nine-year streak. Those poor big league results allowed the team to have a series of high draft picks, which they used to launch a return to competition. Alex Gordon, Luke Hochevar, Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, Mike Montgomery and Colon were all first-round selections of the Royals between 2005 and 2010. All of that group except for Montgomery eventually formed the core of the Royals club that made the World Series in consecutive years, losing to the Giants in 2014 and defeating the Mets in 2015. (Montgomery contributed indirectly, as he was part of the trade with the Rays that sent James Shields and Wade Davis to Kansas City.)

Colon climbed the ranks of the Royals’ farm system, eventually making his debut in 2014. He got into 21 games that year, hitting .333/.375/.489 over 49 plate appearances. He only got a couple of plate appearances in that 2014 postseason run for the Royals, both of which came in the Wild Card Game against the Athletics. He entered as a pinch-hitter in the tenth, laying down a successful sacrifice bunt. He stayed in the game and, after Oakland took the lead in the top of the 12th, Colon hit a game-tying single in the bottom of the inning. Moments later, Colon would score the game-winning run on Salvador Perez’s walk-off hit.

In 2015, Colon got 119 plate appearances over 43 games, hitting .290/.356/.336. As the Royals reached the fifth game of the World Series with a 3-1 series lead, Colon hadn’t had a plate appearance in four weeks. As the game stretched into extras, the Royals called on Colon to pinch-hit for the pitcher’s spot in the top of the 12th. With Jarrod Dyson on second base, Colon lined a single into left, giving the Royals a 3-2 lead. They would eventually pour it on and win the game 7-2, and capturing their first World Series title since 1985.

Colon would go on to play for the Marlins and Reds in the Majors, spending most of 2021 at Triple-A for the Blue Jays.  In total, Colon played 161 games over his six seasons and hit .254/.315/.378. He played an important role in building the Kansas City team that eventually won the World Series, and can look back fondly on his postseason heroics. MLBTR congratulates Colon on a fine career and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors.

Wade Davis Announces Retirement

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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).

Wade Davis

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

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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

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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.

Brett Cecil

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

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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

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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.

Buster Posey verticalInstead, 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

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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.

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