Tim Dillard Announces Retirement
After an 18-year professional career, right-hander Tim Dillard announced today that he’s retiring from baseball. For some MLBTR readers, Dillard may not be a familiar name at all. Others — particularly Brewers fans — may know him well for his lengthy minor league run and parts of four big league seasons in Milwaukee. Others may recall Dillard for his contributions to MLB Trade Rumors over the years.
Dillard began doing some writing for MLBTR back in 2017, beginning with thoughts from early Spring Training that year and continuing, on occasion, through the 2018-19 offseason when he attended the Winter Meetings as a minor league free agent in search of an opportunity. The structure of his entries and his voice within them were uniquely Tim, and we were happy to host his writing over the years as he shared experiences, anecdotes and the more-than-occasional inanity from the road. You can check out his full archive here.
Tim was a 34th-round draft pick by the Brewers back in 2002 and by 2008 had reached the Major Leagues for his first taste of The Show. He’d go on to spend parts of four seasons with the Brewers, including a 2012 campaign in which he tossed a career-high 37 innings with a 4.38 ERA. From 2011-12, the sidearmer was an oft-used and solid piece of the Milwaukee bullpen. He spent another 13 seasons in the Triple-A ranks, including a 2019 run with the Rangers organization, played parts of three seasons on the independent circuit — two with the Atlantic League’s Lancaster Barnstormers and one (2020) with the American Association’s Milwaukee Milkmen — and turned in an all-time great lip sync performance at the 2017 Univision Awards.
Tim — congrats on spending nearly two decades in pro ball, and thanks for all the fun here at MLBTR over the years! Best wishes!
Kelvin Herrera Announces Retirement
Two-time All-Star and 2015 World Series champion Kelvin Herrera announced today, via Twitter, that he is retiring after spending parts of 10 seasons in the Major Leagues.
“I want to thank everyone who has been a part of my career, starting with the Kansas City Royals organization who believed in this kid from Tenares, Dominican Republic and gave him a chance to do something meaningful with his life,” Herrera wrote in his announcement. “From ownership, to the Front Office, the staff, my teammates and last but not least, the fans, I owe you guys everything.”
Herrera goes on to thank both the Nationals and White Sox organizations for welcoming him as well. For the time being, Herrera says he plans to focus on his family and the next chapter of his life.
It’ll no doubt surprise some readers to see that Herrera is still just 31 years old. He’s been around the Majors for a decade due to the Royals calling on him for his Major League debut at just 21 years of age.
Herrera pitched in just two games late in that 2011 season, but the right-hander was an immediate success in 2012 — his first full season at the MLB level. In 84 1/3 innings, he worked to a pristine 2.35 ERA with 19 holds, three saves and a heater that averaged a blistering 98.5 mph. In a normal year, that overwhelming success would’ve no doubt garnered Rookie of the Year consideration, but 2012 happened to also be the rookie season for Mike Trout, Yoenis Cespedes and Yu Darvish, who commanded nearly every top-three vote on the ballot that year.
Even without any Rookie of the Year love, Herrera had established himself as a dominant late-inning arm in short order, and that’s the exact role he’d over the next half decade as a steady presence at the back of some elite Kansas City bullpens. From 2012-16, Herrera pitched 354 1/3 regular-season innings with the Royals and notched a collective 2.57 ERA with 106 holds and 17 saves.
The bullpen was in many ways the backbone of the Royals’ back-to-back World Series runs in 2014-15, and Herrera joined teammates Wade Davis, Greg Holland and (in 2015) Ryan Madson in forming a juggernaut late-inning group that gave opposing lineups absolute fits. Each of Herrera, Davis and Holland posted ERAs south of 1.50 and appeared in at least 65 games during the 2014 season. Herrera was as untouchable during the postseason as he was in the regular season, combining for 28 2/3 innings of 1.26 ERA ball in his playoff career.
With the Royals out of contention during Herrera’s final year of club control in 2018, they made the decision to trade him to the Nationals for a package of young players including Kelvin Gutierrez, Blake Perkins and Yohanse Morel. Herrera was injured for part of his time with the Nats, going down with a Lisfranc tear in his foot, but he gave them 18 1/3 innings of 4.34 ERA ball before reaching free agency and signing a two-year pact with the White Sox. Things didn’t pan out in Chicago, as Herrera was tagged for 39 runs in just 53 2/3 innings across his two seasons there.
Herrera’s peak was brief but absolutely dominant, and he’ll go down in Royals lore as an absolutely vital member of a bullpen that fueled a baseball renaissance in Kansas City and brought home the club’s first title in three decades. He’ll hang up the spikes with a career 3.21 ERA, 119 holds, 61 saves and 510 strikeouts in 513 2/3 innings of regular-season work — plus the aforementioned sterling postseason track record. Best wishes to Herrera and his family in whatever the future holds.
Brian Dozier Announces Retirement
Former All-Star second baseman Brian Dozier announced on Thursday that he’s retiring after a nine-year career in the Majors and at the age of 33.
An eighth-round pick by the Twins back in 2009, Dozier was never considered a premium prospect even within his own organization, topping out as Baseball America’s No. 10 Twins prospect heading into the 2012 season. That didn’t stop the University of Southern Mississippi product from not only making it to the big leagues but to cementing himself as one of the club’s better players of the past decade.
After an inauspicious debut in 2012, Dozier claimed the everyday second base job at Target Field in 2013 and steadily improved his output at the plate over the next several years. In a brief but excellent peak from 2013-17, Dozier was one of the game’s best all-around second basemen, hitting at a .252/.333/.465 clip with 145 home runs, 81 stolen bases and solid defense. Along the way, he won a Gold Glove, made an All-Star team and took home MVP votes in three different seasons. Dozier was worth about 22 wins above replacement in that five-year stretch according to both the Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs versions of the metric.
Unfortunately for both the Twins and for Dozier, he sustained a knee injury early in the 2018 campaign that severely hampered him at the plate. He was traded to the Dodgers that summer and struggled badly down the stretch — hardly the platform any player would want for his first trip to free agency.
Dozier landed a one-year, $9MM deal with the Nationals that winter and served as the club’s primary second baseman for most of the year. In many ways, Dozier enjoyed a rebound campaign, posting a .238/.340/.430 output with 20 homers and 20 doubles alike. His playing time faded late in the year, however, as hot-hitting trade acquisition Asdrubal Cabrera saw more and more of the playing time at second base. Dozier kept his spot on the Nationals’ postseason roster and was hailed as a vital presence in the clubhouse, but he tallied just seven plate appearances during the club’s World Series run.
Dozier signed a minor league deal with the Padres prior to the 2020 season before requesting his release and turning up for a brief seven-game stint with the Mets. That proved to be the final act of Dozier’s career.
All in all, Dozier will head into retirement as a career .244/.325/.441 hitter with 192 home runs, 231 doubles, 21 triples, 105 steals, 664 runs scored and 581 runs driven in. He made an All-Star team, won a Gold Glove, and in his final full season took home a World Series ring for his role in the Nationals’ improbable Cinderella run. Dozier cleared $30MM in salary during a career that Baseball-Reference pegged at 22.7 WAR and FanGraphs valued at 23.7 WAR. Best wishes to Dozier on the next chapter.
Tim Tebow Retires From Baseball
Mets minor league outfielder Tim Tebow has retired from baseball, the team announced.
“It has been a pleasure to have Tim in our organization as he’s been a consummate professional during his four years with the Mets,” team president Sandy Alderson said. “By reaching the Triple-A level in 2019, he far exceeded expectations when he first entered the system in 2016 and he should be very proud of his accomplishments.”
The 33-year-old Tebow is better known for his time in football than baseball, as the former quarterback starred at the University of Florida from 2006-09, during which he won a Heisman Trophy and helped guide the Gators to a pair of national championships. Tebow moved on to the NFL when the Denver Broncos used the 25th overall pick on him in 2010, and though he led the team to a memorable playoff win in January 2011, he didn’t establish himself as the solution for them under center. Tebow also couldn’t do that in short stints with the New York Jets, New England Patriots or Philadelphia Eagles during the next few seasons.
Determined to continue as a professional athlete, Tebow signed with the Mets in the fall of 2016. To Tebow’s credit, he reached the Triple-A level with the organization in 2019. However, he struggled to a .163/.240/.255 line with four home runs in 264 plate appearances there. Tebow ultimately put up a .223/.299/.338 line with 18 HRs in 1,048 trips to the plate in the minors.
Cody Allen Retires
Right-handed reliever Cody Allen received interest from teams earlier this offseason, but he has decided to retire, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.
Allen, who turned 32 in November, is best known for what was largely an excellent run with the Indians. The club selected him in the 23rd round of the 2011 draft, and he debuted just a year later. From then through 2017, Allen notched a 2.67 ERA with a 31.5 percent strikeout rate and a 9.5 percent walk rate in 373 2/3 innings. Allen averaged about 95 mph on his fastball during that span, amassed 67 or more innings in five seasons, and saved 122 of his 140 chances – good for a tremendous 87-plus percent success rate.
While Allen was a gem in Cleveland for the majority of his career, his production started to drop off in his last season with the team in 2018, though he did save another 27 games that year. The Angels then signed Allen to an $8.5MM guarantee heading into 2019, but the union didn’t work out for either side. Allen tossed 23 innings with the club and recorded a 6.26 ERA with a career-worst 17.2 percent walk rate and a personal-low 92.3 mph fastball velocity. The Angels released Allen in June of that season, and he didn’t pitch again after that despite signing minor league contracts with the Rangers and Cubs last winter.
Allen’s time in the bigs concluded with a 3.14 ERA and 153 saves in 463 2/3 innings. MLBTR congratulates Allen on a solid career and wishes him the best in retirement.
Jared Hughes Announces Retirement
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.
Josh Phegley Announces Retirement
Backstop Josh Phegley announced today that he is hanging up his spikes. He appeared in each of the prior eight MLB campaigns.
Phegley, who’ll celebrate his 33rd birthday later this month, opened and closed his career in Chicago but spent most of his time with the Athletics. He finishes with 1,203 plate appearances of .225/.268/.381 hitting and 35 home runs.
A first-round draft pick out of Indiana, Phegley debuted with the White Sox in 2013. He had yet to fully establish himself in the majors when he was shipped to Oakland as part of a memorable swap.
Phegley launched his career with the A’s with a strong showing in 2015, when he slashed .249/.300/.449 in 73 games of action. Unfortunately, that proved to be a high-water mark. Phegley served as a reserve until 2019, when he appeared in a personal-high 106 contests and posted a .239/.282/.411 batting line with a career-best dozen long balls.
In his first trip onto the open market, Phegley settled for a minor-league deal with the Cubs. He cracked the Opening Day roster but only saw limited action. Phegley will bow out of the game now rather than battling for another opportunity. MLBTR wishes him the best in his future endeavors.
Dustin Pedroia Announces Retirement
Red Sox second baseman and former American League MVP Dustin Pedroia announced his retirement from baseball Monday. The 37-year-old was still under contract for the 2021 season but had managed to play in just nine games over the past three seasons due to a string of devastating knee injuries that required multiple surgeries. Notably, Sean McAdam of the Boston Sports Journal tweets that Pedroia will still be paid his $12MM salary in the upcoming season, and his $13.3MM average annual value will count against the luxury tax for the Red Sox.
“Dustin is so much more than his American League Most Valuable Player award, his All-Star Game selections, and the Gold Gloves he amassed throughout his impressive 17-year career in our organization,” Red Sox owner John Henry said in a press release announcing the move. “Dustin came to represent the kind of grit, passion, and competitive drive that resonates with baseball fans everywhere and especially with Red Sox fans. He played the game he loves in service to our club, its principles and in pursuit of championships. Most of all we are forever grateful to him for what he brought to our club and to our region as an important role model showing all of us how much one can accomplish with determination and hard work.”
Pedroia was a second-round pick out of Arizona State during the same 2004 season in which the Red Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino with their first World Series win in 86 years. They couldn’t have known it at the time, but that ’04 draft would play an integral part in further distancing themselves from said “curse,” as Pedroia was a key cog in the engine of two more World Series-winning rosters.
Barely two years after being signed, Pedroia made his big league debut in August 2006. His initial 31-game cup of coffee produced middling results, but Pedroia quickly put a lackluster debut behind him when he batted .317/.380/.442 en route to a runaway win in AL Rookie of the Year voting. Pedroia had a slow start in the postseason that year, but he picked up steam in the ALCS and played key roles in the postseason’s final two rounds.
Pedroia one-upped that marvelous rookie season just a year later when he was named American League MVP. In just his second fill big league season, Pedroia posted an excellent .326/.376/.493 slash with 17 home runs, an MLB-leading 54 doubles and 20 stolen bases. Pedroia also led the Majors with 213 hits that season, and his 118 runs scored paced the American League. He also took home the first of four career Gold Gloves and made the first of four All-Star Games during that brilliant season.
From 2007-17, Pedroia was quite simply one of the best all-around players in Major League Baseball. During that time, he put together a composite .302/.368/.442 slash with 138 home runs and steals apiece, all while playing high-quality defense for a near-perennial contender. He hit .301/.372/.415 with the Red Sox in 2013, again playing a huge role as the club secured a third World Series win in a span of 10 years.
Unfortunately for Pedroia, the Red Sox and their fans, he was hampered by left knee troubles throughout his 2017 season, and after three trips to the injured list eventually underwent a cartilage restoration procedure. He returned in 2018 after missing the start of the season, but troubles in his surgically repaired knee shelved him again after just three games. Pedroia didn’t play again in 2018, and he was limited to six games the following year due to continued setbacks. He underwent a “joint preservation” operation on that knee and did not appear at all the following year in 2020.
Pedroia revealed in a Zoom conference call with reporters today that he underwent a partial knee replacement in December and isn’t currently able to run, though he is at least walking pain-free for the first time in awhile (Twitter links via The Athletic’s Chad Jennings and the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier). Pedroia said he did “everything possible” to try to get back to the field, but the latest procedure finally made it a physical impossibility.
“I’m glad none of you guys got a chance to see me (last year),” said Pedroia. “I wasn’t in a good place. I grinded every day just to be able to play with my kids and live a normal life.”
The series of knee injuries is a disheartening way to see one of the current generation’s best talents wrap up a career. At one point, Pedroia looked to be marching toward Cooperstown. Because of his incredible peak, the individual hardware and his World Series rings, he’ll still have some supporters when he finds himself on the ballot, though he’ll be a more borderline case than most would’ve expected even a few years ago. His case will likely be an oft-debated one, but for a solid decade there’s little arguing that Pedroia was among the game’s elite.
All told, his career will draw to a close with a .299/.365/.439 batting line, 140 home runs, 394 doubles, 15 triples, 138 stolen bases, 1805 hits, 922 runs scored and 725 runs batted in. In addition to his Rookie of the Year and MVP honors, Pedroia made four All-Star teams, won four Gold Gloves and took home a Silver Slugger Award. Baseball-Reference credits him with 51.6 wins above replacement, while FanGraphs values him at 46.6 WAR. Pedroia earned more than $127MM in career earnings and stands alongside David Ortiz as a defining player in this generation of the Red Sox. Though the two couldn’t be more different in physical stature, both will go down as veritable titans in Red Sox lore. Best wishes to Pedroia in retirement.
Daniel Murphy Retires
Three-time All-Star and 2015 National League Championship Series MVP Daniel Murphy is retiring from baseball after a 12-year Major League career, he tells SNY’s Andy Martino.
“This is a beautiful game, and I really just feel humbled and blessed that it let me jump on the ride for a little bit,” Murphy tells Martino. “It’s beautiful. It can teach you about so many things. And all I can say is, thank you.” Mets fans, in particular, will want to read Martino’s interview for dozens of quotes, stories and reflections on his time in New York, as well as additional thoughts from teammate and captain David Wright.
A 13th-round pick by the Mets back in 2006, Murphy made his MLB debut just two years later at the age of 23. He solidified a spot on the Mets’ roster with a strong showing in both 2008 and 2009, but a knee sprain late in Spring Training 2010 and a subsequent torn MCL suffered on a Triple-A rehab stint later that year wiped out his entire 2010 campaign.
Murphy returned to the field in 2011 and had his best year yet, hitting .320/.362/.448 in 423 trips to the plate. His offense over the next few years took a step back, but he settled in as an above-average contributor capable of seeing time at multiple positions. Late in the 2015 season, however, as the Mets were driving toward the postseason, Murphy took his game to new heights. He slugged 10 home runs after the All-Star break while hitting .285/.318/.500 through 280 trips to the plate, but he saved the best for a legendary postseason run that brought the Mets to the brink of a championship.
Thirty years old at the time, Murphy was a man on fire that October. He appeared in all 14 of the Mets’ games and posted a combined .328/.391/.724 batting line, belting seven home runs and a pair of doubles while scoring 13 runs and knocking in 11. Incredibly, Murphy homered in six consecutive playoff games during that Herculean performance — including a go-ahead, sixth inning shot of Zack Greinke in the decisive Game 5 of the NLDS and one in all four games of the Mets’ NLCS sweep of the Cubs. Wright tells Martino that Murphy’s 2015 postseason was “one of the most impressive things I ever witnessed on a baseball field.”
Murphy parlayed that brilliant postseason effort into a three-year deal with the Nationals, and while the club didn’t win its World Series until after he’d departed, that was through no fault of Murphy’s. He had his best season in 2016, his first year with the Nats, hitting .347/.390/.595 en route to a second-place finish in National League MVP voting. He hit .329/.380/.550 in his two and a half seasons with the Nats before being traded to the Cubs (and continuing to rake) — more than justifying the $37.5MM price of his contract.
From there, Murphy would sign a two-year deal to serve as the Rockies’ primary first baseman, but injuries took their toll during his time in Colorado. Murphy suffered a significant fracture in his finger after just two games, and though he was expected to miss at least a month at the time, he returned to the lineup just shy of four weeks later. Murphy swung a hot bat early on, but it seemed clear that the hand was bothering him; his hard-hit rate and exit velocities dropped precipitously that year, and his power wasn’t close to its peak levels despite playing his home games at Coors Field. Murphy posted a .279/.328/.452 line on the whole that year, and he followed it up with a .236/.275/.333 showing in 40 games in 2020’s shortened schedule.
All told, Murphy is a three-time All-Star, NLCS MVP and two-time Silver Slugger with a second-place MVP finish on his resume. He played in a dozen MLB seasons, hitting a combined .296/.341/.455 with 1,572 hits, 178 home runs, 371 doubles, 29 triples, 68 stolen bases, 710 runs scored and 735 runs driven in. Murphy tacked on eight more home runs and an OPS just shy of 1.000 in 25 postseason games split between the Mets, the Nats and the Cubs.
Danny Hultzen Retires, Joins Cubs’ Front Office
Former major league left-hander Danny Hultzen has retired from playing, but he’ll remain in the game as a member of the Cubs’ front office, Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post reports. Hultzen will work as a pitching development assistant under Cubs assistant general manager/vice president of pitching Craig Breslow.
The Mariners selected Hultzen second overall out of the University of Virginia in the 2011 draft, choosing him instead of such current stars as Trevor Bauer, Anthony Rendon, Francisco Lindor, Javier Baez and George Springer, but the pick proved to be a mistake in hindsight. While Hultzen did rank among the game’s top prospects in the ensuing couple years after his draft, shoulder injuries and the surgeries that accompanied them dogged him as a professional player. He missed most of 2013 and all of 2014, barely pitched from 2015-16 and then took 2017 off to complete his degree.
Hultzen returned to the pros in ’18 on a minor league contract with the Cubs, finally making his MLB debut in September 2019 with 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Although the Cubs then re-signed him to a non-guaranteed pact, Hultzen didn’t get back to the mound during a 2020 season devoid of minor league baseball. Now, though, the 31-year-old will have a chance to impact the organization in a different role.