Retirement

Jered Weaver Announces Retirement

By Jeff Todd | August 16, 2017 at 12:06pm CDT

Padres right-hander Jered Weaver has announced his retirement through a team press release. The former Angels ace had an impressive 12-year career in the majors.

Weaver, 34, had been on the disabled list for much of the season with hip issues. In a statement, he explained that he has not been able to get back to health. “While I’ve been working hard to get back on the mound, my body just will not allow me to compete like I want to,” says Weaver.

“Many thanks to the Padres organization for the opportunity to play in the amazing city of San Diego. You have been very professional and respectful during this process and I really appreciate that. I would also like to thank my teammates for welcoming me in with open arms and for all the support throughout the season. I’m excited for the next chapter in life and making up for lost time with my family. Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years. It was a great ride!”

Undoubtedly, Weaver will be best remembered for his long run of success with the Halos from 2006 through 2016. He topped two thousand total innings with the organization, working to a 3.99 ERA there.

That overall record tends to understate just how good Weaver was in his prime. In particular, in a five-year span beginning in 2010, he spun over a thousand frames of 2.99 ERA ball with 7.6 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9. The first three of those campaigns included All-Star nods and top-five Cy Young finishes.

A former first-round draft pick out of Cal State, Weaver moved quickly through the Angels’ farm system. He played a significant role in driving several of the team’s postseason appearances. Over seven total appearances in the postseason, he threw 27 2/3 innings and compiled a 2.60 ERA.

More recently, Weaver dealt with health issues and a notable drop in velocity. Never a hard thrower, he sat below 85 mph with his fastball over the past three seasons but still managed to gut out 379 1/3 innings over 66 starts. The final nine of those came with San Diego.

The Friars had inked Weaver to a one-year, $3MM contract following the conclusion of the long-term extension that Weaver signed with Los Angeles six years ago this month. He never got going with his new organization, though, managing only a 7.44 ERA with 23 strikeouts in his 42 1/3 frames before hitting the DL.

That late fade doesn’t detract from a top-quality overall career. Weaver wraps things up with 34.8 rWAR and 30.3 fWAR on his ledger. He also notched a memorable no-hitter in 2012. MLBTR offers Weaver a tip of the cap and best wishes for his future endeavors.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jeremy Guthrie Announces Retirement

By Jeff Todd | July 31, 2017 at 11:32am CDT

Veteran righty Jeremy Guthrie has announced his retirement from the game in a piece for the Player’s Tribune. The 38-year-old will hang up his spikes after parts of 13 years in the majors.

It’s hardly surprising to learn that Guthrie will formally end his career, as he had indicated back in May that he would not be pursuing another contract. But the sturdy righty waited until the trade deadline to make it official. This marks the first time that Guthrie has featured so prominently on deadline day itself, though he was twice traded — first in the offseason and later just in advance of the 2012 deadline.

It was that second swap that brought Guthrie to the Royals, where he enjoyed his second lengthy run with a single organization. During parts of four seasons in Kansas City, Guthrie compiled 653 2/3 innings of 4.38 ERA ball. He did much the same during his prior five-year stint with the Orioles, over which he maintained a 4.12 ERA in 983 1/3 frames.

Shorter terms with the Indians (where he started), the Rockies, and most recently the Nationals weren’t as fruitful, but all told it was a successful career for the former first-rounder out of Stanford. Guthrie averaged better than 200 frames annually from 2008 through 2014 and compiled 20.4 RA9-WAR over his career.

Beyond his steady contributions on the field, Guthrie has always been a positive and engaging figure in the game, and no doubt will continue to be in his future ventures. We at MLBTR wish him nothing but the best moving forward — and preemptively pardon him for upstaging today’s deadline news with his announcement.

Nolan Reimold Retires

By Connor Byrne | May 28, 2017 at 4:24pm CDT

Former major league outfielder Nolan Reimold has retired, according to Michael Pfaff, the president of the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League (Twitter link). Reimold joined the Ducks last month and ultimately slashed .238/.359/.397 in 78 plate appearances with the club.

Before partaking in indy ball, the 33-year-old Reimold had stints with the Orioles, Blue Jays and Diamondbacks from 2009-16 and typically served as a respectable major league hitter. With the exception of 2014 – which he divided between Toronto and Arizona – Reimold spent each of his seasons with the Orioles, who selected him in Round 2 of the 2005 draft. Overall, the righty-swinger was a viable option against pitchers of either handedness during his big league days and ended up batting .246/.323/.422 in 1,556 trips to the plate. He logged his best year as a rookie, hitting .279/.365/.466 with career highs in home runs (15), stolen bases (eight) and PAs (411).

Jeff Francoeur Joins FOX Sports As Braves Analyst

By Steve Adams | May 12, 2017 at 1:48pm CDT

Veteran outfielder Jeff Francoeur has joined the FOX Sports South and FOX Sports Southeast broadcast teams and will begin serving as an analyst for Braves games, according to an announcement from FOX. Per the announcement, Francoeur has retired from his playing career. The shift in career paths brings Francoeur’s 12-year Major League career to a close.

Formerly the No. 23 overall pick by the Braves in the 2002 draft, Francoeur was touted as one of the game’s top 100 overall prospects for year before his debut in Atlanta. A brilliant rookie campaign in 2005 that saw Francoeur turn in a .300/.336/.549 batting line and club 14 homers in just 70 games led to a third-place finish in National League Rookie of the Year voting, and the right fielder looked poised for stardom at that point.

Francoeur belted 29 homers as a sophomore with Atlanta, but his overall production (specifically his on-base percentage) deteriorated. He hit a more pedestrian .260/.293/.449 in that followup to his rookie season, and while he rebounded a bit in his third big league season, he never fully returned to the form he displayed as a rookie.

Eventually traded to the Mets in exchange for fellow outfielder Ryan Church in 2009, Francoeur bounced around the league a bit before a resurgent campaign with the 2011 Royals in which he hit .285/.329/.476 and enjoyed the lone 20-20 season of his career. Unfortunately, he again failed to follow up on that production.

Ultimately, Francoeur would go on to settle in as a bench piece, often landing with rebuilding clubs. Nicknamed “Frenchy” and revered for his clubhouse presence, Francoeur was routinely signed and traded for due to his leadership and positive influence on young players. He drew interest from multiple clubs on minor league deals this offseason, including the Marlins and Braves, both of whom he suited up for just this past season. In the end, however, Francoeur remained unsigned and will apparently not further pursue any opportunities.

Still just 33 years of age, Francoeur will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to his new media career, to say nothing of an affable personality, an infectious smile and a natural charisma that few in the game can match. Those traits seemingly make him a natural fit for television work, though many have also wondered if he might eventually enter into a coaching capacity to continue the mentoring of young players at which he excelled later in his career.

Assuming he does not make any form of comeback attempt, Francoeur’s career will draw to a close with a .261/.303/.416 batting line. In 1481 Major League games, Francoeur hit 160 home runs, 281 doubles and 27 triples. He also scored 626 times, knocked in 698 runs (including back-to-back 100-RBI campaigns in 2006-07) and stole 54 bases. Also known for his strong arm in right field even as his range declined, Francoeur took home a Gold Glove Award for his defensive work back in 2007. Including his $2.2MM signing bonus out of the draft, Francoeur earned nearly $30MM as a player over the life of his career.

We at MLBTR wish Francoeur the best of luck in the next chapter of his career and in whatever baseball has in store for him in the years to come.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Brennan Boesch To Retire

By Jeff Todd | April 11, 2017 at 12:30pm CDT

We’ll track the day’s minor moves right here …

Outfielder Brennan Boesch is set to retire, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter). Boesch, who’ll turn 32 tomorrow, spent parts of six seasons in the majors, appearing with the Tigers, Yankees, Angels, and Reds. He last cracked the bigs in 2015, but saw the bulk of his action from 2010-12 with Detroit. At his best, in his sophomore campaign, Boesch slashed .283/.341/.458 with 16 home runs. The left-handed hitter spent last year with the Red Sox organization, missing much of the season due to a broken wrist and batting just .221/.266/.345 in 158 Triple-A plate appearances upon his return.

David DeJesus Retires

By Jeff Todd | March 22, 2017 at 12:50pm CDT

Veteran outfielder David DeJesus announced today on Twitter that he’s officially retiring from the game. He’ll join the CSN Chicago studio team for the upcoming season.

The news certainly doesn’t come as much of a surprise after the 37-year-old sat out the 2016 season. He ended his time in the majors with a brief and unsuccessful stint with the Angels, who declined a club option for his services last year under the contract the team inherited when it acquired him from the Rays.

DeJesus had inked that two-year deal with Tampa Bay after a separate series of late-season transactions — he was claimed by the Nationals and then by the Rays shortly thereafter — left him with the new organization late in the 2013 season. He ultimately provided the Rays with 647 plate appearances of .254/.333/.394 hitting in what was his final significant stop in the game.

By that point, of course, the left-handed-hitting DeJesus was mostly a platoon player who was utilized against right-handed pitching. Earlier in his career, though, he was deployed on a fairly regular basis.

From his debut season in 2003 through the 2010 campaign, DeJesus slashed a solid .289/.360/.427 with 61 home runs for the Royals, representing his lengthiest and most productive stint with a single organization. That was an excellent return on the up-front investment for Kansas City, which had drafted him in the fourth round of the 2000 draft.

After an injury shortened his 2010 campaign, DeJesus was dealt to the A’s, where he didn’t quite perform to expectations. Still, the Cubs’ then-new front office signed him to a two-year deal — the first signing that it made. Installed as the regular right fielder while also spending time in center, DeJesus turned in a sturdy overall effort (.258/.343/.403) over his 900 plate appearances in Chicago.

In the aggregate, DeJesus enjoyed a productive, 13-year run in the majors. He tallied 24.7 fWAR and 22.9 rWAR along the way, and will be remembered as a steady and solid all-around performer. MLBTR wishes him the best of luck in his new venture.

Caleb Cotham Retires

By Jeff Todd | March 9, 2017 at 8:01pm CDT

Reliever Caleb Cotham has decided to hang up his spikes, he announced on Twitter. Cotham, 29, had recently agreed to a minor-league deal with the Mariners.

Cotham isn’t being forced out of the game due to a catastrophic injury, though he has had his share of injury woes both recently and in the past. Instead, it seems, he’s not interested in continuing to endure the toll of the grind.

“For me it is time to explore how I can give back and offer value to the game of baseball in ways other than playing,” Cotham writes. “My love for the game has never been higher, I am just no longer willing to pay the emotional/physical price to rehab/play at the highest level.”

There’s no doubting the pressures and demands placed upon a player in Cotham’s situation. Over the past two years, he has bounced between the upper minors and the majors. While he was able to earn 35 MLB appearances, Cotham allowed 27 earned runs in that span and faced an uphill path to the Mariners’ active roster this year.

Cotham first cracked the bigs with the Yankees after a breakthrough 2015 season in which he threw 57 innings of 2.21 ERA ball with 9.6 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in the upper minors. He ended up being dealt to the Reds as part of the return for Aroldis Chapman.

While he made the Opening Day roster with Cincinnati, Cotham contributed to the team’s historically dreadful relief work. He was ultimately sidelined with shoulder inflammation and then suffered a season-ending knee injury upon his return to the minors. (That string of ailments surely brought back unwanted memories; originally a fifth-round pick out of Vanderbilt, Cotham threw only 31 innings from 2009 through 2011 owing to knee and shoulder surgery.) The Reds outrighted him off of their 40-man roster in late October.

White Sox To Retire Mark Buehrle’s Number

By Jeff Todd | February 23, 2017 at 10:42am CDT

The White Sox are set to retire Mark Buehrle’s #56 jersey this summer, the team announced. As Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago notes on Twitter, that would appear to suggest the the lefty himself is also hanging up his spikes for good — though there’s been no official word to that effect as of yet.

Last we heard, around this time last spring, Buehrle was still pondering his future. But he decided against pitching in 2016, and we’ve heard no indication since that he was planning a return. Today’s news seemingly confirms that the famously fast-working and incredibly durable southpaw is finished after 16 highly productive seasons in the majors.

Though he ended his career elsewhere, Buehrle spent his first dozen seasons in Chicago. He was a model of consistency there, providing 2,476 2/3 innings of 3.83 ERA ball while averaging 5.1 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9. Despite being taken only in the 38th round of the 1998 draft, Buehrle cracked the majors in 2000, his age-21 season, after just a season and a half in the minors.

Arguably his best season came in 2005 — the club’s World Championship campaign — when he came in fifth in the American League Cy Young voting upon compiling a 3.12 ERA over 236 2/3 frames. That represented the second-straight season in which he led the league in innings and the fourth in a row in which he retired the side at least 230 times. Buehrle had many fine moments in Chicago, among them a no-hitter in 2007 and one of just 23 perfect games ever pitched (on July 23, 2009, against the Rays).

Buehrle departed the White Sox after the 2011 season, joining the Marlins along with a crop of other free agents. After one solid year in Miami, he was dealt to the Blue Jays as part of the blockbuster trade that also shipped veterans Josh Johnson and Jose Reyes (among others) to Toronto. Buehrle was productive til the end, providing the Jays with 604 1/3 innings of 3.78 ERA ball in his final three campaigns.

Even in his age-36 season, which appears now to be his last, Buehrle managed 198 2/3 innings and led qualifying AL pitchers with a 1.5 BB/9 walk rate. That broke a string of 14 consecutive seasons in which the exceedingly durable hurler racked up at least 200 frames.

In the end, Buehrle racked up 51.9 fWAR and 59.2 rWAR over his career. By Fangraphs’ measure, only four other pitchers — Roy Halladay, CC Sabathia, Randy Johnson, and Roy Oswalt — were as productive over Buehrle’s active seasons, over which he paced all of baseball in total innings. In that span, he received five All-Star nods and picked up four Gold Gloves, while never failing to make at least thirty starts in each of his full MLB seasons.

Assuming this is in fact the end, MLBTR congratulates Buehrle on his excellent career and extends its best wishes to him in his future endeavors.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Nick Swisher Retires

By Jeff Todd | February 17, 2017 at 5:02pm CDT

Long-time MLB outfielder Nick Swisher has announced his retirement in a post at the Player’s Tribune. The 36-year-old will join FOX Sports as a studio analyst — in addition to spending time at home with his kids, he writes.

Swisher, one of the game’s most jubilant personalities, was a first-round pick by the Athletics out of Ohio State. The switch hitter made it up to the majors in his third professional season, and went on to play in a dozen MLB campaigns.

Over his four years in Moneyball-era Oakland, Swisher provided the team with nearly 2,000 plate appearances of .251/.361/.464 hitting. Renowned for his plate discipline, he took 260 walks against 404 strikeouts in that span.

Despite signing an extension with the A’s, Swisher was dealt to the White Sox early in 2008. The deal sent Gio Gonzalez and others back to the Oakland. But Swisher fell shy of expectations in Chicago, and was flipped at season’s end to the Yankees.

In New York, Swisher thrived once again. He compiled 2,501 plate appearances there, slashing a robust .268/.367/.483 and swatting 105 home runs over four campaigns. Swisher was a model of consistency with the Yanks, taking over 600 plate appearances in every season and posting OPS+ marks between 120 and 129.

After declining a qualifying offer following the 2012 season, Swisher hit the open market for the first time entering his age-32 season. He ultimately landed a four-year, $56MM pact with the Indians. While the first year went reasonably well — Swisher hit .246/.341/.423 in 634 trips to the plate — that represented the end of his productivity in the majors.

Swisher endured an injury-plagued 2014 season that ended with double knee surgery. He made it back the following year, but was ultimately dealt to the Braves along with Michael Bourn in a salary-swapping deal that sent Chris Johnson to Cleveland. While he showed a bit of life late in 2015 with Atlanta — he hit just .195 and didn’t hit for power, but drew 27 walks and posted a .349 OBP — Swisher was cut loose late in camp in 2016 and never made it back to the bigs after inking a minor-league pact with the Yankees.

While he was never much of a defender or baserunner, Swisher managed to contribute 25.4 fWAR and 21.7 rWAR over his career. At his best, between 2006 and 2013, he was a steady 3-to-4 win player. Swisher’s sole All-Star berth came in 2010.

MLBTR wishes Swisher a pleasant retirement and the best of luck with his new gig.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Randy Choate Retires

By Steve Adams | February 16, 2017 at 11:33am CDT

Veteran left-hander Randy Choate, who spent part of the 2016 season in the minor league ranks with the Dodgers and last appeared in the Majors in 2015, tells WFAN’s Sweeny Murti that he has decided to retire. Choate didn’t receive any solid offers to continue playing in 2017, Murti writes, and the 41-year-old southpaw simply said that he “figured it was kind of time to move on.”

Originally a fifth-round draft pick by the Yankees back in 1997, Choate epitomized the “LOOGY” (left-handed one out guy) role and embraced his role as a specialist, he tells Murti: “In the seventh inning with two outs and men on first and second or bases loaded, and you’ve got to get out David Ortiz? Those are crucial moments, and there’s very little room for a mistake.”

Because of his specialized role, Choate never boasted a significant workload in terms of innings pitched. His career-high was 50 2/3 frames in a single season, though he did twice top 80 appearances in a season. Choate led the American League with 85 appearances in 2010 and led the National League with 80 appearances two years later, though in a testament to the limited nature of his role he logged just 44 2/3 innings and 38 2/3 innings, respectively, in those two campaigns.

That said, the Florida State product was unequivocally one of the best when it came to retiring same-handed opponents. In his career, Choate faced 1036 left-handed opponents and held them to a putrid .195/.276/.274 batting line with just 10 homers.

Overall, Choate’s career will come to a close with a 16-14 record, a 3.90 ERA, 112 holds and a 348-to-175 K/BB ratio in 408 regular-season innings. He earned more than $13MM during his career, per Baseball-Reference.com. And beyond his regular-season work, Choate was fortunate enough to have pitched in the postseason on five occasions in his career. He was a member of the 2000 Yankees that won a World Series Championship. He reminisces fondly about the time spent playing alongside icons Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera in his interview: “…when you get down to the end, you just realize how great the beginning was.”

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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