Retirement

Scott Atchison Retires, Joins Indians’ Staff

By Jeff Todd | January 14, 2016 at 1:35pm CDT

Veteran righty Scott Atchison has joined the Indians organization in a non-playing role, the team announced today. As MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian explains, Atchison took the gig after deciding to put an end to his playing career.

Atchison only worked in parts of three big league seasons before his age-34 season, but earned new opportunities after a nice run with Japan’s Hanshin Tigers. He ultimately racked up another 278 2/3 innings of 3.52 ERA ball in the bigs from 2010 onward, with a 3.55 SIERA to support the results.

There were some sterling campaigns mixed in along the way. In 2012, he worked to a 1.58 ERA in a 51 1/3-inning effort for the Red Sox. And in his strong 2014 season with the Indians, Atchison logged a 2.75 earned run average in 72 frames.

Never a big strikeout pitcher, Atchison nevertheless limited the free passes (especially in his second run through the majors) and generated a lot of grounders. For his career, he averaged 6.6 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 to go with a 49.7% groundball rate. In addition to his time in Cleveland and Boston, Atchison appeared in the majors with the Mariners, Giants, and Mets.

According to Bastian, Atchison will function in a variety of roles as a “Major League advance coach and staff assistant.” He is expected to assist in advanced scouting as well as to work with the club’s pitching coach (Mickey Callaway) and bullpen coach (Jason Bere).

MLBTR congratulates Atchison on his productive career and wishes him the best of luck in his new position.

Freddy Sanchez Officially Retires

By Zachary Links | December 22, 2015 at 5:51pm CDT

Former National League batting champion Freddy Sanchez officially retired from baseball on Monday, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com writes. Sanchez has been out of the game for a while but he was considering a comeback in recent years. Today’s news is probably more of a formality than anything; Sanchez’s name, after all, has not popped up on this site since February of 2013.

“I’m so thankful for what baseball [has] given me,” Sanchez told Crasnick through his agents. “I appreciate the opportunity the Red Sox, Pirates, and Giants gave me.”

Sanchez last played in 2011 with the Giants and played a little bit in their minor league system in 2012. Unfortunately, however, injuries to his shoulder and back ultimately led him to hang ’em up. Now, Sanchez has decided to retire for good and move on to other pursuits.

Sanchez, 38, made three All-Star teams over the course of his career. His crowning personal achievement came in 2006 with the Pirates when he hit .344 and narrowly edged out Marlins slugger Miguel Cabrera for the NL batting crown. In 2010, Sanchez captured a World Series ring with the Giants. In parts of 10 big league seasons, Sanchez slashed .297/.335/.413. According to Baseball-Reference, Sanchez earned upwards of $32MM over the course of his career.

Jeff Francis Retires

By Steve Adams | December 15, 2015 at 4:36pm CDT

Veteran lefty Jeff Francis will retire after parts of 11 seasons in the Major Leagues, he tells MLB.com’s Thomas Harding.

Selected ninth overall by the Rockies in the 2002 draft, Francis, now 34 years old, would make his Major League debut just over two years later in 2004. While the 4.77 ERA that Francis logged in his first stint with the Rockies (882 2/3 inning from 2004-10) doesn’t necessarily look impressive, that translated to league-average production (100 ERA+) when adjusted for the fact that Francis’ home games in that time came at Coors Field and in a much greater offensive environment than that of today’s game.

Francis tossed 183 innings for the Royals in 2011 before returning to the Rockies in 2012-13 and ultimately splitting the 2014-15 campaigns between the Reds, Yankees, Athletics and Blue Jays. Though he played for several clubs over the course of his career, Colorado holds a special place in his heart, Francis explains to Harding. He spoke particularly highly of the 2007 Rockies that rode an incredible streak — 21 wins in 22 games — to a Game 163 tiebreaker, an NLDS victory and a National League Championship.

“It was special to be able to be a champion,” said Francis. “I know we didn’t win it all, but that was a team that came together, even though I don’t know what was expected of us. We did special things in dramatic fashion. We felt unstoppable. It was almost as if the drama was too much to think about. Looking back, I’m sure there was a lot of pressure, but I don’t think we felt it. We just rode a wave and took it as far as we could.”

Francis will bring his career to a close with a 72-82 record, a 4.97 ERA, 869 strikeouts and 384 walks in 1291 innings. All told, Francis took home more than $20MM between his yearly salaries and hefty $1.85MM signing bonus out of the draft. MLBTR extends its best wishes to Francis in his post-playing days.

Michael Cuddyer To Retire

By Jeff Todd | December 11, 2015 at 8:24pm CDT

Mets outfielder Michael Cuddyer has decided to retire, Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com reports on Twitter. Needless to say, that’s a major surprise, particularly as Cuddyer stands to earn $12.5MM this year in the second and final season of his contract.

It has not yet been reported whether Cuddyer, 36, will receive any portion of his 2016 salary, though Rubin adds on Twitter that some kind of buyout seems likely. Cuddyer turned down a qualifying offer (then valued at $15.3MM) to sign with the Mets for two years and $21MM.

Cuddyer joined New York after two consecutive seasons of huge offensive numbers with the Rockies. Even after adjusting for altitude, Cuddyer was impressive at the plate, running up a 139 OPS+ over 2013-14. But awful defensive metrics and injury issues — combined with advanced age — limited his appeal.

That all caught up to Cuddyer in 2015, as he managed only a .259/.309/.391 slash line in 408 plate appearances. With his poor glovework counted in the tally, Cuddyer contributed at or just slightly above replacement level last year.

A tough season at the end of the line doesn’t detract from an outstanding career, of course. Over parts of 15 seasons in the majors, all but four of which came with the Twins, Cuddyer put up an excellent .277/.344/.461 batting line and swatted 197 home runs. He earned All-Star nods in 2011 and 2013.

While it would be unfair to lose focus on Cuddyer’s own accomplishments, it’s hard not to consider the impact of this news on the defending NL pennant winners. There was plenty of reason to believe that Cuddyer would have been a useful contributor in 2016, but his hefty salary stood to represent more than 10% of New York’s 2015 Opening Day payroll.

It remains to be seen how much spending capacity the Mets will have to reallocate, but there will surely be some added funds to disburse. And with Michael Conforto joining Curtis Granderson as the presumptive starters in the corners, those dollars won’t necessarily need to go directly to a replacement. Instead, after having already beefed up the team’s infield ranks, the Mets can either up their allocation to a new center fielder (with Juan Lagares becoming an oft-used fourth outfielder) or put the dollars toward another bench bat or reliever.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Retirement Notes: Jason Lane, Armando Galarraga

By Mark Polishuk | December 8, 2015 at 7:59am CDT

MLBTR congratulates Jason Lane and Armando Galarraga in retirement and wishes them the best in their post-baseball careers. Here’s the news on these prominent former big leaguers who are hanging up their gloves…

The Brewers announced that Lane will join their Major League coaching staff next season, officially ending a rather remarkable 17-year pro career. Lane, 38, was a former Baseball America top-100 prospect who spent his first six MLB seasons as an outfielder with the Astros, including a big 26-homer season for Houston’s 2005 NL championship team. Lane fell out of the bigs after the 2007 season, however, and after a few years in the minors and independent leagues, pitching became his unlikely path back to the majors. His comeback culminated in one final cup of coffee in MLB as Lane appeared in three games for the Padres in 2014, posting an impressive 0.87 ERA and striking out six batters in 10 1/3 innings.
Galarraga tells George Sipple of the Detroit Free Press that he’s retiring at age 33 due to arm injuries. He is attending the Winter Meetings with the hope of landing a position as a minor league pitching coach, and Newsday’s Marc Carig reports that Galarraga has interviewed from the Mets about a job. Galarraga posted a 4.78 ERA over 542 innings with four clubs from 2007-2012, though he’ll always be remembered for his “imperfect game” on June 2, 2010 as a member of the Tigers. Umpire Jim Joyce’s infamous blown call on what should’ve been Galarraga’s final out of a perfect game has often been cited as one of the key influences behind MLB’s implementation of the expanded replay system used today.

Mike Hessman Retires

By charliewilmoth | November 28, 2015 at 3:04pm CDT

Corner infielder Mike Hessman has announced his retirement, J.J. Cooper of Baseball America notes. Hessman initially tweeted that he was retiring to become a coach, although that tweet has since been deleted.

Hessman’s retirement is a move that is minor by definition but more noteworthy than that term suggests — among fans of minor league baseball, Hessman’s career will be remembered as legendary. No minor league slugger, in fact, has been more prolific — this season, the 37-year-old Hessman topped Buzz Arlett’s all-time record with his 433rd career minor league homer.

The Braves selected Hessman in the 15th all the way back in 1996 — a draft in which they also took Jason Marquis, Mark DeRosa and Marcus Giles, which gives a sense of just how long Hessman was in the minors. He reached Triple-A six years later and made his big-league debut in 2003.

Hessman ultimately played parts of five big-league seasons with the Braves, Tigers and Mets, although he never collected even 100 plate appearances in a single year. Instead, he bounced from one organization to the next, hitting one home run after another for various Triple-A teams and playing in over 2,000 minor league games. The team with which he’ll be most strongly connected is the Toledo Mud Hens, for whom he played from 2005-2009 and 2014-2015. Hessman hit 23 or more homers in his first six seasons in Toledo before finishing with 16 last season. Overall, he hit 20 or more minor-league homers 13 times in his career. He also helped the US baseball team to a bronze medal in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and in 2009 he attracted attention by playing all nine positions in a single game for the Mud Hens.

David Ortiz To Retire After 2016 Season

By Jeff Todd | November 18, 2015 at 10:22am CDT

TODAY: Ortiz announced via Twitter that he’ll call it quits after the coming year. “Life is based on different chapters,” said Ortiz, “and I think I am ready to experience the next one in my life.”

YESTERDAY: Red Sox slugger David Ortiz plans to retire at the end of the 2016 campaign, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports on Twitter. That’s not exactly shocking news, as Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe notes on Twitter that Ortiz hinted at just that possibility over the course of the 2015 season.

Boston owes Ortiz $16MM for the coming season after he maxed out his vesting option escalators, but that’s a small price to pay for his recent levels of production. His deal includes another vesting/club option with a floating value for the 2017 season, but it appears that it won’t have any practical importance.

Ortiz turns 40 tomorrow, but has shown no signs of slowing at the plate. Despite his advanced age, he slashed an outstanding .273/.360/.553 last season and swatted 37 home runs in his 614 plate appearances. The Dominican native also became the most recent MLB player to enter the 500 home run club.

The coming season will be the twentieth in which Ortiz has seen action at the major league level. He spent six seasons with the Twins, putting up solid offensive numbers, but was released by the organization after a 2002 that was his best in Minnesota.

His career took off once he signed with the Red Sox. Ortiz began putting up huge numbers as soon as he came to Fenway, reeling off a five-year run over which he carried a .302/.402/.612 batting line and landed in the top 5 in AL MVP voting after every one of those seasons (though he never won the award).

It seemed like Ortiz was beginning his decline phase thereafter, as his average, OBP, and slugging percentage all dropped to the lowest levels of his Red Sox career in 2009. That proved, instead, to be little more than a blip, as his 149 OPS+ over the six seasons since amply attests.

There’s no question that Ortiz will go down as an important member of the Red Sox pantheon. He was, of course, a key member of the organization’s 2004, 2007, and 2013 championship clubs. If anything, he’s been even better in the post-season — especially the World Series, where he owns an unfathomable .455/.576/.795 batting line over 59 total plate appearances.

Really, the only debate at this point is whether Ortiz deserves a place in the Hall of Fame. If you focus only on his offensive numbers, that is rather an easy sell. But there are other considerations that complicate things. From an on-field perspective, Ortiz has almost exclusively been a DH, which obviously limits his overall value. And doubt remains about his involvement with performance-enhancing drugs, as he was reportedly among the players who tested positive for a later-banned substance back in 2003.

There’s plenty of time to debate Ortiz’s legacy and case for Cooperstown over the years to come. For now, we’ll look forward to one last season of admiring that swing, with its high, one-handed finish, and the towering drives that result.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Aramis Ramirez Announces Retirement From MLB

By Steve Adams | November 5, 2015 at 12:42pm CDT

Veteran third baseman Aramis Ramirez has formally announced his retirement from baseball today, as was expected (Ramirez announced prior to the season that this year would be his final in the Majors). Ramirez told Dominican media outlet Grandes en los Deportes (Twitter links 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7 all in Spanish) that his career will come to an end beginning in Spring Training, but he’s going to try to remain in good enough shape to take one more tour through the Dominican Winter League with los Tigres del Licey.

Ramirez also said that his plan is to remain involved in baseball, but he’s not sure entirely in which capacity. He doesn’t see himself as a coach or manager but is open to the idea of doing some front office work, specifically referencing the role Moises Alou recently occupied with the Padres, serving as a special assistant to the team’s player development staff. It’s also unclear as to when Ramirez would have his sights set on that type of work, as one of the key reasons he cited behind his decision to retire was a desire to spend more time with his family after an 18-year Major League career.

The 37-year-old Ramirez signed as an amateur free agent with the Pirates back in 1994 at the age of 16 and quickly earned a reputation as one of the top prospects in the game. Baseball America rated him as the No. 5 prospect in all of the minors prior to the 1998 season when he debuted with the Buccos as a 20-year-old. It took three years of back-and-forth trips between the Majors and minors for Ramirez to break out, but he did so in a huge way in 2001 when he hit .300/.350/.536 with 34 home runs as the Pirates’ everyday third baseman.

From that point forth, Ramirez was a regular player in the Majors. Though he struggled quite a bitin the 2002 season that followed, he rebounded to some extent in 2003 and found himself traded, alongside Kenny Lofton, to the division-rival Cubs, where he would spend nine years of his Major League career. Ramirez was a two-time All-Star with the Cubs and received MVP votes in four of his nine seasons with Chicago. His overall batting line of .294/.356/.531 and average of 27 homers per season with the Cubs set the stage for a free-agent deal with the Brewers that would carry on through this past summer, when Milwaukee traded him back to where it all began — Pittsburgh — in exchange for minor league righty Yhonathan Barrios.

All told, Ramirez will retire from the Major Leagues as a .283/.341/.492 hitter with 386 home runs, 495 doubles, 1098 runs scored and 1417 RBIs. While he was never a great defender at third base, he managed to play the position through his final season and enjoyed some nice years there, often outperforming his reputation as a sub-par defensive player. Fangraphs values Ramirez’s career at 38.3 wins above replacement, while Baseball-Reference has him at 32.1 WAR. Ramirez’s significant power and ability to handle the hot corner adequately earned him just shy of $148MM over the life of a very strong career that spanned parts of 18 years in the Majors and saw him accumulate 16 years, 111 days of Major League service time.

Whatever is next for Ramirez in his post-playing days, we at MLBTR wish happiness for both him and his family.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Torii Hunter To Retire

By Jeff Todd | October 26, 2015 at 6:53pm CDT

Twins outfielder Torii Hunter has decided to retire, he tells LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star-Tribune. The 40-year-old played in parts of 19 years with three organizations.

“I’m sad because it’s all I’ve known for half of my life,” Hunter said. “This great game of baseball has done so much for me. I have learned a lot of lessons. … I still love the game, but time has taken a toll on me mentally and physically.”

Hunter ended things where he began by returning to Minnesota for the 2015 season. He broke in with the Twins back in 1997, earned regular playing time as a reserve in 1999, and locked down an everyday job with the club in 2001.

From that 2001 season through the end of 2007, Hunter put up over 4,000 plate appearances of .272/.326/.484 hitting with 178 home runs. Then serving as a center fielder, he received the Gold Glove award in every single one (and for two more years thereafter).

The winter of 2007 seemed to spell the end of Hunter’s tenure in Minnesota. He departed via free agency to join the Angels, who promised him $90MM over five years. Hunter continued to thrive, posting a .286/.352/.462 cumulative batting line in nearly 3,000 trips to the plate over the life of that contract.

Having transitioned to right field in the back half of his tenure with the Halos, Hunter caught on to take over there for the Tigers. He was a strong contributor to two good teams in his two years in Detroit.

While other organizations came calling before 2015, Hunter decided on a return to a Twins club that wasn’t expected to do much. But it proved more than a farewell tour, as the club surpassed expectations (and underlying performance barometers) with an 83-79 record.

Believers in the power of clubhouse chemistry would surely attribute some of the Twins’ success last year to the presence of the fiery Hunter, who is respected highly in that regard. He didn’t have a great season — to the contrary, he played at or below replacement level — but was still expected to be courted for a return, albeit in a reduced role.

Minnesota has plenty of options to proceed without the veteran, whose departure could open the way for some of the organization’s young talent. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explained in his offseason outlook for the team, there are some options on hand that figure to step in.

As a forty-to-fifty win player who was more consistently excellent than great, Hunter seems unlikely to land in the Hall of Fame, though he surely deserves a spot in the proverbial “hall of very good.” He has come under fire for homophobic comments made in recent years, an area that tarnished his reputation to many, though Hunter is widely lauded as one of the game’s good guys. All told, Hunter enjoyed a memorable career as one of the better players of his generation.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Barry Zito Announces Retirement

By Steve Adams | October 19, 2015 at 12:41pm CDT

Left-hander Barry Zito officially announced his retirement from baseball today in an honest, insightful column for the Players Tribune. The 37-year-old spent his entire 15-year Major League career in the Bay Area, suiting up only for the Athletics and Giants.

Zito debuted with Oakland as a 22-year-old in 2000 just barely one year after being selected ninth overall in the 1999 draft. His rookie season yielded 92 2/3 innings of a 2.72 ERA and a sixth-place finish in the American League Rookie of the Year voting. Over the next several seasons, Zito would use his signature curveball to establish himself as one of Oakland’s “Big Three” alongside fellow hurlers Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder — a formidable trio that kept Oakland in contention throughout much of the early 2000s. Zito took home AL Cy Young honors in 2002 with an excellent season that saw him post a 23-5 record to go along with a 2.75 ERA, 7.1 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 229 1/3 innings of work. An absolute workhorse for the A’s throughout his tenure there, Zito started 34 or 35 games each year from 2001-06 and averaged 223 innings per regular season in that time.

Following the 2006 season, Zito signed what was, at the time, one of the largest contracts in baseball history — a seven-year, $126MM contract with the Giants. As he explains in the column announcing today’s decision, that move came with plenty of mixed emotions. Zito described his baseball career as being “full of euphoric highs and devastating lows,” and many of the lows came in a 2008 season that saw him post a 5.15 ERA in 180 innings while leading the NL with 17 losses. Writes Zito:

The year 2008 was the toughest of my life so far. I was being told by strangers in public places just how terrible I was — my own fans in San Francisco yelling obscenities to my face while I was in the dugout. I even found myself ringing my mother at times because I was literally losing my mind and needed five minutes of solace with someone who understood me. But that year taught me something: If there was still a reason to smile at certain points throughout those painful days, and if everything I thought had defined me as a person was crumbling down and yet I was still standing, then maybe what I thought defined me truly did not. I came to realize that I was defining myself through my achievements on the field and through the opinions of other people. In reality, that was just the surface of who I really was.

Zito’s tenure with the Giants was certainly less productive than his time with the A’s, but he still contributed to World Series Championships in both 2010 and 2012. While it wasn’t as the front-of-the-rotation type of arm he was early on in his career, Zito still delivered a 4.15 ERA in each season, logging 199 1/3 innings in 2010 and 184 2/3 innings in 2012. He also turned in a dominant effort with the Giants trailing the Cardinals 3-1 in the 2012 NLCS and, after San Francisco rallied back to take the series from St. Louis, he started Game 1 of the World Series. Zito took home a victory after 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball, which helped set the tone for a decisive sweep of the American League champion Tigers.

Zito returned to baseball — signing a minor league deal with Oakland — in 2015 after taking a year off in 2014. Though he spent the majority of the season pitching with Triple-A Nashville, Zito received a late-September call-up where he was given the opportunity to make the start against the Giants and his former teammate and “Big Three” member Hudson. (Hudson has also stated his intention to retire following the season.) The excellent gesture from a pair of non-contending clubs made for an emotional scene, with Mulder appearing as well. All three received a thunderous ovation from the Bay Area faithful — a fitting tribute to a group of players that made an unforgettable impact on baseball in that region.

All told, Zito will retire with a 165-143 record, a 4.04 ERA and 1885 strikeouts in 2576 2/3 innings at the Major League level. Baseball-Reference and Fangraphs value his career at 33.5 and 30.5 wins above replacement, respectively, and he earned more than $137MM in his playing career.

As he explained further in his column, Zito is “very excited to be a ’rookie’ all over again” in the field of songwriting, and he looks forward to a seeing where his music career will take him. We at MLBTR congratulate Barry on an excellent, memorable career and wish him the best of luck in his new career path and in his post-playing days.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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