Mark Buehrle reportedly retiring after today's game

[Red(s)HawksFan]

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/baseball-joe/blog/buehrle-s-going-out-on-top-sort-of-anyway-100415
 
Apparently, he's not expected to make the Jays' postseason rotation, so he's hanging it up after today's game.  He's also going to try to pitch two innings today in order to reach the 200 IP level for the 15th straight time in his career, which also happens to be the number of full seasons he's played in the majors.  Remarkable consistency and good health.

 

[grimshaw]

Kind of shocking that he wouldn't wait until after the post season if there are starting pitcher injuries.  Is he allowed to hang out on the bench at least?

 

[E5 Yaz]

Kind of shocking that he wouldn't wait until after the post season if there are starting pitcher injuries.  Is he allowed to hang out on the bench at least?

 
Probably. He's been fighting a bad back this season, apparently

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

And he's done after just two thirds of an inning and seven runs.  Sort of lends credence to why he is being excluded from the rotation.

 

[jon abbey]

All unearned, to be fair, they made a few errors behind him. 

 

[phrenile]

All unearned, to be fair, they made a few errors behind him.

To be fair, "I should already be out of this inning, so I'm just going to walk in another run and groove a 85 mph fastball to give up a grand slam" isn't consistent with good pitching either.

 

[jon abbey]

Wasn't he going on one day's rest? Didn't make much sense to begin with, 200 IP quest and all. 

 

[moondog80]

Kind of shocking that he wouldn't wait until after the post season if there are starting pitcher injuries.  Is he allowed to hang out on the bench at least?

 
 
Just announcing his retirement doesn't make it official, right?  I'm sure he could come back if some catastrophe happens in the playoffs.

 

[cannonball 1729]

Man, that performance reminded me of Tim Wakefield's attempt(s) to win his 200th game.

 

[BestGameEvah]

From sports net.ca:
 
Buehrle will be around for the excitement but he won’t be pitching in it, confirming that he isn’t going to be on the roster for the division series after grinding since August with shoulder soreness. He also dismissed a round of social media speculation that he will retire at season’s end – “Apparently I’m done and what a way to go out … nowadays we don’t have a decision, it’s what people tell us,” he said – but threw his support behind the Blue Jays’ decision to go with David Price, Marcus Stroman, Marco Estrada and R.A. Dickey with his typical grace and class.“They’re going to take it and run with it,” said Buehrle. “I’ll be ready if something happens. Hopefully it doesn’t. But if it does and they need me in the second round or in the World Series, I’m going to be ready to go out and do everything I can.“I’m disappointed, but they made the right decision. Those guys have been throwing the ball way better than I am so they deserve to be on it. I’m going to travel and cheer my rear end off and hopefully bring this thing back to Toronto.”
 
 http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/buehrle-to-start-for-blue-jays-in-sundays-regular-season-finale/

 

[dynomite]

Wait, so is he not retiring? He's only 36 and coming off a solid 3.81 ERA, 104 ERA+ season (and would have been better without that disaster yesterday). Unless the shoulder thing is permanent, doesn't seem like he needs to step back yet.

I remember years ago (maybe when Clemens did it?) Posnanski picked him as the only active modern major leaguer who could get to 300 wins.

He's 76 short right now, which is obviously a lot. Still, he seemed like the kind of guy who could win 10-12 games a season and start 30 games well into his 40s.

 

[Darnell's Son]

Iayork wrote about Buehrle on .com today:

 
But then R.A. Dickey cut back on his fastball use, Paul Byrd and Cla Meredith retired, Jamie Moyer retired to spend more time with his great-great-great-great-grandchildren and Buehrle got slower. Meanwhile, across baseball, fastball velocities are up, from an average of 91.3-mph in 2008, to 92.1 in 2015.  As the chart above shows, the fastest pitchers are throwing harder today, and the average pitchers are throwing harder. In 2008, it was common for pitchers to have a sub-90 mph fastball; by 2015, those were the exception.  

 

[BestGameEvah]

I don't see anywhere that a retirement is official.
 
From Buehrle:
 
“They’re going to take it and run with it,” said Buehrle. “I’ll be ready if something happens. Hopefully it doesn’t. But if it does and they need me in the second round or in the World Series, I’m going to be ready to go out and do everything I can.
 
I’m going home and talk to my wife Jamie and we’ll make our decision. It’s probably more my decision. She’s going to listen and give her opinions, but we’ll go home and talk and let you guys know in a couple of months.”

 

[E5 Yaz]

He's going to "listen to offers":
 
http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2015/story/_/id/13897566/toronto-blue-jays-left-hander-mark-buehrle-undecided-retirement

 

[BestGameEvah]

Have always admired Buehrle.  Loved this comment from article above about not making a big deal of retirement(38th rd pick):
"I snuck into this league, and I'm going to sneak out.".

 

[dynomite]

He's going to "listen to offers":
 
http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2015/story/_/id/13897566/toronto-blue-jays-left-hander-mark-buehrle-undecided-retirement

I have to imagine some team will give him a shot. As I said above, he was solid this year and won't be too expensive.

The Reds broke camp this season with Jason freaking Marquis in the rotation. I'm certain someone (Oakland?) will need a solid 4th starter next year.

 

[E5 Yaz]

He'd be a perfect, one year back end of the rotation pickup for someone like KC or Minnesota