San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Jeremy Affeldt is set to announce his retirement from baseball Thursday after a 14-year career in the major leagues.
Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area noted the Giants confirmed the decision. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle states there’s an 11:15 a.m. PT (2:15 p.m. ET) press conference scheduled to make it official.
Affeldt, 36, played for the Kansas City Royals, the Colorado Rockies, the Cincinnati Reds and, most recently, the Giants throughout his career. He worked almost exclusively out of the bullpen with 730 of his 772 appearances coming in relief.
His regular-season numbers won’t jump off of the page. He’s gone 43-46 with a 3.97 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP while striking out 719 batters in 924.2 innings. He also didn’t spend much time in the lauded closer role, with only 28 career saves.
Instead, Affeldt made his name in the playoffs. He made 33 postseason appearances, 26 of which came since joining the Giants. He owns a microscopic 0.86 ERA in those games while helping push San Francisco to a trio of World Series titles.
He struggled throughout the 2015 campaign, posting a 6.09 ERA in 50 games. With the Giants falling short of the playoffs, he’s decided to announce his intentions now with just a couple of games left in the regular season.
While it’s often difficult for a middle reliever to stand out from the crowd, Affeldt has definitely left his mark on the Giants organization. That postseason success will be his lasting baseball legacy.
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