Trevor Hoffman retired from baseball today, Tuesday.
Hoffman, 43, told MLB.com he plans to move into a front-office role with the Padres, the team whose uniform he wore for the majority of his 18-year career. He finishes his career with 601 saves, 42 more than Mariano Rivera’s current total.
An official announcement is set for Wednesday in San Diego.
“It’s time to retire. It’s time to move on,” Hoffman said. “This is more of a self-evaluation. I expect to pitch at a certain level and I had to be honest with myself that I wasn’t certain I could maintain that anymore.”
Kudos to Trevor for realizing his best days were behind him. He earned enough saves in 2010 to push him over the 600 barrier, the first closer to do so. Hoffman also set a major league career record with 856 games finished. Trevor did everything well as a pitcher. He struck out a ton of batters, walked very few, and pretty much kept the ball in the park. Opponents hit just .211 against him for his career, with a measly .267 OBP.
Interestingly, the team he absolutely owned was the Padres, his home team for the bulk of his career. When facing his mates, he allowed just one hit in 27 at bats, a solo home run, while walking two and striking out 11.
Mariano Rivera is just 42 saves away from tying Hoffman’s career record. With a good season, Mo could catch him in 2011.
Gonna take Mo 2 years. Yankees rotation is not looking good for 2011, aside from CC.
The knights of the keyboard had better get busy–they’ve got only five years to make evidence-free accusations of PED use to screw up what would otherwise be a first ballot induction for Mr. Hoffman.
Not sure why you assume this was a “real” retirement. I think your comments about Benson apply at least as much to Hoffman. As you wrote, “In other words, no team wants him. Very few players get to retire. Almost all of them are retired by a lack of interest among the potential employers.” I can’t imagine there was any team that was willing to use up a roster spot on a clearly washed up Trevor Hoffman.