Michael Cuddyer Explains Retirement

Michael Cuddyer took to The Players Tribune to explain his surprising decision to retire from baseball. You can read the entire article here, but here are the reasons he is walking away.

I’ve made the decision to retire. With one year left on my contract, it is especially difficult to imagine not suiting up in a Mets uniform for one more year. As an athlete, retiring is the toughest decision you have to make and I don’t make it lightly. I’ve always run out every hit like it was my last. As an untested high school kid drafted with a dream, I’ve never taken a single moment in the Majors for granted. It goes against every grain in my body to consider a future without the game. But after 15 years, the toll on my body has finally caught up to me…

Over the last four years, I was on the disabled list six times. I missed 150-200 games over that time span — a broken shoulder, a strained oblique, a torn-up knee, a bulging disc in my neck. I pushed through it. Mentally, I was able to overcome it for a long time, but the physical and emotional taxation took its toll. Part of being a professional is to know yourself and to know your limits. Chasing the ideal of professionalism became a theme throughout my career…

I played baseball the way I did because I knew one day it would be over. Today’s that day.

I hope you know that physically, mentally and emotionally, I gave you everything I had.

Michael Cuddyer deserves credit for not hanging around to collect his cash. That is what many players have done, but Cuddyer apparently has more pride than to go out and embarrass himself on the field.

Speaking of cash, there is no word on whether the Mets are buying out the rest of his contract. My guess is the Mets will write a check for $2 million. Here’s why — Cuddyer signed a two-year, $21 million contract. It was backloaded, paying him $8.5 in the first year. Giving him $2 million would even out the deal, which seems fair.

It means the Mets have $10 million extra to spend on the 2016 squad. It will be interesting to see what they do with it.