San Francisco Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt is retiring following your season, not just a surprise move for your 14-year veteran while he turns his awareness of family and further involvement with several causes they have worked with for decades.
The left-hander announced Thursday this might be his last weekend of baseball as being the reigning World Series champions end the season without a playoff berth. Affeldt, 36, was the 2014 World Series Game 7 winner at Kansas City and it is completing a three-year, $18 million contract with his fantastic seventh season using the Giants.
While Affeldt had kept open thinking about pitching an additional year once this season began, he was quoted saying he would tune in to his three sons that can help him actually choose -- whenever they wanted him home, that will win out. Wife Larisa have been supportive of him continuing to pitch.
Affeldt also pitched for Kansas City, Colorado and Cincinnati. He has missed 34 games this year for two stints about the disabled list, which has a strained pitching shoulder plus a left knee injury. He twisted the knee during an Aug. 24 off day while having fun with his sons outside Spokane, Washington, where he spent my childhood years and still lives.
That only agreed to be one of several fluke injuries sustained in off-the-field mishaps through the lefty in recent times.
In April 2011, he sprained his right knee and went around the DL after contacting catch his then-4-year-old, 60-pound son if the boy jumped away from the couch to greet his father. On Sept. 8 that year, he sliced his non-throwing hand while separating frozen hamburgers after a barbecue regarding his family with an off-day. The paring knife he was using pushed via a hamburger patty and deep into his hand. Affeldt came inside a millimeter of your artery and underwent surgery about eight hours later to solve nerve damage within his pinkie.
"I got hurt within the field, which can be comforting for me," Affeldt later said of any more normal injury.
After going 1-2 that has a 2.70 ERA in 67 appearances over 63 1/3 innings through the 2012 season, Affeldt received his last contract. He has been part of any stable bullpen that is such a key for manager Bruce Bochy's club in winning three of the past five World Series titles.
The Giants are out from the postseason on this occasion in another odd-year miss following a title season.
The ex-military brat that's open about his deep faith released a novel in 2013, "To Stir a Movement: Life, Justice, and Major League Baseball." He acknowledged he overcame homophobia when he initially joined the Giants last year and often would seclude himself inside a hotel room.
In the publication, also, he acknowledged how he returned $500,000 on the Giants following a typo inside contract gave him an accidental bonus ahead of the 2010 season.
He began his book and life story in Thailand, where Affeldt -- about 10 during the time -- was grabbed by way of a man and pulled toward a building when he fought to find a way, just to have his dad get caught up and help him escape.
Affeldt has developed into strong supporter of efforts to prevent sex trafficking, and believes that is where he has been headed on that day. His father was stationed in Guam at that time, so that they traveled regularly in Asia.
Going into Thursday's series finale from the Dodgers, Affeldt experienced a 43-46 career record and 3.97 ERA in 772 appearances spanning 924 2/3 innings with 28 saves. He joins right-hander Tim Hudson heading into retirement, and both are going to be recognized during games Saturday and Sunday against Colorado.
