We’ve seen many stories in the last few days where players stated when they planned on retiring. Let’s review.
- Gary Sheffield will be done after his upcoming two-year deal. That’ll take him through the 2009 season and age 40. Sheff believes his shoulder will hold up that long, but I’m skeptical.
- Here’s an option we didn’t discuss: Moises Alou. He says he’ll retire if the Mets don’t pick up his $7.5MM option for ’08. Playoff heroics could encourage them to do so; Alou can still mash when he’s out there. 2008 will be Alou’s age 41 season.
- Rudy Seanez has had a good year for the Dodgers and wants to play in ’08 as a 39 year-old. He’ll stick with the West Coast, probably the Dodgers or Padres again.
- Reggie Sanders could be Seanez’s teammate next year. If he plays, it’ll have to be for a winning West Coast team. The Kansas City Star also mentions that the Royals were set to receive Melky Cabrera for Sanders last year before Sanders got hurt. Is that true? Wow.
- As we’ve written, Omar Vizquel wants to come back to the Giants next year.
- Cliff Floyd’s a 34 year-old in a 40 year-old’s body. He’ll probably retire if and when the Cubs win the World Series this year. In the unlikely event the Cubs don’t win it all, they’d be Floyd’s first choice for ’08. Otherwise he might consider a guaranteed deal to play in the AL (DH would make sense). Family concerns might cause him to retire regardless though.
- Mike Piazza wants to return for his age 39 season. No hard feelings if the A’s don’t want him back. The NL is up for consideration if he’s physically able to play catcher.
- We covered the Tom Glavine options here.
- We’ve also talked about Andy Pettitte’s plan: Yankees or retirement in ’08.