SATURDAY: Balfour tells Topkin (Twitter link) that he is not considering retirement at this time. The veteran righty says he still wants to try to return to the big leagues, and “is considering a few options.”
THURSDAY: Right-hander Grant Balfour is leaning toward retiring after opting out of his minor league contract with the Rays, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
The 37-year-old Balfour struggled with the 2014 Rays after having almost latched on with the Orioles on a two-year deal earlier that offseason. Medical concerns caused that deal to fall through, and Balfour eventually returned to the Rays on a different two-year deal later in the winter. However, his velocity was noticeably lower than in recent years, and his BB/9 rate spiked north of 5.0, resulting in a 4.91 ERA over 62 1/3 innings of work. He eventually lost the closer’s role to Jake McGee and appeared poised to pitch in a setup capacity in 2015 as he hoped to rebound.
Instead, Balfour struggled through 4 1/3 innings after missing much of Spring Training to return to his native Australia to be with his ailing father. Upon returning, he surrendered three runs in 4 1/3 innings and was ultimately designated for assignment and released before signing a new minor league deal with Tampa.
Topkin notes that Balfour had relatively encouraging bottom-line results with Triple-A Durham, allowing just three runs in 9 2/3 innings. However, he also allowed nine hits and four walks with velocity that again sat in the 90-91 mph range — a significant departure from the 93.4 mph he averaged as recently as 2013. Rays manager Kevin Cash said that Balfour was “Similar to what he was [in the Majors],” when asked by Topkin. “No regression, but I don’t think he totally felt like he had got back what he was looking for,” Cash continued.
If Balfour’s career is coming to a close, he’ll finish with a 30-23 record, 84 saves and a 3.49 ERA in 539 2/3 innings. The hard-throwing righty averaged 9.5 strikeouts and 4.2 walks per nine innings over a 12-year big league career split between the Twins, Rays, Athletics and Brewers.
Poor guy. I respect him so much and hope that everything works out for him
Looks like Orioles were right to back out of that deal. Good luck to Grant going forward.
I Agree ,Baltimore must have known something thru the grapevine!
What do some O’s types like to self-congratulate about stuff like this?
I don’t think of it as self-congratulating as much as wondering out loud about Os policy? Specifically, I wonder if Os officials have certain things they look for in medicals that raise red flags? In other cases, other industry sources seem to think of the Os as overly cautious around medicals. In this case on the surface it seems to have gone tHeir way.
No shame in hanging it up if his heart’s not with it anymore/he’s not performing at the level he wants to. Either way, he’s got plenty to be proud of, he put up some awesome seasons and brought an interesting character to the table.
I thought he was awesome for the A’s
The fans loved him when he came onto the field for Balfour Rage.
It was good stuff.
I’m sure he would still be an improvement to the A’s bullpen right now
Probably because the media slammed the Orioles for backing out of the deal. They weren’t the ones who revealed why they backed out, they just backed out. It was Balfour, his agent and the Rays team doctor who said it was due to medical concerns. The Orioles were made to look like a circus act, when, in all actuality, they were doing what was best for the team. Balfour called Dan Duquette on the phone and berated him. You don’t like to see a guy hang it up like this, but with the way the media portrayed the O’s in this case, I do feel a sort of vindication as an Orioles fan.
Too bad. He was one time quietly one of the best relievers in the game.
He had some good seasons, though not that impressive a career if those numbers are accurate. But what can you expect from a pitcher named Ballfour?
I’ll show myself out.
Interesting follow up. I don’t know how eager teams will be to give a major league deal, but he should certainly field some level of interest, there’s plenty of teams in need of relief help that could be willing to give him a look.
bring him back Billy!