Veteran reliever Rafael Betancourt has officially retired, Venezuelan blogger Gerardo Boscan tweets. With his MLB career behind him, Betancourt will consider the possibility of becoming a coach.
At last check, Betancourt had been open to pitching in 2016, but only if he received a guaranteed spot in the big leagues. It perhaps isn’t surprising that he evidently didn’t receive one — the 40-year-old Betancourt was one of the oldest players in the Majors in 2015, and he struggled, posting a 6.18 ERA, albeit with 9.2 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9, in 39 1/3 innings with the Rockies after missing the 2014 season due to elbow trouble.
Overall, though, Betancourt had a strong career with the Indians and Rockies despite pitching a significant percentage of his innings as a fly-ball pitcher in Coors Field — he finishes with a 3.36 ERA, 9.5 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 685 2/3 innings spanning 12 seasons. He also has 75 career saves, having served as the Rockies’ closer in parts of three seasons from 2011 through 2013. Via Baseball Reference, Betancourt made north of $24MM in his big-league career.
Wishing Rafael Betancourt a happy retirement. Consistent reliever for the Indians during the Wedge era. Career year in 2007 was a big part of the Indians playoff run that season.
He had a 3.34 FIP and a 6.18 ERA. His career FIP was 3.05 so it looks like the Rockies bad defenders behind him last season are what ended his career, that’s a shame.
The gappers off the wall that were hit frequently last year would disagree with your assessment. Low FIP does not necessarily equal bad defense, which the Rockies do not have anyway. They have a very good/great team defense, but sometimes they just hit them where they fall in, which they did a lot in 2015. Raffy did not pitch well last year at all, but he pitched beyond great before his TJ surgery. He is the living proof that you have to bean extreme ground ball pitcher to be successful at Coors Field.
* do NOT have to be an extreme GB pitcher
Anyone else remember he was initially signed to be a shortstop.
The 2 Rafaels made quite the duo out of the pen.
Cordero?
No, Perez.
The human rain delay
Saw the rule about pitch clocks and decided he couldn’t deal with that….
Haha, good luck in retirement
I loved Raffy as a Rockie, but does anyone else remember that he was one of the very first PED suspensions? Even before Raffy Palmeiro, Betancourt was hit while in the minors back when the penalty was only 10 days. He vigorously denied taking anything and never had any other problems in his career, so maybe he actually was falsely implicated. I don’t really care either way to be honest because I think the PED thing is overblown anyway, but I thought it was a fun fact.
About the time Juan Rincon got suspended IIRC.