Veteran right-hander Chad Bettis is retiring from baseball, Nick Groke of The Athletic tweets. The 31-year-old Bettis was on a minor league contract with the Yankees, who signed him in February.
“Today I am walking away from the game with my head held high, knowing that I pushed my body as far as it could go physically,” Bettis told Groke.
Bettis entered pro baseball as a 2010 second-round pick of the Rockies, with whom he topped out as Baseball America’s 86th-ranked prospect in 2012. He made his major league debut with Colorado a year later and went on to enjoy multiple solid seasons with the club, despite having to call hitter-friendly Coors Field home. Bettis peaked from 2015-16, a 301-inning stretch in which he recorded a 4.57 ERA/4.11 FIP with 7.06 K/9, 3.02 BB/9, a 50.5 percent groundball rate and 4.5 fWAR.
Unfortunately, Bettis’ effectiveness declined after those two seasons, thanks in part to serious health problems. Bettis underwent surgery for testicular cancer before the 2017 campaign, though he did make his return to the majors later that year and appear with the Rockies in each of the two ensuing seasons. But a hip impingement slowed Bettis last season, after which the Rockies outrighted him.
Bettis’ career, all of which was spent with the Rockies, concludes with 600 2/3 innings of 5.12 ERA/4.59 FIP ball. MLBTR wishes him the best in retirement.
Hate to see him go, but I know he worked hard to get where he was. Have a good retirement, Bettis
If he had pitched for a team that had more of a pitcher friendly park he would have been better, because his stats of away and home outside of a few years
Very impressed with how classy his approach is to a very difficult situation in his life. We’re proud of and thankful for your career Bettis.
I was at the game when he returned. Wow. So emotional. It was awesome.
bettis was an inspiration and I wish him the best in his retirement
Definition of hard work and determination. I always respected him for that
who?
You know, there’s an article up there that might be able to help answer that, funny man
Troll is a moron.
Do you think he’s a troll?
be nice, arnold
Why would someone want to make such a comment? Is it to show how little knowledgeable or how much lacking respect someone is? Or is this to point out that all the information written before simply could not be processed? Or does it even imply that this someone would have more than just a fringy MLB career, however unlikely that may be?
As you see, I don’t get why someone would write such a poor comment. I might be lucky not to know, though…
Gruß,
BSHH
checkout the username. best not to feed them
Yey all of you did lol
i have an alter-ego, but i like troll better. can’t be called a troll without it being true.
Respect to the man. Achieved plenty on the field, and plenty of it. Here’s hoping he continues a clean bill of health for a long time.
Perhaps we’ll see him again in the coaching ranks. A very knowledgeable (and tough) guy who, as he said, got all he could out of his body. Wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.
Good career. Great competitor! Has overcome a lot in life! Best of luck in retirement Chad Bettis!
God love him. If he ever gets the itch to go to Driveline or somewhere and make a comeback, I’m rooting for him. He knew (knows) a lot about pitching, he could pop up in Seattle or somewhere as a pitching coach and fix guys.
I suspect he’ll return to the game in some capacity post-COVID. Young, smart, and didn’t make a ton of money baseball wise.
Took balls for him to be able to make that decision to retire!
I guess all bettis are off.
no hanging chad’s either
Good he was able to hang around long enough the last 2 years to make a nice living out of the game. 31 more wins than I’ll ever have.
Was curious to see how Bettis did once he escaped Coors full time. He seemed up to the challenge earlier this year so maybe it’s a wise precaution related to the virus and the health issues he’s had and he’ll reconsider down the line. Just 31.