Relief pitcher Steve Cishek is retiring. “It’s time,” Cishek tells Rich Maclone of The Bourne Enterprise. “It’s gotten harder for me to bounce back game-to-game. The ball wasn’t coming out as crisp as before, and it felt like I had to pitch differently. I know I’ll get the bug and want to get back out there, but I don’t think I’m pulling a Tom Brady.”
Cishek was drafted by the Marlins in 2007 and eventually made his major league debut with them in 2010. He only got to pitch 4 1/3 innings that year but got a more substantial showing in the following season. He made 45 appearances in 2008, tossing 54 2/3 frames with a 2.63 ERA, 24% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 56.8% ground ball rate.
Cishek worked his way up to high-leverage spots, recording three saves and a couple of holds in that 2008 campaign. He followed that up with 15 saves in 2009 and then got 34 and 39 in the two following years. Giving hitters fits with his sidearm delivery, Cishek was able to both get strikeouts and ground ball at above-average rates, a difficult combination to pull off.
In 2015, he was traded from the Marlins to the Cardinals after spending parts of six seasons in Miami. He would go into journeyman mode from there, spending time with the Mariners, Rays, Cubs, White Sox, Angels and Nationals. He pitched in 13 MLB seasons from 2010 to 2022.
In Cishek’s career, he got into 737 games, tossing 710 2/3 innings with a 2.98 ERA. He struck out 24.8% of the batters he faced and got grounders on 48.3% of balls in play. He recorded 133 saves, 109 holds and 33 wins. MLBTR congratulates him on a fine career and wishes him the best in his future endeavors.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Zoinks!
He came up with the team known as the Florida Marlins, pretty good relief pitcher, not many better
Finally time to sell sea shells by the sea shore.
“I’m not pulling a Tom Brady ”
Basically he said that he will never be the GOAT and have rings on both hands
Actually it translated to I’m not an idiot like Tom and I know when to hang it up. You’re literary skills lack.
*your
If you plan to reprimand people on their literary skills, try using proper grammar.
The GOAT is still in playoff contention with a crappy team.. my literary skills are fine.
Considering that is auto-corrected 1/2 the time. That tired “gotcha” to someone else’s “gotcha” is annoying, plus you’re wrong and he was right. The first guy failed literacy which has more to do with reading comprehension. Your criticism of the second guy is grammatical which has to do with semantics more than anything else.
Many great writers have poor grammar making it possible for a whole industry to exist called editors. Petty “gotchas” are very annoying and I brought this up because the first guy completely misinterpreted the quote, while the second guy corrected it, even if a little too judgemental in his form of delivery, it at least was on topic. Yours was out of leftfield, pun intended, and only served to make yourself look smarter.
My comment is to let you know all of this, “let me tell you about the English language” is stupid and in most cases doubles down on the side of being wrong. Rarely does the English professor, profess to tell another how another’s English is suboptimal. I would have never commented other than to prevent it from happening more often, even if it requires me to be guilty of the same crime.
Most importantly typos are part of a written community, so failure to understand context is also common while probably being less forgivable. In the end, I hope we can stop acting like we need every comment edited when the context is clear and transparent despite the wrong use of “your or you’re” and “their, there, or they’re.”
Well, their ‘ya go Angel guy. There weaknesses will be they’re downfall.
Your not upset about you’re inability to hit a curveball, are you? 🙂
When Tom Brady retires, he’s going to be like “I think I’m pulling a Steve Cishek.”
applause!
Good career. I always liked his delivery.
When he was a Mariner, I went to a game early to watch batting practice. He was shagging balls in left field when I yelled down to him to toss me a ball. He tossed one up perfectly to where I was standing. I yelled thanks and he smiled and waved. I have been a fan ever since and followed him in the box scores after he left the team.
Good luck in retirement Mr. Cishek!
I think there’s only sidearmer left in MLB, and I believe he pitches for the Giants. Sidearm wind ups are getting extinct along with the knuckle ball (not the knuckle curve or split finger fb), the pitch out and catchers giving pitchers signals with their fingers.
Adam Cimber of the Blue Jays pitches sidearm with a submarine delivery.
Scott Effross is kind of a sidearm pitcher. He’s put for 2023 anyway though.
But Cishek did it at 95+ for many years. Wyatt Mills is supposed to be a better comp for velocity and delivery from what I understand, but it’s whether he can maintain it moving forward and be effective enough to get to the majors and stay there.
Ended with an ERA under 3 and over $40 million in career earnings. Not bad at all
Well deserved.
Very nice career.
Hit that ten year service mark as well.
Too bad he didn’t get a World Series
Pretty good career. Wonder why he became a side arm pitcher. Is the side arm throw easier on the arm? Do side armers usually start out as conventional pitchers and change because of injury?
Obviously I was never a pro, but at a young age I suffered a back injury, and lowered my arm angle to help. Happened more naturally as opposed to me intentionally lowering it for back support, but I pitched for years and years after. Either that relates to your question or I’m just rambling. Belated Happy Holidays to you, Nit.
I was a side armer when I played. It was just my natural delivery. Coaches always tried to change it but when I tried throwing overhand, my arm would be sore and I lost a lot of movement on the ball.
His funky sidearm delivery was so cool, oh and his beard to.
Down by the Cishek
See the boats go sailin’
Can the people hear
What the little fish are sayin’…
Damn fine career and good luck in retirement
Solid bullpen piece who had a damn good career. Best of luck in your next journey Steve.
Alright fellas: Now that Cishek is retired, who’s got the prettiest eyes in MLB?
@joepanikatthedisco- I’m not a fella, but Kevin Kiermaier has the prettiest eyes in MLB by a mile
Kevin K hands down
Suzyn Waldman
Kris Bryant
the fake mustachioed sunglasses wearing Bobby Valentine
Patrick Wisdom
Max Scherzer with the two colors.
Mad Max’s brown eye for the win!
Fish eye Ryan Braun
I was so surprised to learn during the World Series that the Houston Astros have cheerleaders…(that’s totally Texas so I shouldn’t be too shocked lol)…anyways so my vote for best eyes in MLB go to the Astros cheer squad ladies.
Nobody looks at their eyes!
I almost spit out my orange juice, I’m writing that one down, Baron ! Oh boy.
The Bourne Enterprise?
Now that’s a crossover nobody saw coming or even asked for.
Not middling, a “good” career.
HOF. Okay, maybe not but it was fun watching him pitch and I hope he makes a mid season comeback.
Pretty decent career. Almost hard to believe he only threw 0.2 playoff innings after logging all that time in the big leagues.
King Felix would have killed for those 0.2 innings.
Two pitches to DJ LeMahieu, a GIDP, and out of the inning.
Made a lot of money for a middling career. Good for Cishek.
Middling? Career ERA under 3, well over 100 saves, over 100 holds… I’d say that’s a solid, very good career.
Agree. I see that the post that we both responded to is now gone.
What part of his career makes it “middling”?
Always liked him and thought the Reds could have used him in that park. Good luck in retirement.
Had some pretty decent years, intriguing delivery that definitely gave hitters issues.
Cishek looked like he was toast in 2015 in Miami. Bounced around and became a journeyman racking up 133 Saves in his career, plus the aforementioned $40 million in career earnings. Not a bad career
Darragh, I hate to be that guy, but you have some major errors in paragraphs 2 and 3, regarding seasons Cishek pitched. Could you revise those? Thanks!
I noticed that, too. His 15 saves were in 2012, I believe, with 34 saves in 2013 and 39 in 2014. He had it as 2008, 2009, and 2010.
He was probably on a deadline and these things happen when you have to get a story out in a short amount of time. Amazing that, with that time frame, how few errors the MLBTR writer’s make and how they get so much statistical info into an article.
It happens. Time crunch or no time crunch, people are allowed to make errors. The writers do an excellent job.
I absolutely agree with you, 100%. But the errors still make for an extremely confusing part of the article and should be fixed. I don’t think any less of the writers and I think they can handle a little feedback.
Oh, agreed. I was actually responding to the other person as I initially noticed the errors, as well.
The guy is retired. What’s the hurry to rush out an article?
Great career, hope retirement treats him well!
I’ll miss Bullpen Daddy from a 2022 of hardship in Natsland. He had a better year than I remember, so I thought somebody would give him a 1 Year/$2-4 Million guaranteed. Perhaps it’s just time for him. Best of relaxation in retirement Steve!
dziękuję
Matsuzaka?
No, what junkyard said was Polish (or Borat) for “domo aregato.”
A very sad day for baseball
I felt like he’s been around forever. Great career.
Very good career and a very consistent pitcher, enjoy retirement sir
He’ll be back mid season when he’s most needed and can stay fresh for 3 months. Can’t help it and the money will be there.
Was hoping my Phillies would sign him with a ST invite.
4th in the NL in appearances in 2022. 2.98 lifetime ERA. Made over 40mil. That’ll work. Enjoy the next phase in your life!
Cishek should build his wife a she shack.
Underrated career if you ask me. Or atleast not mentioned enough how good he actually was. Was a beast in all the 2k games, lol.
Always liked I’m. I thought there was a big more left in the tank
I’ll miss one of my favorite nickname. Ce-schek-son!
Do we gave any side-armers left in the league? Who and what team? I go back to the Kent Tekulve days so it does give me a touch of nostalgia everything I see them pitch.
Future Hall of Famer for sure
My post don’t count they won’t post says server air
Best to you, Steve. 737 appearances and a sub-3.00 ERA career is pretty darn good.
Solid career, good dude. Tom Brady, he is not, but all the best to him post-baseball-career. Wish the game had more sidewinders like Steve, he was actually fun to watch pitch. I always enjoyed pitching with him in MLB The Show.
Steve Cishek was a solid Major Leaguer. Nuf ced
Cishek was a pretty good pitcher, and seeing the other comments on here, had pretty solid stats and earnings through his career..
Though it is sad that this is the latest ‘White Sox’ related story on mlbtraderumors instead of them actually trying to make their team better.