Josh Beckett Announces Retirement After 14-Year MLB Career

Josh Beckett's latest bout with injury issues will be his last. The Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher announced his retirement after 14 MLB seasons Tuesday, not long after the St. Louis Cardinals completed a 3-1 series victory in their NLDS matchup.

"I just don't see me going through that rehab and coming back to pitch at this point in my life," Beckett told reporters, per MLB.com.

Beckett, 34, tore the labrum in his hip in July. He attempted to rehab and work through the injury but was sat down after failing to make it past the fifth inning in any of his three post-injury starts. The Dodgers ruled him out for the season in September when doctors confirmed that he would need surgery to repair the injury—a process that would keep him out months and involve a lengthy rehabilitation process.

When announcing plans for the surgery, Beckett seemed to indicate he was leaning toward retirement.

"At some point, you decide, 'Is this really worth trying to get myself ready for another season when you know the stuff that goes into it,'" Beckett told reporters in September, per Mark Saxon of ESPNLosAngeles.com. "It's not the pitching part that bothers you. I probably felt best on the days I pitched. It's the other days leading up to it."

The hip injury came amid what was looking like a renaissance season for the three-time All-Star. Beckett threw his first career no-hitter on May 25 against the Philadelphia Phillies and was 6-5 with a 2.26 ERA when he initially went down. His final stat line for 2014 was a 6-6 record, 2.88 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. 

Beckett was limited to eight starts in 2013 after being diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which caused numbness and a tingling sensation in his pitching hand. Acquired in August 2012 as part of a blockbuster trade with the Boston Red Sox, Beckett pitched 35 games in Los Angeles and was not healthy for either of the Dodgers' last two playoff runs.

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

At his peak, Beckett was one of the best clutch pitchers in baseball. He became one of the youngest World Series MVPs in history at age 23 while leading the Florida Marlins to a surprise upset of the New York Yankees in 2003. Beckett twice pitched on three days' rest, including a series-clinching shutout of the Bronx Bombers in Game 6.

Traded to the Boston Red Sox before the 2006 season, it wasn't long before Beckett was coming through in the clutch again. He went 4-0 with a 1.20 ERA and 0.70 WHIP in helping lead the Red Sox to their second World Series win of the decade, striking out 35 batters in 30 innings during the 2007 postseason.

That playoff performance came after the best regular season of his career, in which Beckett went 20-7 with a 3.27 ERA and finished second in the Cy Young voting. Injuries and bouts of ineffectiveness clouded Beckett's later years in Boston, but he's high on the list of best Red Sox pitchers of this generation. For his career, Beckett went 138-106, compiling a 3.88 ERA and 1.23 WHIP.

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