Kerry Wood to retire

Kerry Wood would make a great pitching coach in the MLB.

After 14 seasons in the big leagues, Kerry Wood has decided to retire. The 34 year old right hander decided to make one final appearance in front of the home crowd at Wrigley yesterday. Wood debuted with the 1998 Cubs, and he had a very impressive rookie season. He struck out 233 hitters in 166 2/3 innings and had a record 20 strikeouts in a single game against the Astro's. He was named rookie of the year in 1998 but underwent Tommy John surgery and was forced to miss the following season. He returned to the rotation and played well for the next five seasons, but continued to have problems staying on the field and the Cubs converted him to a reliever. Wood played for the Indians and Yankees as a relief pitcher and had some moderate success in that role. This off-season he signed a one year, $3 million contract with the Cubs, but he struggled this year. Wood left yesterdays game after he struck out White Sox outfielder Dayan Vicedo. The crowd gave him a nice standing ovation and the players on the White Sox showed great sportsmanship by congratulating Wood as well. Wood has made over $70 million in his career, according to Baseball-Reference. He will retire with a career 3.67 ERA, 1582 strikeouts and with 1380 innings pitched.


Analysis: What an odd career for Kerry Wood. He was the fourth overall selection by the Cubs in the 1995 draft and the Cubs had such high expectations for him. He had an amazing season in 1998 and appeared to be the ace of the future. He was forced to miss the 1999 season and I believe that is what really hurt his career. Even though he did have a few nice seasons after that, including a year where he had 266 strikeouts, I believe that Tommy John surgery really killed his career. After that surgery he had tons of injuries issues that kept him off the field. He's always had an amazing arsenal of pitches and its a shame that his career went down the path that it did. Wood did have some nice seasons with the Cubs and his talents got the Cubs fans extremely excited about the future.