Former All-Star pitcher David Robertson retires at age 40

David Robertson (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)

Major League Baseball pitcher David Robertson of Birmingham, Alabama announced his retirement on Friday at the age of 40 according to TSN on Friday. Robertson pitched 17 Major League Baseball seasons. He was with the New York Yankees for nine seasons (2008 to 2014 and again from 2017 to 2018), the Chicago White Sox from 2015 to 2017, the Philadelphia Phillies (2019, 2022, and 2005), the Tampa Bay Rays (2021), the Chicago Cubs (2022), the New York Mets and Miami Marlins (2023), and the Texas Rangers (2024).

In 881 Major League Baseball games, Robertson had a record of 68 wins and 46 losses with an earned run average of 2.93. In 894 1/3 innings pitched, he gave up 674 hits, 291 earned runs, 81 home runs and 365 walks, to go along with 1176 strikeouts, 179 saves, 206 holds and a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.16.

It is interesting that Robertson only had 13 1/3 innings pitched more than his actual games total. The is because for the majority of his MLB career, he was used for one inning or less per outing.

Robertson will be best remembered for his time with the Yankees at the start of his career. In that time he won a World Series in 2009 and was an American League All-Star in 2011. In 2009, Robertson recorded the win in his first two postseason appearances. In two games that went into extra innings, Robertson helped the Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins 4-3 in game two of the American League Divisional Series, and the Los Angeles Angels 4-3 in game two of the American League Championship Series.

We did see a drop in Robertson’s production this past season in Philadelphia. He gave up more hits (18) than he had innings pitched (17 2/3).