BOSTON, MA – MAY 16: Ryan Sherriff #71 of the Boston Red Sox tosses the ball to Triston Casas #36 during the sixth inning of a game against the Seattle Mariners on May 16, 2023 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. It was his Boston Red Sox debut game. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
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Major-league baseball careers rarely end with a farewell tour or a single defining moment. More often, a player’s retirement decision comes after months of battling injuries, searching for additional opportunities and realizing the game can no longer be played the way it once was.
Former Boston Red Sox left-hander Ryan Sherriff detailed his own career’s end in a candid and detailed retirement announcement this week, offering some unique insight into what a player might go through as he realizes it’s time to hang up his spikes.
“At that point I was done mentally. Physically,” Ryan Sherriff wrote on Substack, recalling an injury setback in 2023 with the Boston Red Sox. “I elected free agency and signed with the (Los Angeles) Dodgers — I’d always wanted to pitch at Dodger Stadium, that was real — but my second Triple-A game, the forearm tightened up again. I called the farm director and told him I thought this was it.”
Sherriff left affiliated baseball that season and, though he gave professional pitching another brief shot, ended his career shortly after.
“I attempted a comeback a few months later,” Sherriff added. “Had a stint in the Dominican and Mexico. But my arm and my mentality couldn’t keep up and I knew it. I knew it in a way I hadn’t let myself know it before.”
Former Boston Red Sox Pitcher Had Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies Stints Before Retirement
Sherriff was a late-round draft pick by the Washington Nationals in 2010 before eventually making his big-league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2017.
He then joined the Tampa Bay Rays in 2020 before brief stints with the Philadelphia Phillies organization and then the Red Sox.
“The Rays put Sherriff on waivers at the end of 2021 and he was claimed by the Phillies,” Darragh McDonald recalled for MLB Trade Rumors. “A shoulder strain limited him to just 14 minor league appearances (in 2022) and he was outrighted off the Philly roster in August. He became a free agent at season’s end and signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox.”
California Native Ryan Sherriff Joined Los Angeles Dodgers Before Comeback Attempt, Retirement Decision
Sherriff’s last big-league appearance came with the Red Sox, but the Culver City, California native did get the chance to join the Dodgers organization briefly.
Unfortunately, he was never able to take the mound at his hometown stadium.
“Would I have loved to pitch at Dodger Stadium? Absolutely,” the former big-league pitcher wrote. “But my body and my mind couldn’t do it anymore. I never knew what the next day was going to bring. That uncertainty — after 13 years — had finally worn me all the way down.”