Eric Chavez has announced his retirement, and it’s an event that’s unlikely to go without much fanfare. That’s a real shame. Chavez, despite having the latter part of his career largely derailed by injuries and largely relegated to bench duty, Chavez had a truly fine career. According to ESPN’s Dan Szymborski, Chavez finished his career with the 4th highest career WAR of any player to never be an All-Star behind Tony Phillips, Tim Salmon and Kirk Gibson. He also had a better career than a fair bit those that were selected to All-Star squads over him.
If you look at the beginning of Chavez’s career, that’s hardly surprising. Between 2001 and 2005, he only failed to accumulate a season of at least 5 fWAR once (a 4.1 campaign in 2003). In 2004, he managed to accrue 5.5 fWAR in only 125 games. During that same span he never hit fewer than 27 home runs, with a high water mark of 34. He won a Gold Glove every year over that same time span, and again in 2006. He also won a Silver Slugger in 2002. All of those offensive feats came while playing half of his games at pitcher-friendly Oakland Coliseum. He is the owner of the second longest tenure in Oakland history, behind the great Rickey Henderson. And before his injuries, it wasn’t too outlandish to wonder if Cooperstown would be where he ended up.
However, back issues kept him off the field for extended portions of time and eventually, after various stops and starts, he became a free agent after the 2010 seasons. He became a bench player with the Yankees to some success, but never reached what he once was. It seems this sojourn caused some people to lose sight of all that Chavez accomplished in his career.
His brief time with the Yankees and Diamondbacks showed that there was still some life in him. After a brief stint in 2011, he managed to put up 1.7 fWAR off the bench (113 games) for New York, launching 16 bombs along the way. That would prove to be his last great hurrah.
Knee problems have done him in in the end, and Chavez elected to simply call it quits rather than get paid to do nothing. Chavez says it wouldn’t have felt right. And it’s that sense of right and wrong that endeared Chavez to his teammates. After being regarded as an all-bat, no-glove prospect, he committed himself to learning his position so that he wouldn’t let down the pitchers he played behind. Apparently it paid off.
His injuries lead one to think about what might have been. His peak in the early 2000’s will go down as the stuff of legend, an interesting not-quite-footnote in baseball history. Miguel Tejada may have been the MVP of the famous Moneyball team, but Chavez made it click along with the fearsome threesome of Barry Zito, Mark Mulder and Tim Hudson. For all the adversity that he’s encountered in his career, Eric Chavez has most certainly earned his ride off into the sunset. We leave you with our favorite (albeit, not his most glorious) moment of his.
Poor Cody Eppley.
For more on sports injuries, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
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