Daniel Bard’s latest attempt to return to Major League Baseball might have seemed far-fetched for some.
The 40-year-old right-hander has faced longer odds before.
Bard, forced out of MLB for seven years when a case of “the yips” derailed his career in 2013, made it back to the majors with the Colorado Rockies in 2020. Not only did Bard make it back, he spent the better part of the 2021 and 2022 seasons as the Rockies’ closer.
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After signing a minor league contract with Seattle in June, Bard was pitching for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate this month when he decided to retire — a move that became official Friday, according to his minor league transactions page.
Bard retires with a record of 31-35 and a 3.74 ERA in 408 MLB games with the Boston Red Sox (2009-13) and Rockies (2020-23). He recorded 66 saves in his career.
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Bard showed well in six games with Triple-A Tacoma, allowing only six hits, one walk, and two runs in 5.2 innings (3.18 ERA), while striking out nine. When the right-hander was placed on the seven-day injured list July 8, the move effectively ended his career.
A first-round draft pick by the Red Sox out of the University of North Carolina in 2006, Bard reached the majors three years later on the strength of a 100-mph fastball.
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In 2010, Bard made 73 appearances for Boston, posting a 1.93 ERA and striking out more than a batter per inning. In 2011, he was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, and he struggled down the stretch of a down season for the team. In 2012, the Red Sox attempted to convert Bard to a starter. The results were disastrous.
“Throwing a baseball is supposed to be an automatic action,” Bard said in one interview. “For someone who’s done it as much as I have, it should be as automatic as walking for anybody else. And it was, for a long time. And then all of a sudden, it wasn’t.”
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Bard visited psychologists, tried hypnosis, and meditated in his attempts to cure “the yips” — the inexplicable loss of command that has felled many pitchers in baseball’s long history. For a time, nothing worked.
Demoted to the minors in 2013, Bard would walk 27 batters across 15.1 innings. He spent the next four seasons bouncing around the minor leagues, trying to find his control. When it didn’t return, he took a job with the Arizona Diamondbacks’ player development department, mentoring young pitchers.
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Remarkably, Bard’s control returned. He signed with the Rockies in February 2020 and was among the team’s better relievers during the pandemic-shortened season, going 4-2 with a 3.65 ERA. After the season, Bard was named the National League Comeback Player of the Year.
Focusing on the mental side of the game allowed Bard to overcome some hiccups along the way in four seasons with the Rockies. He made nearly as many appearances — 197 — from ages 35 to 39 as he did in his early 20s, before the yips set in.
After not pitching in 2024, Bard’s odds of getting back to the big leagues this year were long. Even though he did not make it back, his big league career lasted twice as long as many expected.
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