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1.28.2004
Dean Palmer retires
Well, I guess the Yankees can cross Dean Palmer off the list of potential third basemen. Palmer's been held to just 87 games and 314 at bats over the past three seasons due both to lingering injuries (neck and shoulder issues) and very poor play. Because he's been totally unproductive and grossly overpaid by the Tigers for the past several years, it's easy to forget that at one time he was a pretty serious masher. Palmer hit 25 or more homeruns in a season six times in his career, and 33 or more four times, finishing up with 275 over the course of his career. Which is all the more impressive when you realize that he was pretty much done before he turned 33 and missed chunks of several seasons along the way. More than anything, I'll remember Palmer for the incredibly gruesome injury he suffered on June 3, 1995 facing Kevin Tapani (thanks to baseballlibrary.com for refreshing my memory on the specific details). If I recall correctly, Palmer swung through a Tapani pitch and ruptured his biceps tendon, which rolled up in his arm. He was off to an excellent start that season (hitting .333 with 9 homers and 24 RBI in his first 114 at bats), and the injury knocked him out of the lineup until the final week of the year. While he would certainly go on to have many more productive seasons, that was one of many years essentially lost to injury. There was some talk of Palmer attempting to make another go of it this season, as he signed a minor league contract with the Tigers at the beginning of December (his mammoth, five year/$36 million contract expired at the end of last season, so it's not like this retirement is saving Detroit any money). I assume he's continued to have some health issues (at his press conference, he mentioned that while he still wants to play, he doesn't feel he's physically able to do so), and decided that it's no longer worth the health risks that playing poses. This obviously has virtually no impact on the current Tigers, as they've long since moved on and haven't counted on Palmer being available for a few years. Palmer had a pretty decent career though (.251/.324/.472, but better than that when healthy), and it's over now. - |