{"id":350408,"date":"2025-12-15T22:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350408\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T22:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T22:16:09","slug":"spenser-watkins-announces-immediate-retirement-from-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350408\/","title":{"rendered":"Spenser Watkins Announces Immediate Retirement From MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spenser Watkins, who made 40 appearances for the Baltimore Orioles<\/a> and Oakland A’s<\/a> from 2021-23, has retired from baseball.<\/p>\n

A right-handed pitcher, Watkins went went 7-14 with a 5.97 ERA across 164.1 major league innings. Bob Nightengale of USA Today was first to report Watkins’ decision.<\/p>\n

Watkins pitched in Taiwan in 2025 for the TSG Hawks, going 4-7 with a 5.11 ERA in 15 games.<\/p>\n

More news: Orioles Cut Former Catching Prospect<\/a><\/p>\n

Nightengale reported that Watkins will join Gaeta Sports Management, who represented Watkins during his playing career. The agency confirmed Watkins’ decision to Newsweek Sports.<\/p>\n

\"Spenser<\/p>\n

Watkins was originally drafted by the Detroit Tigers out of Western Oregon University in the 30th round of the 2014 MLB Draft.<\/p>\n

Over six seasons in the Tigers’ organization, Watkins started and relieved at every level of the organization, but no opportunity in the majors came calling. After the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 minor league season, Watkins signed a minor league contract with the Orioles in February 2021.<\/p>\n

More news: Mets Lose Star Free Agent to Orioles on Massive $155 Million Deal: Reports<\/a><\/p>\n

Watkins conceded at the time that he had considered retiring<\/a>. And yet, seven years after he was drafted, the Orioles promoted Watkins to the majors for the first time in July 2021.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Watkins made 16 appearances for Baltimore as a 28-year-old rookie. He went 2-7 with an 8.07 ERA.<\/p>\n

More news: All-Star Closer Signs $19 Million Free Agent Deal With AL Contender: Report<\/a><\/p>\n

Watkins saw his most extensive experience in the big leagues with the Orioles in 2022. That year, he appeared in 23 games (20 starts), threw 105.1 innings, and went 5-6 with a 4.70 ERA.<\/p>\n

But the 2023 season saw Watkins take a step backwards. He cut the ring finger<\/a> on his right (pitching) hand early in the season, an injury that caused him to miss a month. He posted a 7.27 ERA and 1.96 WHIP in 26 innings at Triple-A. The Orioles designated him for assignment at midseason, and he bounced from the Houston Astros to the Oakland A”s before the season was over.<\/p>\n

More news: Former Astros Infielder, Manager in Israel, Dies<\/a><\/p>\n

Watkins made the final appearance of his MLB career with the A’s in August 2023, allowing five runs in 4.1 innings in a spot start against the St. Louis Cardinals.<\/p>\n

In August of this year, Watkins was released from his contract<\/a> in Taiwan.<\/p>\n

For more MLB news, visit Newsweek Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spenser Watkins, who made 40 appearances for the Baltimore Orioles and Oakland A’s from 2021-23, has retired from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,1186,591,192940,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-350408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-oakland-as","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}