Right-hander Corey Kluber (38), who was in full bloom at a late age and won two Cy Young Awards, has decided to end his career.

The Major League Baseball (MLB) official website MLB.com announced on the 10th (Korea Standard Time) that “Clubber has decided to retire through his SNS. He expressed his gratitude to everyone who helped him during his career.”

In a statement, Kluber thanked his teammates, the Cleveland Guardians, the Texas Rangers, the New York Yankees, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Boston Red Sox. He also thanked the MLBPA, his agent, his wife and children.

Lastly, Kluber said, “I’m leaving the mound, but my passion for baseball is unwavering. I hope I get a chance to contribute to baseball in a different direction.” “Thank you to everyone who has been with my baseball life. I look forward to delivering what I have learned to my juniors for those who will be part of the next generation.”

Cluver, who had suffered a shoulder injury in the second half of last year, had yet to decide whether to retire. Alex Spire of the Boston Globe reported on his social media in November last year that Cluver said, “We’ll see.” After a long debate, however, Cluver ended his 13-year career as a big league player.

Kluber started his professional career after being drafted in the fourth round by the San Diego Padres in the 2007 Major League Rookie Draft. After playing in the San Diego Minor League for three years, he transferred to Cleveland in July 2010 through triangle trade (San Diego, Cleveland, St. Louis) involving Jake Westbrook and Ryan Rudwick. Kluber, who made it to Triple-A that year, started his career in earnest in 2011 when he called up to the big league for the first time and recorded an ERA of 8.31 in three games.
Until he was in his mid-20s, he was an ordinary player. In 2012, he had 12 chances to start the game, but he only garnered two wins and five losses with an earned run average of 5.14 during 63 innings. His WHIP was 1.49, while his on-base hit ratio was 0.295 with an OPS of 0.834 per inning. However, he is facing a turning point in this season. He thus refined his two-seam fastball after consulting with the coaching staff at Triple-A. With his curves and cut fastball (cutter), Klubber has become a starting pitcher in the Major League.

In 2013, Kluber started full-time for the first time in 26 games (24 starts), posting 11 wins, five losses and a 3.85 ERA. In the following year, Kluber became a representative ace in the league at the age of 28. After 235 ⅔ innings in 34 starts, he recorded 18 wins, nine losses and a 2.44 ERA. He struck out 269 with 10.3 strikeouts per nine innings. WHIP 2.35 was the lowest in the league. Amid such favorable performance, he garnered 17 first-place votes in the American League Cy Young Award, beating over Felix Hernandez of Seattle at the time.

Kluber continued his career. In 2015, he had nine wins and 16 losses, but his ERA was 3.49. In 2016, he won 18 games and lost nine games with an ERA of 3.14 and was named the first All-Star along with the third place at the Cy Young Award. Notably, he pitched 34 ⅓ innings in six postseason games, displaying a remarkable 1.83 ERA. Although he failed to win the title at the Chicago Cubs and World Series, he pitched as the starting pitcher in Games 1, 4, and 7.
Kluber became more awake the following year after his first autumn baseball experience. In the 2017 season, Kluber pitched 203 ⅔ innings in 29 games despite missing the entire May due to injury, recording 18 wins, four losses and an earned run average of 2.25. He topped the list in multiple wins and ERA in the American League, while his strikeouts ranked second, narrowly missing out on Triple Crown (multi wins, strikeouts, and ERA) among pitchers. However, he won the Cy Young Award in the American League again this time.

Kluber dominated the American League for five years with a 2.89 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP in 2018 when he recorded his first 20 wins in his career. From 2014 to 2018, his record was 83-45 with 1228 strikeouts and a 2.85 ERA in 1,091 ⅓ in 160 games. Cleveland, which went through a dark period in the early 2010s thanks to his performance, recorded three postseason appearances and one American League victory (2016) in the same period. According to MLB Trade Rumors, his fWAR (winning contribution by fan graph) for five years was 30.3, second only to Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw.

However, Kluber’s last role as an ace was in 2018. He was sluggish with 2-3 losses and 5.80 ERA in 2019, but was out for the season after being hit by a broken right arm. Later that year, he joined the Texas Rangers in a 2-1 trade with Emmanuelle Clase and Delino DeShields Jr. However, he ended the season early due to a shoulder injury after one game and one inning.

After nine years with the Cleveland Indians, Kluber became a journeyman. After signing a one-year contract with the New York Yankees in 2021, Kluber only appeared in 16 games due to shoulder injury, but managed to keep the record with five wins and three losses and an earned run average of 3.83. Notably, in a showdown with Yang Hyun-jong (current KIA) in May the same year, Kluber pitched 164 innings, completing the required innings (162 innings) for the first time in four years, and playing the starting role with 10 wins and 10 losses and an earned run average of 4.34.

However, he pitched the worst with a 7.04 ERA at the Boston Red Sox last year, and was eliminated from the starting pitcher rotation before disappearing from the big league after July 21. He has decided to retire after the end of the season. His overall Major League record is 116 wins, 77 losses, one save, and 3.44 ERA in 1,641 ⅔ innings in 271 games (260 starts).

BY: 안전놀이터