Following his final start on Sunday, Dan Haren, or @ithrow88 as he is known on Twitter, made it official that he would be retiring following the postseason. Haren had first broached the topic of retirement a few months back and only recently came to the final decision. It remains to be seen whether Haren is included on the postseason roster, but if he is not Sunday will mark the final game of his career, which spanned thirteen years and eight different major league clubs.
In a season split between the Miami Marlins and Chicago Cubs, Haren finished the year with a 3.60 ERA in 32 games started. Despite not throwing as hard as he did in years past, Haren was still able to be effective with his strong command of the strike zone and his strong off-speed pitches. Following a strong first half of the season with the Miami Marlins, Haren was traded to the Chicago Cubs prior to the trade deadline to reinforce the backend of the Cubs starting rotation.
Over his 13 year career, Haren pitched for eight different ball clubs, pitching the longest with the Oakland Athletics, who he spent three years with from 2005-2007 after being traded to the club following the first two years of his career spent with the St. Louis Cardinals. Prior to the 2008 season, Haren was dealt to the Arizona Diamondbacks where he would arguably have the two best years of his career, finishing with 6.2 and 5.6 WAR in 2008 and 2009 respectively.
After struggling through the first half of 2010 with an ERA of 4.60, Haren was traded to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim right before the trade deadline. Haren had a great second half with the Angels, finishing with an ERA of 2.87. Haren would put up a 6.1 WAR season in 2011 for the Angels before having a poor 2012 and becoming a free agent following the season.
Haren signed a one year contract with the Nationals for the 2013 season but ended up having one of the worst years of his career, finishing with a 4.67 ERA. Following the season, Haren signed a one year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers with a vesting option for 2015. Following another subpar season, Haren was due to come back to Los Angeles after his player option at 180 innings pitched had kicked in.
Amid rumors that the Dodgers were looking to trade Haren, Haren went public with his desire to only pitch in Los Angeles and for no other team or city. Despite this, in December of 2014 Haren was traded to the Marlins. After a decent first half with the Marlins, Haren was traded to the Cubs for the stretch run, which will be the final team of his long and journeyed career.
Whether or not Haren ends up on the Cubs playoff roster, 2015 will be the final year of his long and well traveled career. Haren will finish his career with a record of 153-131, a 3.75 career ERA, and a career WAR of 40.9. Haren is not a Hall of Famer by any stretch of the imagination, but he was definitely one of the brightest young arms in the game during his best years. More so than that, Haren was a funny guy, as evidenced by his Twitter handle and various Tweets as evidenced below, who always had a love and passion for the game.
Well hell yea……I finish as exactly a .200 career hitter.
— dan haren (@ithrow88) October 4, 2015
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