With the recent Jorge Posada-drama, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back and see how some legendary Yankees ended their relationships with the team. I’ll use the Yankee retired numbers as a starting point for this exercise, since those are players whose exploits in pinstripes were such that they received the honor. But I’ll also look at some of the older outstanding players and more recent fan favorites with multiple rings and great October memories, since they’re players who fans will have a strong attachment to that mirrors that of Posada. This list includes players who had HOF careers (Dave Winfield, Ricky Henderson) that played significant portion of it in pinstripes. In short, I’ll go through the the history of the franchise and cherry pick the notable players and see how their stories with the Yankees ended. With that out of the way, here’s my list:
Note: (RN)-”Retired Number”
Babe Ruth (HOF)-February 26, 1935: Released by the New York Yankees at age 39, signed a contract 3 days later with the Boston Braves.
Tony Lazzeri (HOF)-October 15, 1937: Released by the New York Yankees at age 33, signed on with the Cubs, Dodgers and Giants over the next 2 years and was out of baseball by May of 1939.
Waite Hoyt (HOF)-May 30, 1930: Traded by the New York Yankees with Mark Koenig to the Detroit Tigers for Ownie Carroll, Harry Rice and Yats Wuestling. 30 years old at the time of trade and pitched 8 more seasons.
Red Ruffing (HOF)-September 20, 1946: Released by the New York Yankees at age 41, played one more season with the Chicago White Sox and then retired.
Lefty Gomez (HOF)-Purchased by the Boston Braves from the New York Yankees at age 33. He was released by the Braves in May of that same year, then signed on with the Washington Senators who released him two months later.
Allie Reynolds-Retired at age 37 after the 1954 season.
Bill Dickey (HOF/RN)-September 20, 1946: After losing 3 years of his career to WW2, he returned to the Yanks as a player-manager at age 39. He was released by the team after the season.
Joe Gordon (HOF)-October 11, 1946: Traded by the New York Yankees at age 31 to the Cleveland Indians for Allie Reynolds. Played 4 more seasons with Cleveland before his career ended.
Joe DiMaggio (HOF/RN)-Retired after the 1951 season at age 36. Was offered a contract by the team as a pinch hitter, which they knew he’d refuse.
Phil Rizzuto (HOF/RN)-August 25, 1956: Released mid season at age 38.
Yogi Berra (HOF/RN)-October 29, 1963: Released at age 38 by the New York Yankees. Signed a contract in April of 1965 with the NY Mets and was released a month later.
Hank Bauer-December 11, 1959: Traded by the New York Yankees with Don Larsen, Norm Siebern and Marv Throneberry to the Kansas City Athletics for Joe DeMaestri, Kent Hadley and Roger Maris. He was released by Kansas City 2 years later at age 38.
Roger Maris (RN)-December 8, 1966: Traded by the New York Yankees to the St. Louis Cardinals for Charley Smith. Retired after the 1968 season at age 33.
Mickey Mantle (HOF/RN)-Retired after the 1968 season at age 36.
Elston Howard (RN)-August 3, 1967: Traded at age 38 to the Boston Red Sox for a player to be named later and Pete Magrini. The Boston Red Sox released Howard at the end of the 1968 season.
Whitey Ford (HOF)-Retired after the 1967 season at age 38.
Reggie Jackson (HOF/RN)-Granted free agency after the 1981 season at age 35. Played 6 more seasons and retired in 1987.
Ron Guidry (RN)-Retired at age 37 after the 1988 season.
Graig Nettles-March 30, 1984: Traded by the New York Yankees to the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later and Dennis Rasmussen. 38 years old at time of trade.
Dave Winfield (HOF)-May 11, 1990: Traded by the New York Yankees to the California Angels for Mike Witt. 38 years old at time of trade, went on to play 5 more seasons.
Ricky Henderson (HOF)-June 21, 1989: Traded by the New York Yankees to the Oakland Athletics for Greg Cadaret, Eric Plunk and Luis Polonia. 30 years old at the time of trade, went on to play 14 more seasons.
Don Mattingly (RN)-Retired after the 1995 season at age 35.
Bernie Williams-Offered non-guaranteed contract in spring training of 2007 season (age 38) which he refused.
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21 Responses to How great Yankee careers have ended
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TIQ IQ
how about o’niel
Paul O’Neill retired a Yankee after the 2001 season.
a real class guy
Interesting post. It was certainly easier to trade aging players away long ago, as the contracts weren’t anywhere near as large as they are today. Can’t see the Yankees being able to trade Jeter or ARod as time progresses. It also seems the Yankees were willing to cut ties with some of their aging stars in the past as well. Doesn’t seem this is something new, but perhaps it’s just that we’re seeing this differently since they’re our stars now.
i would think it was much harder to handle back then,,how much did they earn?. they needed to keep playing to earn a living. .and today they sit on tens of millions and complain. posada makes 13.1mil this year without endorsements. one years salary is a lifetime earn for those guys back then.. maybe he and the new guys should read this topic…not bad being a yankee today past your prime..no one has to go out and sell user cars or do tailoring to live
Granted they make a lot more now than they did then, but superstar players of the past made good money based on the average income in that time. It’s like comparing apples to oranges.
joe g.. guys like yogi had to work after the season was over. the league min. today is far greater than anyone’s average income.. what is it about 8500 a week?
I would have to disagree with Joe G, the average salary in 2010 for the Yankees is 6,7 million in all of baseball it’s 3.3 million, the median salary per person in the US is $27,041.
In 1960 the average MLB salary was about $6,100 not all players salaries are documented but the few highest paid players only made between 15-20K.In comparison the median US income was $5,600. Clearly THAT gap has created the delusional, sense of entitlement prima-dona athletes of today.
The Yankees could trade A-Rod to Seattle for prospects moreover to dump salary. I could see A-Rod agreeing to the trade cuz he wouldn’t want to be where he was no longer wanted. The Yankees should consider any money they’d have to throw in a buyout. And maybe they could develop a freaking everyday position player sometime this decade after Cano and Gardner to play 3B hmmmm?
A-Rod got his World Series ring with the Yankees, so big deal if he didn’t collect one with Seattle. Mariner fans couldn’t blame him for no World Series cuz hey, they didn’t win any with him in his prime or just before it with prime Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr., and Jay Buhner. Their legacy is they saved baseball in Seattle. As great as that was, they still didn’t win a World Series together as Mariners and only Johnson then A-Rod won it all elsewhere, out of the four.
Does anyone see Felix Hernandez or Ichiro Suzuki still with the Mariners after their contracts are up? I don’t. I could see either or both being traded before their contracts are up.
If the Yankees traded A-Rod to Seattle as early as this offseason, he could very well be their lone star at some point in his second run with them if they don’t sign or trade for a star.
Need to add O’Neill, Tino and Pettite to this list…..
correct,how did i forget tino, mussina
Tino signed with St.Louis after 2001 and if memory serves me was in the postseason deeper than the Yankees in 2002 as the Yankees got knocked out in the ALDS.
Pettitte is currently retired.
murcer went tosf, what did chambliss do?
We all know how his career ended and that it was tragic, but if we’re going to have an inclusive list it seems like it should include Thurman Munson.
I was more interested in how the team chose to sever ties and how it happened as a transaction, so I left him off intentionally
great topic and great timing to think about guys and their situations forgotten.. makes it all easier to deal with posada et. al. and that is only the yanks history..you think say hey hung around a little to long
[...] the yankees say good-bye to the greats Source: The Yankee Analysts by Steve S. With the recent Jorge Posada-drama, I thought it would be interesting to take a [...]
Just to clarify, I left off Gehrig and Munson because there was no decision to make on the part of the front office, so its not similar to what may happen with Posada.
Frankly, Tino and O’Niell fall into the ‘very good’ not great category for me.
matt, i just looked at kubel, he is a FA, he makes 3.5 mil per.. quality guy..right now he is hitting .321..by years end if he is around 18 homers…290 b.a. for lets sat 5 6 mil..would you look at him? kubel at the stadium for my money would be an upgrade..
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