In a surprise, Michael Cuddyer has retired from baseball according ton NBC sports. It is a surprise to me because he has been able to perform when healthy in the National League. Cuddyer won a batting championship when playing for the Rockies and signed a two-year deal with the Mets prior to the 2015 season.

 

He has suffered numerous injuries, both with the Twins and also in his years in the NL. Cuddyer playing in 49 games for the Rockies in 2014 and got 408 plate appearances this year. However, he lost his regular spot with the Mets following yet another injury.

 

Cuddy was my favorite player. When I was young, When I was young, I admired players who were great role models (Harmon), as I aged I like players who would make good neighbors and finally as a "mature fan" it was guys who I would approve of dating my daughters. Cuddyer would be someone for a youngster to emulate, someone who would be a good neighbor, and yes, someone who would have my permission to date one of my daughters. On the field, Cuddyer demonstrated a decent hit tool and the willingness to play anywhere on the field.

 

He won't need my well wishes, but best wishes to him and congratulations on a fine career.

Was pulling for him to get healthy. Great player and better person. Thanks for the memories, Cuddy.

 

#ClassAct

Class act, especially walking away from $12.5 million. Guessing Justin will be next

 

Class act, especially walking away from $12.5 million. Guessing Justin will be next

 

Sounds like there's some sort of arrangement that's already been made, but it's not been made public at this point, so he's getting some of that $12.5M, just not all of it.

Edited December 12, 201510 yr by biggentleben

Gotta like a guy with a few magic tricks up his sleeve.

 

In some ways, Plouffe reminds me a lot of Cuddy, drafted as shortstops , moved to 3rd, never elite offensively but solid all-araound ballplayers, and good teammates. 

 

I'm with ya Stringer, perhaps not my favorite, but one of my better liked Twins all-time.

I didn't bother to check Cuddy's offensive numbers until after starting this thread. His lifetime OPS is .805 (113 OPS+). Pretty good numbers.

Cuddyer must have some pretty specific reasons for letting 12.5 million go. Not many would do that. Maybe he is in some kind of physical hurt that he is not talking about.  Now he can see if he can stump Penn and Teller.

Edited December 12, 201510 yr by ChiTownTwinsFan

Actually I can see Cuddyer retiring and walking away from some of that money.  He is quite down to earth and is a family kind of guy (3 kids).  He is probably the type of player that still has 80+% of earned salaries unlike a majority of pro athletes that piss the money away.  It is very likely that he doesn't need to earn anymore money ever. 

 

And he is my favorite player. 

a long and solid career, a batting title, played in a world series, seems like a good guy and, per baseball reference, looks like he collected roughly $80 million. with or without the $12.5 million he'll probably be able to feed his family. 

Edited December 12, 201510 yr by mickeymental

Unquestionably, one of my all time favorite Twins! Puckett, Hrbek and Cuddy are quite possibly my top 3 position players of the past... (way too many)... years. Class, leadership, production and team-first attitude. In this case, I wish baseball was like football and we could sign Cuddyer to a one day contract so he could retire as a Twin.

Does he make the Twins Hall of Fame? I haven't dug deep enough to find the reasonable cutoff, but I imagine his off the field stuff would easily break a tie.

Hope he has a great retirement with his family, was always an easy guy to root for.

Good luck to him. 

Cuddy was also my favorite Twin of the 2000s...sad to see him go...good he left before he got too old that is rare in baseball.

 

Does he make the Twins Hall of Fame? I haven't dug deep enough to find the reasonable cutoff, but I imagine his off the field stuff would easily break a tie.

I didn't want to bring it up, but I've been waiting to comment--yes! He was a good player during a good run (regular season) for the Twins. My favorite memory was the year when Morneau went down and Cuddyer provided the power as a fill-in first baseman.

 

My favorite memory was the year when Morneau went down and Cuddyer provided the power as a fill-in first baseman.

 

Yes! He totally went nuts that last month of 2009. Went on a HR-tear. Was awesome... wound up with 32 for the year. Really stepped up when Morneau went down; that's right. Would hope he makes the Twins Hall of Fame. Absolutely deserves it. One of our team's leaders (on & off field) for a decade, and NEVER shied away from a new position. Always respected the game, played hard, and played the right way. Can't ask for anything more.