Dodgers reliever Daniel Hudson is retiring, ending his 15-year MLB career

NEW YORK (AP) — Daniel Hudson, returning after missing nearly two seasons and emerging as a veteran player in a powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen, has gotten his wish. The 37-year-old right-hander will retire, he confirmed late Wednesday night, capping his 15-year major league career by standing on the visitors' bullpen mound at Yankee Stadium and watching Walker Buehler get the final three outs second world championship secured by Hudson's.

“That’s the only reason I came back, because of this feeling here,” Hudson said during the Dodgers World Series celebration. “Those guys in that clubhouse, that’s the only reason I came back. I wanted to go out on top and that’s exactly what happened.”

Hudson has also pitched for the White Sox, Diamondbacks, Pirates, Blue Jays, Nationals and Padres.

A standout starter in his youth, Hudson became in many ways the poster boy for the wave of elbow injuries that have devastated the sport. He was one of the subjects of ESPN columnist Jeff Passan's book “The Arm,” which chronicled Hudson's attempts to rehabilitate himself after not one, but two Tommy John surgeries.

Hudson reinvented his career as a reliever, culminating in the 2019 World Series finale with the Washington Nationals. In the years that followed, Hudson's body betrayed him – he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in June 2022 and sprained the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in July 2023, when he recorded his first save since returning. Signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers for the 2024 season.

He would have his first wire-to-wire season in half a decade, posting a 3.00 ERA in 65 appearances, despite ongoing pain in both knees. As the eldest of a group that helped the Dodgers survive and win a title, Hudson was the “anchor,” Blake Treinen said.

Hudson's age became an inside joke. In a viral social media video, catcher Will Smith was asked to name the oldest player he could think of. He answered Hudson.

But Hudson remained a confidant. During a crucial stretch of the Dodgers' season, when manager Dave Roberts asked Buehler to take on a larger role, Buehler turned to Hudson. This was the right-hander's first season since his second Tommy John surgery, so he asked for advice.

It was Hudson warming up next to Buehler in the final innings of Game 5 and watching him get the job done. When the two met again on the field, they warmly hugged and posed for photos together in Hudson's final moments on the field as a star player.

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