Beckett to retire?
Josh Beckett, the three-time All-Star, two-time World Series champion and former Red Sox ace, is facing another setback in his unsuccessful season with the Dodgers this year. The pitcher has been on the disabled list since May 15 with a groin injury, but the greater concern is that he has said that he has felt various degrees of numbness in his pitching hand over the past four to five weeks, according to Los Angeles Times.
“I’m concerned,” Beckett told the LA Times. “I’ve never dealt with anything like this for this amount of time. We’ll just have to see what happens there.”
Since winning the World Series with the Florida Marlins and Boston Red Sox years ago, Beckett has changed his pitching style numerous times due to injuries. His troubles with his pitching hand have varied from blisters to surgeries over the course of his career. Beckett says that anytime an injury involves his pitching arm, he starts to contemplate his future in baseball.
“Anytime something like that happens to your arm or you start losing feeling and stuff…you think about (retirement) for sure,” Beckett explained. “I don’t really want to think like that right now. I want to think about figuring out a way to deal with this.”
The future of Beckett’s season, and possibly career, will be discovered on Monday when he receives the results of his 90-minute MRI scan from Tuesday morning.
The 33-year-old pitcher, who was once a dominant ace in both the American and National league for some time, has been anything but productive this season. With an 0-5 record and 5.19 ERA this season, maybe retirement is something Beckett should think about seriously.
