The Philadelphia Phillies are red hot right now, winning eight straight games. They are 33-18 entering Saturday and sit in first place in the NL East standings.
While this group is focused on the task at hand, a former player decided to call it quits and retire. On Saturday, pitcher Jake Diekman posted on his X account that he's retiring from Major League Baseball.
Pitcher Jake Diekman Retired From the MLB
Diekman came into the league as a 30th-round pick in the 2007 MLB draft by the Phillies. He made his MLB debut in 2012 and spent four seasons in the city of Brotherly Love. Over 191 games, he went 9-11. He pitched in 173.1 innings, notching a 3.84 ERA and 225 strikeouts.
In July 2015, Diekman was traded to the Texas Rangers. The Nebraska native had a long 13-year career with multiple spots. Those locations were with the Rangers, Phillies, Oakland Athletics, Arizona Diamondbacks, Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals, Boston Red Sox, and, most recently, the New York Mets. He even briefly signed with the Braves in February but was released in March.
In 705 career games, he was 27-34 with a 3.91 ERA, 19 saves, and 764 strikeouts. He was never an All-Star caliber pitcher, but he was consistent. Diekman found his way to land with 10 different teams, indicating he was good enough to be an arm in the bullpen.
In his farewell message posted on X, he wrote, "Thank you to the Phillies for taking a shot on a 30th round guy out of small-town Nebraska that looked like Skeletor. Making my big league debut with the most veteran team imaginable at that point was surreal. I'll never forget being a part of the 2014 no-hitter."
Back in 2014, the Phillies completed a no-hitter against the Atlanta Braves during a 7-0 victory. In that matchup, Cole Hamels, Ken Giles, Jonathan Papelbon, and Diekman all pitched to complete the shutout.
That is a memory Diekman and the Phillies will never forget.