One of the nicest guys you would want to meet decided to call it a career this past week. David Robertson, 40, called it a career after 17 seasons in the majors. The fact that he pitched for eight different teams – five of them for one season each – reads like a journeyman, but his stats say something very different. Also, the fact that the Yankees brought him in for two different stints and the Phillies had him for three different stints, also says something about his value on the mound and in the clubhouse.
Robertson had given some thought to retiring last season, but decided to take a different approach. He didn’t sign early on, preferring instead to watch from afar. Being the baseball veteran that he was, he figured a little less wear and tear on his arm certainly wouldn’t hurt and he also knew that there would come a point where his value would increase and he would also be able to insure he would wind up in a situation that he wanted to be in; pitching for a playoff team.
In his time at Lehigh Valley after signing with the Phillies last July, Robertson was like another coach for the young pitchers on the staff. He was available to them and would often be found talking to them, many times holding a baseball to show them a grip or an arm angle. With the media, he was always available even after games where things didn’t go the way he would have drawn them up. Looking at his 10.13 ERA with Lehigh Valley, you might think this was an older guy working out the kinks and perhaps the old magic wasn’t there. Look closer and you find that first, he had just six relief outings which provides a small sample size. Second, he only had two bad outings. They happened to both be against Worcester with just a day between the two. He gave up three earned runs in both outings and saw his ERA balloon from 0.00 after two outings to 13.50 after four outings. In every other outing, he was lights out: 4 G, 3.1 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K.
In his 17 seasons, Robertson was brilliant. He had a stretch of three seasons (2014-2016) when he saved 110 games, posted a 3.22 ERA and fanned 257 hitters in 190 innings of work. He also walked just 68 during that period and gave up just under one home run per nine innings. In his 17 seasons he finished 68-46 with a 2.93 ERA and pitched 894.1 innings. And all of this came from a guy who wasn’t drafted until the 17th round of the 2006 Draft when the Yankees called his name. Somehow, this guy made it to just one All-Star Game in 2011.
He pitched in two different World Series and both included the Phillies. In 2009 he pitched against the Phillies and threw 2.1 shutout innings in the Yankees four games to two series victory over Philadelphia. He was back in 2022, this time pitching for the Phillies and gave the boys from Philly four shutout innings. In the 19 different postseason series he pitched in, Robertson had a 3.40 ERA.
The destination stickers on his luggage say: New York (both the Bronx and Brooklyn), Chicago (both the North and South sides), Philadelphia, Tampa, Miami, and Texas (Arlington to be exact.) If you include the minors, you can add in places like Trenton, Charleston, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Durham, High Point, and Lehigh Valley.
Robertson had a total of 18 summers pitching in professional baseball. They were summers – and springs and falls – well spent.
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