Former Detroit Tigers pitcher Aníbal Sánchez announces retirement

Former Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Aníbal Sánchez retires.

While Aníbal Sánchez has not pitched for the Detroit Tigers since the 2017 season, after seventeen years, he has announced that he is set to retire from the big leagues. There will be a small press conference at LoanDepot Park in Miami today to officially announce things.

Sánchez took to Instagram to announce his retirement on Tuesday evening. Here's a screenshot of what the former Detroit Tigers pitcher posted as his farewell graphic.

Sánchez pitched in 16 big league seasons and has spent the last 17 seasons with big league organizations as one of the perennial performers in four different organizations' starting rotations. It's been an incredible career for the right-hander who's calling it quits.

He amassed 364 appearances in his career with 2017.2 innings pitched while pitching to a career 4.06 ERA, a 1.31 WHIP, and had 1,774 career strikeouts. He was a career 116-119 record, but honestly was a solid piece to many rotations along the way, including the Tigers during his tenure in Detroit.

Sánchez would spend six seasons in a Tigers uniform, pitching to a 4.43 ERA, a 1.29 WHIP, and amassing 738 punchouts over 798.1 innings pitched. While the end of his tenure in Detroit, things tapered off a bit with his performance, but he was still an integral part of the team's big-time rotations in the early years in 2012, 2013, and 2014.

The Tigers acquired Sánchez from the Marlins back in 2012 at the deadline, bringing him and Omar Infante in for Rob Brantly, Brian Flynn, and Jacob Turner, who was a former top prospect. Sánchez would jump right into the rotation and be an impactful piece.

It's been a long road for the right-hander, but he has decided it's time to hang them up. His most recent stint in the big leagues came in 2022, pitching for the Washington Nationals organization after a "rebirth" as a true junkballer.

He made 14 starts for the Nationals in 2022, pitching 69.1 innings, where he managed a 4.28 ERA, and a 1.27 WHIP, with 48 punchouts. While he used to be a punchout machine, the game has changed, and age caught up with him, but that did not stop Sânchez from getting back on track and finding ways to miss barrels and be an effective pitcher.

But, after his 2022 season, Sánchez decided that it was time to call it a career. Seventeen years later, from his big league debut, the right-handed pitcher is announcing his retirement.