After over a decade in the big leagues, T.J. McFarland is hanging up his spikes. The left-hander announced his retirement on Instagram today, thanking his wife, parents, family, friends, teammates and the clubs who employed him for all their support throughout his time as a professional ballplayer.
McFarland wraps up a career of more than a decade. A relative soft tosser by today’s standards, his velocity topped out in the low 90s and he didn’t strike many guys out. But he had great control and was one of the best arms in the league when it came to inducing ground balls. His earned run average wobbled from year to year, as ground balls are less reliable than strikeouts since they need to be hit towards fielders who can regularly convert them into outs. McFarland had three seasons with an ERA under 3.00 and five above 5.00, but he was generally effective on the whole.
His professional career began when he was a fourth-round pick of Cleveland in 2007, taken out of Amos Alonzo Stagg High School in Palos Hills, Illinois. He worked his way up the minor leagues as a starter. He was left unprotected in the 2012 Rule 5 draft. The Orioles took him and plugged him into their bullpen. He stuck on the roster all season long in 2013, throwing 74 2/3 innings over 38 appearances with a 4.22 ERA. His 17.5% strikeout rate was well shy of league average but he generated grounders on 57.8% of balls in play. He stuck with the Orioles in 2014 and dropped his ERA to 2.76 with fairly similar rate stats. But that ERA ticked up to 4.91 in 2015 and then 6.93 the year after.
He was released ahead of the 2017 season and landed with the Diamondbacks. His 5.33 ERA that year wasn’t especially impressive but he was back with the Snakes in 2018 and posted a flat 2.00 ERA over 72 innings. The seesaw nature of his career then flung him in the other direction, as he had a 4.82 ERA in 2019. That may have been related to the juiced balls in that season, as McFarland’s 17.1% home run to fly ball ratio was the highest of his career.
He was put on waivers after that campaign, getting claimed by the Athletics. He posted a 4.35 ERA for the A’s in that shortened season as the club won the American League West. He got to make his postseason debut, tossing two scoreless innings, though the A’s were knocked out by the Astros in the Division Series.
He became a free agent going into 2021. He was with the Nationals on a minor league deal for a while but then got back to the majors with the Cardinals. He gave them 38 2/3 innings with a 2.56 ERA. The Cards snagged a Wild Card spot, which meant a single-game playoff at that time.
Facing the Dodgers, the Cards would eventually fall with McFarland given the tough-luck loss. He was sent into a tied game in the bottom of the ninth. He got Albert Pujols and Steven Souza Jr. to line out then walked Cody Bellinger. Alex Reyes was brought in to face the right-handed Chris Taylor, who hit a walk-off home run. Since Bellinger was technically the winning run, the L went next to McFarland’s name in the boxscore.
Despite that bitter ending, the Cards clearly liked what McFarland gave them. They brought him back for 2022 via a $2.5MM deal, the largest of McFarland’s career. Unfortunately, he was dragged by one of his patented ERA swings. He was released in August with a 6.61 ERA and then re-signed with the Cards on a minor league deal. In 2023, he was mostly stuck in the minors, making just three appearances for the Mets midsummer.
Another bounceback came in 2024. He signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers but was traded to the A’s just before Opening Day and given a roster spot. He made 79 appearances for that club’s final season in Oakland with a 3.81 ERA. He re-signed with that club, a one-year deal worth $1.8MM, going into 2025. His ERA jumped up once more, getting to 6.89 that year, before he was released in July.
Overall, McFarland appeared in 460 major league games and logged 546 1/3 innings with a 4.18 ERA. His 13.7% strikeout rate was well below average but his 7.3% walk rate was quite good and his 61.7% ground ball rate was elite. Among pitchers with at least 500 innings pitched from 2013 to 2025, only Clay Holmes and Framber Valdez induced grounders at a higher rate than McFarland. He had a 26-20 record and earned one save and 68 holds. Baseball Reference pegs his career earnings a bit north of $12MM. We at MLB Trade Rumors salute McFarland on his fine career and wish him the best with whatever comes next.
Photos courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Jeff Curry, Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images
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