Adam Dunn makes playoffs but doesn’t play; will retire
The Oakland A’s acquired sugger Adam Dunn from the Chicago White Sox just before the waiver trade deadline at the end of August. The 34-year-old belted a home run in his first at-bat as an Athletic but the rest of his time in Oakland was lackluster. Dunn hit .212 for the A’s with two home runs with 10 RBIs in 25 games.
When Dunn arrived in Oakland, he maintained that these were going to be the last weeks of his career but as they postseason got closer the absolutelys turned into maybes when it came to retirement.
That all changed on Monday night when the Kansas City Royals and the A’s played a 12-inning, four-plus hour marathon game in which the A’s did not come out on top. The Royals won the game on a walk-off single by Salvador Perez and the A’s playoff hopes were squashed for the eighth time this century, as the Royals won 9-8.
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The real kicker, at least I am sure it was for Dunn because even I thought it was pretty messed up that almost everyone played during the 12-inning game while Dunn remained on the bench, after having played in 2,001 regular season games without ever going to the playoffs. So he gets there and doesn’t even get to play. Talk about a bum deal.
A’s manager Bob Melvin said he spoke to Dunn about the A’s needing to prioritize defense over offense leaving Sam Fuld in left field and Brandon Moss in the designated hitter’s position which meant leaving Dunn on the bench. But the A’s strategy didn’t work for them anyway and Dunn lost his last chance at playing in the postseason.
"“I let him know what we’re looking at so he’s not surprised when he sees the lineup,” Melvin said. “All our guys know that we do things a little differently here at times. We’re trying to play for the day.”"
After the game, according to ESPN’s Doug Padilla, Dunn refused to change from his uniform and sat with his teammates soaking in the atmosphere one last time. Dunn also made a point to tell ESPN’s Pedro Gomez that the 2014 A.L. Wild Card game would be his final game.
Dunn played in the Major Leagues for 14 seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinntai Reds, Washington Nationals and most recently the White Sox before being traded to Oakland.
He ends his career batting .237 with 462 home runs and 1,168 RBI. Unfortunately it just wasn’t in the cards – or on the lineup card in 2014 – for Dunn to ever make a postseason on-field appearance.