Kyle Lohse retires with an Instagram post

After 16 years in the major leagues, Kyle Lohse announced his retirement with a picture on Instagram of himself holding up a beer at a ballgame.

Kyle Lohse was never a big star. He pitched for 16 years in the major leagues with six different teams. He got one seventh-place vote for the NL Cy Young Award in a season in which he led the NL in starts and winning percentage. That was the only year he had an ERA under 3.00. That was also the only year he was recognized in award voting. He never made an all-star team.

Lohse was never the ace of his big league team and didn’t have a great fastball, averaging right around 90 mph for much of his career. He was mostly a three-pitch pitcher—fastball, slider, change-up—with an occasional curve mixed in. In the 2531 2/3 innings he pitched, he had a 4.40 ERA, which was slightly below average for the years in which he pitched in the major leagues.

Most fans who followed baseball over the last 20 years probably don’t think much about Kyle Lohse these days. He last pitched in the major leagues in 2016, with the Rangers. He didn’t pitch at all last year, in the majors or minors.

At the end of March this year, he signed a minor-league deal with the Kansas City Royals. After two starts and a 12.46 ERA with the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers, Lohse was released. From all appearances, it looks like he retired when he posted this on Instagram:

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On his Instagram post, Lohse is holding up a beer while watching a baseball game. Good for him. He faced over 10,000 batters in his major league career. It’s about time his right arm gets some rest.

Despite being a nondescript right-handed pitcher for many years, Lohse had some impressive accomplishments in baseball.

According to Fangraphs, there have been 9,518 pitchers in major league history. Lohse ranks 239^th in innings pitched and tied for 268^th in career wins, right there with Max Scherzer and Adam Wainwright.

Think about that for a moment. Lohse is in the top three percent in innings pitched and wins among the 9,500-plus pitchers who ever pitched. How many of us can say we are in the top three percent of all the people that have ever done what we do?

Even more impressive are the long odds Lohse faced to even have a career in the big leagues. He was drafted out of high school by the Cubs in the 29^th round of the 1996 June Amateur Draft. According to my research at Baseball-Reference, there have been 1287 players chosen in the 29^th round of the June draft. The vast majority of these players never had any big league playing time.

Of these 1287 players drafted in the 29^th round of the June draft, 93 went on to have major league playing time, but 51 of them went back in the draft and were chosen again in later years. They didn’t sign as 29^th-round picks. They usually signed as much higher picks after building up their stock.

Only 42 of those 1287 players who signed as 29^th-round picks had any playing time in the major leagues. Those 42 players represent just three percent of all the players drafted in the 29^th-round. Kyle Lohse is one of those three percent. Those are the odds he faced as a 29^th-round pick, and he overcame them to have a 16-year career.

These 42 players who signed as 29^th-round draft picks were mostly bit players. They were guys like Tim Spooneybarger, Erik Kratz, and Russ Davis. Most of them provided very little value in their careers. They had a median WAR of 0.3.

Just four of these players were worth more than 10 WAR, and Lohse is among them, with 18.6 WAR. In fact, he’s the third-best player to ever sign as a 29^th-round draft pick, behind only outfielder Ken Griffey (34.0 WAR) and pitcher John Denny (32.3 WAR) and ahead of first baseman Adam LaRoche (14.2 WAR).

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Kyle Lohse spent more years with the Minnesota Twins, but his best years were with the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2011, he was part of their World Series-winning team, so he has something many more famous players never got, a World Series ring.

Kyle Lohse may not have been a star player, but in the grand scheme of things he can be proud of what he accomplished. His career is more than worthy of a beer.