Daniel Bard, ex-Rockies closer who was NL Comeback Player of the Year in 2020, retires

Daniel Bard, the ex-Rockies relief pitcher whose comeback became one of the most heartwarming comeback stories in baseball, is calling it a career.

The former Rox closer was listed as “retired” on his official minor-league baseball page, having been with the AAA Tacoma Rainiers of the Pacific Coast League since June 17.

The Seattle Mariners are the Rainiers’ parent club; they signed Bard on June 3 and assigned him to their team in the Arizona Complex League for a fortnight before moving him up to AAA. In six relief appearances with Tacoma, Bard posted a 3.18 ERA, allowing six hits and a walk over 5 2/3 innings.

But he landed on the seven-day injured list July 8.

This drops the curtain on a bright light in an otherwise dark era for the Rox, as Bard’s performance in recent years — particularly in 2020 and 2022, years in which he was among MLB’s finest relievers — was a testament to his resilience after he dealt with anxiety that kept him out of major-league baseball for six full years. He also overcame thoracic outlet syndrome.

Bard notched six saves and posted a 3.65 ERA during the 60-game 2020 season. After struggling in 2021, he snapped back with arguably the finest campaign of his career, logging a 1.79 ERA with a career-high 34 saves. His WHIP sat at a microscopic 0.994.

But in the World Baseball Classic the following March, the control problems that dogged him at times in his career returned. In the subsequent season, his ERA and WHIP ballooned. A year later, Bard’s season ended before it could begin, thanks to a torn meniscus and a flexor-tendon injury in his elbow.

That proved to be the end of his major-league career.

BARD CAME BACK AFTER BEING AWAY FROM MLB FOR SIX SEASONS DUE TO ANXIETY

Bard was a mainstay of the Boston Red Sox bullpen from 2009-11, notching 192 appearances over those three seasons. In each of those years, his ERA was below 3.70; in two of those seasons, his WHIP was below 1.05 as he became one of the better setup men in baseball.

During 2011, Bard established a Boston record with 25 straight appearances without allowing a run. But that unraveled in the final month of the season, and he struggled in 2012 as the Red Sox moved him into the rotation, as his ERA and WHIP spiked before he was optioned to AAA Pawtucket.

Bard would spend most of the 2013 season in Boston’s farm system before being released; he made just two major-league appearances in that campaign.

A year later, Bard landed in the Texas Rangers’ farm system and made four appearances for the low-A Hickory (N.C.) Crawdads; in three of them, he failed to record an out. He hit seven and walked nine while retiring just two batters.

Four days after his last appearance in the Rangers’ system, he was released. It would be over two years before he pitched in another regular-season game of any type again.

His 19 appearances over the course of the 2016 and 2017 seasons in the Cardinals and Mets systems weren’t quite as catastrophic as his four games in Hickory, but they were calamitous nonetheless. In those two seasons he hit nine batters and walked 37 over 12 1/3 innings.

Bard retired shortly thereafter.

But in February 2020, he attempted a comeback, signing with the Rockies. Assigned to AAA Albuquerque, he was added to the 40-man roster on July 17, just before the start of the pandemic-altered season. He made his Colorado debut on July 25, logging his first save in over eight years.

By the end of the short season, he has six saves and the NL’s Comeback Player of the Year award. Two years later, he posted his career high in saves with 34, the sixth-best single-season tally in Rox history.

The memories of Bard will be fond. His persistence won’t soon be forgotten.

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