National Pitcher Sean Doolittle Announces His Retirement

Sean Doolittle did not abandon the baseball diamond on his terms. That was visible due to the lengthy, constraining brace flowing from his left thigh below his mount.

Doolittle extracted so much from his 16 years in professional baseball, including 11 seasons at its highest level, for a converted first baseman turned lefty reliever, for a guy with only two pitches who never completed his mission to find a third, for a player who held the line when a disastrous start to a season with high expectations ended with champagne showers and parade shenanigans.

And that may be why, when he announced his retirement in front of family and friends, including a Washington Nationals contingent with whom he won the World Series, the redheaded reliever adored in these parts shed no tears even as he relived it all.

“The gratitude outweighs the sadness,” Doolittle, 36, said at a news conference before the game to announce his retirement. “I’m at a loss for words because everything keeps returning to how grateful I am for all the opportunities I’ve had in my career.”

Doolittle’s career history reflects his talent and drive and the obstacles ballplayers face as they go from youth baseball to college, the minor leagues, and finally, the majors. No fork was greater than the one he met in 2011, when, after his hitting career had stopped in the minor leagues, the Oakland Athletics approached him and asked, ‘You wanna try pitching again?’

Doolittle was a major leaguer a year later, five years after the A’s drafted him 41st out of the University of Virginia to smash homers.

So, I started a career as rich in myth as cash. Doolittle became an immediate fan favorite in Oakland, as supporters in the right field bleachers imitated his practice of placing his glove hand near his lips as if he was concealing a deep, dark secret from the unwary hitter.

When A’s manager, Bob Melvin, summoned him into his office in July 2017, Doolittle, seeing assistant GM David Forst also present, was struck by a concept he’d never pondered before.

“They want me?”

Indeed, Washington was calling, eager for relief assistance as usual, and Doolittle and Ryan Madson were dispatched along in one of the most significant trading moves since the trade deadline. Both players helped shore up a bullpen with the worst ERA in the majors and led the team to the playoffs.

During this time, an athlete and a city fell in love. Doolittle and his then-girlfriend, Eireann Dolan, embraced the city right away, and Doolittle’s insightful social media postings and media remarks endeared him to the city’s progressive following.

“Let’s be honest: I know I stress Kyle out a lot because I’d tweet something and then show up at the field the next day, and he’d be like, ‘Uh, they want to talk to you,'” she says. Doolittle says of Nationals PR worker Kyle Brostowitz: “I felt like I needed to back it up with a performance on the field to keep my platform.” It might have had a different impact if I hadn’t pitched well enough.

“Baseball was always my priority, what I wanted to do my entire life, and I’d make sure that was in order before I thought about speaking out.”
Doolittle was an All-Star in 2018, had five seasons with at least 20 saves, and finished with a 1.01 WHIP in 463 career appearances. His finest moment coincided with the Nationals’ 2019 season, in which they notoriously started 19-32 and a too-thin bullpen threatened to derail a strong club.

Doolittle pitched through weird defeats and close victories before being placed on the disabled list after the team obtained reliever Daniel Hudson at the trade deadline to rest his ailing knee and damaged body.

“When I moved jobs with the A’s back in 2011, I had this mantra of, ‘What do you want the tale to be?’ And that’s how I’ve always tried to approach my profession,” Doolittle explains. “And at that time, in August, I wanted the story to be, forget all the ups and downs of the first half, I’m going to use these two weeks to reset and get my body right and be a guy for this team, and have (manager) Davey (Martinez) be there to support me.”

The thing I’m most proud of in my career is being able to contribute the way I did down the stretch.

Despite his IL stay, Doolittle led the NL in games completed with 55, struck out 66 hitters in 60 innings, and saved 29 games. Doolittle was even better in the postseason, pitching to a 1.74 ERA, limiting opponents to a 0.189 OBP in 10 ⅓ innings, and getting a crucial save when Hudson skipped Game 1 of the NLCS to attend the birth of his kid.

Doolittle was part of a six-man rotation of starters and relievers for the Nationals during the postseason, culminating in a Game 7 World Series victory in Houston.

Doolittle and the Nats never had it so good again, as injuries restricted him to 11 appearances in 2020. He spent 2021 in Cincinnati and Seattle before returning to Washington for the past two seasons.

But his left knee failed again in June, with his patella tendon partially tearing, forcing him to make a decision he never expected to be so simple.
Doolittle says he’s not done with baseball, but he won’t get into specifics. For the time being, it’s all about what he could do—no what-ifs.

“I did everything I could,” he said. “That’s why today, for me, is a happy day.”