The 5 Greatest “Farewell Tours” by MLB Hitters

Though David Ortiz regrets disclosing that 2016 will be his final year in the major leagues, fans should be thankful he gave us ample time to appreciate his greatness. Big Papi is treating us to one of the finest farewell seasons by a hitter in MLB history.

With 3.2 wins above replacement already accumulated through 64 games played, he’s on pace to set a career high in WAR at 40 years old. That’s absurd, but as this week’s Weekly Rotation will show, it somehow understates how legendary his final campaign could be compared to other swan song seasons.

Using WAR as the decisive statistic and visualizations from PointAfter, I’ll rank the five best seasons since 1945 by hitters during the final year of their MLB careers. For some context, if the pre-World War II era was included, players who either had untimely deaths or participated in the infamous Black Sox scandal would comprise most of the top five.

Ortiz’s 2016 campaign will then be examined in the context of the legendary goodbyes before his own. A heads-up to Red Sox fans: You should make sure to visit Fenway Park this year to catch a glimpse of a franchise icon before he retires. Somehow, he’s playing just as well as he did when he helped break the Curse of the Bambino more than a decade ago.

5. Hank Greenberg (1947), Pittsburgh Pirates

Stats: 3.4 WAR, .249/.408/.478 slash line, 25 HR, 74 RBI, 104 BB in 125 games

A two-time MVP who had his career cut short by injury, military service and a relatively early retirement, the original "Hammerin' Hank" is one of baseball’s most underappreciated figures.

Aside from his numerous accomplishments on the field, Greenberg was the first MLB player to volunteer for service in the Air Force. He was also the first player to return from war in 1945, and he promptly homered during his first game back with the Tigers, later accounting for two of the three total dingers hit in that year’s World Series to bring a championship to Detroit.

Before the 1947 season, however, penny-pinching owners sold Greenberg to Pittsburgh. He adapted quickly to his new digs, leading the National League in walks — drawing a free pass in more than 20 percent of his plate appearances — and mashing 25 home runs for the Pirates.

Greenberg retired after his age-36 season with plenty of baseball left in him — no player had previously retired directly after hitting 25 homers — to become the Cleveland Indians’ farm system director. He’d proceed to build a successful post-playing career in the front office of both the Indians and White Sox before becoming an investment banker.

4. Barry Bonds (2007), San Francisco Giants

Stats: 3.4 WAR, .276/.480/.565 slash line, 28 HR, 66 RBI, 132 BB in 126 games

Bonds’ victory lap was one for the ages, as the polarizing slugger overtook Hank Aaron on the all-time home run leaderboard, setting a new hallowed benchmark: 762.

That Bonds could still muster enough power and bat speed at age 42 to crush 28 home runs is remarkable, but perhaps even more notable is how scared pitchers still were of him. Bonds led the Majors in walks and paced the majors in on-base percentage for the sixth time in seven seasons, with the only exception being his injury-plagued 2005 campaign.

Bonds certainly could have provided some value in 2008, but teams were scared away by the omnipresent cloud of performance-enhancing drugs surrounding the newly crowned home run king. After remaining unsigned for more than two full years, Bonds officially retired in December 2009.

3. Will Clark (2000), Baltimore Orioles/St. Louis Cardinals

Stats: 4.0 WAR, .319/.418/.546 slash line, 21 HR, 70 RBI, 136 hits in 130 games

A vastly underrated lefty who notched three top-five finishes in MVP voting early in his career, Clark functioned as the ideal midseason acquisition for the Cardinals in 2000.

After a crumbling Mark McGwire was lost for the season due to a knee injury, St. Louis found itself in the unenviable position of replacing a franchise icon in the middle of a playoff race. Clark was brought in following a resurgence in Baltimore during the first half, and “The Thrill” didn’t disappoint.

Clark served up a pinch-hit homer in his first at-bat for the Cards, then homered in his first four starts. He ended up recording a career-high .964 OPS over the course of the regular season before going 10-for-29 with two homers and a 1.062 OPS in eight playoff games.

St. Louis fell to the Mets in the NLCS, and the 36-year-old Clark announced his retirement that November, surprising many in the game. He told the New York Times, “The first part of my life was based on being a baseball player. The second part of my life is going to be based on being a daddy and a husband.”

2. Roy Cullenbine (1947), Detroit Tigers

Stats: 4.3 WAR, .224/.401/.422 slash line, 24 HR, 78 RBI, 137 BB in 142 games

Cullenbine was unfortunate to play in an era when batting average was the predominant offensive statistic of the time. OPS was just a twinkle in some statistician’s eye. He was one of MLB's best all-time walk drawers — his 22 game walk-streak, set during his final season, is the longest of all time — when walks were considered “lazy” by many of Cullenbine’s contemporaries.

The underappreciated Joe DiMaggio of walks ranked second in free passes, third in on-base percentage, fourth in home runs and eighth in OPS in the American League during his final go-round in the bigs. Nevertheless, after a year when he set a career high for home runs and a still-standing Tiger record for walks, he was gone from the Majors.

It’s kind of crazy someone with those counting stats couldn’t find a roster spot somewhere the following spring. Though Cullenbine’s defense was panned at the time, he only finished fifth in errors among AL first basemen while creating the most assists among the peers at his position. Perhaps he just wasn’t well liked?

Today, Cullenbine’s strong on-base and power numbers would make him a valuable commodity. In the wake of World War II, however, patience was apparently not the most popular of virtues.

The Tigers would be the last team Cullenbine, a Detroit native, would play for. He was released by his hometown team the following offseason, and never appeared in a MLB contest again.

1. Jackie Robinson (1956), Brooklyn Dodgers

Stats: 4.5 WAR, .275/.382/.412 slash line, 10 HR, 43 RBI, 12 SB in 117 games

Though Robinson’s entrance into the Major Leagues was far more significant than his exit, his final season currently stands as the best farewell tour by a hitter in baseball history. The legendary athlete was one of the fastest players on the field until the very end, ranking third in defensive WAR (2.0), sixth in stolen bases and 16th in MVP voting.

However, fans didn’t know of Robinson’s imminent retirement in 1956. Despite Robinson saving his best World Series for his last in some respects (.796 OPS, 10 total bases), the Dodgers lost the 1956 title to the Yankees for the fifth time in Robinson’s 10-year MLB career. Brooklyn tried to trade the 37-year-old to the New York Giants during the offseason, but Robinson elected to retire due to an increasingly bothersome list of ailments that would eventually be diagnosed as diabetes.

The disease would steal most of Robinson’s sight by middle age and likely contributed to his fatal heart attack in 1972, just more than 25 years after the iconic No. 42 broke the color barrier and changed baseball forever.

Note: Roberto Clemente, who died in a plane crash after his age-37 season in 1972, was not included in this ranking due to the circumstances surrounding his final season. If he was included, he would rank No. 1 with 4.8 WAR.

David Ortiz (2016), Boston Red Sox

Stats: 3.2 WAR, .339/.421/.699 slash line, 18 HR, 59 RBI in 64 games

According to some personal Baseball Reference research, Ortiz would smash the record for WAR by a hitter in his final season during the post-World War II era if he maintains his current pace. Even if we include batters from before 1945, the only hitter who’s previously equaled Ortiz’s current WAR path (pun intended) is Shoeless Joe Jackson, who totaled 7.6 WAR in 1920 at age 32 before being banned from the game for his role in the Black Sox betting scandal.

All baseball fans should be wishing Ortiz’s ailing feet good health, because his revival is a rare relic of a sport that has seen the aging curve pessimistically bend for players of Ortiz’s age over the course of Big Papi’s career. The sport is more exciting when iconic veterans such as himself call back days of yore.

Nearly halfway through this season, however, Ortiz isn’t just equaling his old self — he’s surpassing it.

Note: This story was published in conjunction with Yahoo Sports and PointAfter, a sports visualization site that's part of the Graphiq network.

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