In the minutes following the Los Angeles Dodgers’ championship-clinching win on Wednesday, veteran reliever Daniel Hudson did pretty much the coolest thing a player can do after winning the World Series: He announced his retirement.
“This was the only reason I came back — to go out on top,” the 37-year-old Hudson told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “And that’s what’s happening.”
It’s a storybook ending to a career that was often anything but — not every pitcher has as many World Series rings as they have Tommy John surgeries.
Hudson, a Virginia native, was taken in the fifth round of the 2008 draft by the Chicago White Sox following a college career pitching for Old Dominion University. He made his MLB debut just 15 months later in September 2009, and the following year, he was starting full-time for the White Sox — until they traded him to the Arizona Diamondbacks at the trade deadline.
Hudson blossomed in Arizona. He turned in a fantastic 2011 season as a 24-year-old, pitching 222 innings over 33 starts with a 3.49 ERA. Then the troubles began. He tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm and had Tommy John surgery in July 2012, which required a full year to rehab. As he was nearing his comeback in June 2013, he re-tore his UCL during a rehab start and needed a second Tommy John surgery.
Hudson spent more than two full years off the mound for the D-backs. He was finally able to return in late 2014, no longer as a starter but as a full-time reliever. Hudson managed to come back from two TJ’s, but he didn’t find success until a few years later.
After some serviceable but unspectacular stints with Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, Hudson found himself unemployed in March 2019. He decided to sign a one-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, which changed the trajectory of the last five years of his career. He pitched like gangbusters for the Jays, who engineered a trade that sent him to the Washington Nationals.
And it’s with the Nationals that Hudson found the success he’d been looking for. He had a 1.44 ERA over 24 appearances with the Nats, then joined them for their wild postseason ride that ended with the franchise’s first World Series championship. Hudson even made postseason headlines when he missed Game 1 of the NLCS to attend the birth of his third daughter, a decision that was fully supported by his teammates and coaches, despite drawing ire from some fans and analysts.
Hudson returned to the Dodgers in 2022 and remained with them for the rest of his career. He tore his ACL in 2022 and battled knee issues in 2023, but the Dodgers invited him back in 2024, and he decided to return. He said the only reason he wanted to come back was to win the World Series and go out on top, and he has managed to be one of the few MLB players to live that out.
