(The following is an excerpt from 'The Monday Baseball Column' which was published Dec. 9. To read the entire column, click here.)
Just more than a year ago Steve Pearce committed to a one-year, $6.25 million deal with the Red Sox. It made a lot of sense for the team considering he represented the kind of right-handed bat that would complement Mitch Moreland at first base. (And it didn't hurt that he had left a pretty positive impression thanks to a flurry of World Series heroics.) And the player got the chance to perform in his preferred destination while setting himself up for a chance to keep exhibiting his value.
As you know by now things didn't pan out. Pearce was injured from the get-go and never could find the field long enough to help a Red Sox' first base position that ended up with the ninth-worst OPS in baseball.
Now?
Pearce passed on via text to WEEI.com that he is "unofficially retired."
If this is it for the 36-year-old he will have played 786 total big league games while getting his 10 years of service time thanks to this 2019 campaign. Why is 10 years so important to a guy like Pearce besides just having garnered the respect that comes with longevity? A fully-vested pension.
The pension allows members a minimum of just about $68,000 a year for those who start drawing from it at the age of 45. It goes up to $220,000 a year on a sliding scale if the participant chooses to wait for their payoffs to kick until age 62. (Pearce made an estimated $29 million over 13 major league seasons.)
Pearce would finish his major league career with 91 homers, a .772 OPS and, of course, the World Series MVP for 2018.
