Gritty former NY Mets player backing out of his plans to retire after the 2024 season

Even after your cleats have been hung up, there’s always a chance an athlete could take them back out and play again. A stereotype of Brett Favre in the latter stages of his career and a pathway many New York Jets fans would like Aaron Rodgers to follow, possibly with a more permanent stay in retirement, we’re witnessing something on a lighter scale happen with former New York Mets outfielder Kevin Pillar.

Pillar had previously stated he planned to retire after the 2024 season. He’s not so sure anymore. 

Maybe it’s the fact that the best free agent center fielder out there is Harrison Bader who last year made $10.5 million. Kevin Kiermaier has already called it quits on his career after winning a championship with the Los Angeles Dodgers. There is motivation for Pillar, who turns 36 in January, to give it one more try and maximize his career earnings.

Gritty former Mets outfielder Kevin Pillar might be getting enough offers in free agency to play another season

Pillar had a rough go of it with the Chicago White Sox last year, slashing .160/.290/.360 in 32 trips to the plate. Things turned around for him when he joined the Los Angeles Angels. For a time, he was doing much better than the eventual .236/.291/.378 he’d hit for the year. Those numbers, while not so superb, don’t fall too short of the .255/.293/.406 he has hit for his career.

His greatest appeal comes from his splits against lefties. He roughed southpaws up for a .310/.352/.500 slash line in 125 chances. Remarkably good numbers, becoming the right-handed hitting option in a platoon with a lefty swinger seems to make the most sense. Add in that he can play center field, even with some diminishing returns, we should have some common sense reasoning as to why Pillar isn’t super eager to retire.

Despite being as well-known as he is, Pillar never received any sort of major pay day. His career earnings fall just shy of $24 million. The $5.8 million he was paid in 2019 by the San Francisco Giants is the highest salary of any season in his career.

Money might not be his biggest motivation. Chasing a ring, could be. Pillar never appeared in a World Series game. After consecutive trips to the postseason in 2015 and 2016 with the Toronto Blue Jays, he wouldn’t get back into the playoffs at all until he did so in 2023 as a member of the Atlanta Braves. Atlanta was eliminated in the NLDS.

Best remembered by Mets fans for getting hit in the face with a pitch and wearing a mask on his fast when he returned shortly after, Pillar proved himself to be a tough guy in his one season with the Mets. Maybe all of those years playing up in Canada gave him a hockey player’s mentality. Spit out your teeth. Get back in the game.