Ross Stripling is calling it a career.
The veteran pitcher announced his retirement on Monday, about six weeks after the Kansas City Royals released him following a monthlong tryout during spring training.
Stripling went 40-54 with a 4.17 ERA and four saves in 248 appearances with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto, San Francisco and Oakland. The right-hander was an All-Star for the Dodgers in 2018, going 8-6 with a 3.02 ERA in 122 innings while bouncing between the starting rotation and the bullpen.
“I never imagined the experiences and memories I’d be a part of,” Stripling wrote. “They exceeded every hope that my younger self could have dreamt for my baseball career.”
The former Texas A&M star spent four-plus seasons with the Dodgers before being traded to Toronto during the 2020 season. He had the best season of his career with the Blue Jays in 2022. He posted career highs in wins (10) and innings pitched (134 1/3) and a career low in ERA (3.01). He moved on to San Francisco in 2023 and moved across the bay to Oakland in 2024.
The Royals gave him an opportunity when he signed in late February. He struggled in five spring training appearances with Kansas City, allowing 14 runs (13 earned) in eight innings of work before being released on March 23.
Stripling, selected by the Dodgers in the fifth round of the 2012 amateur draft, earned the nickname “Chicken Strip” because he used it — thanks to the urging of a teammate — on the back of his jersey during MLB Players Weekend in 2017.
The name stuck so much so that Stripling signed his retirement announcement “with love, Chicken Strip.”
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