Veteran RHP discusses retirement, career, and future chapter.
Dylan Bundy, a veteran right-hander who hasn’t pitched professionally in nearly a year, announced his retirement from baseball during an interview with MASN’s Roch Kubatko. The experienced right-hander spent parts of eight seasons in the major leagues with the Orioles, Angels, and Twins.
Bundy was drafted fourth overall by Baltimore out of high school in 2011, and he was long regarded as the sport’s finest talent. He soared through the minor leagues before making his big league debut in September 2012 at the age of 19, pitching 1 2/3 scoreless innings in two brief appearances. Unfortunately, injuries prevented him from returning to the major levels for several years after that. Bundy had Tommy John surgery in 2013, and recuperation cost him the entire season as well as the first part of 2014. Bundy only made eight starts in 2015 because to shoulder concerns.
The right-hander returned to the major leagues in 2016 at the age of 23. Throughout his first season, he pitched in both the Orioles’ starting rotation and the bullpen, posting an above-average 4.07 ERA and striking out 21.9% of hitters faced. Bundy’s performance earned him a position in the rotation for the 2017 season, and he had a decent back-of-the-rotation season with the Orioles, posting a 4.24 ERA and a 4.32 FIP in 169 2/3 innings. The highlight of Bundy’s 2017 season occurred on August 29, when he struck out 12 batters in a complete game shutout against the Mariners, allowing only one hit and two walks.
Bundy started on Opening Day in 2018 and continued with the Orioles until the end of the 2019 season as a solid starting pitcher, finishing with a roughly league average 4.67 ERA, 4.75 FIP, and 602 strikeouts. Bundy left the Orioles in December 2019, when he was traded to the Angels in exchange for four young players, including current Orioles starter Kyle Bradish.
While the COVID-19 epidemic reduced the 2020 season to only 60 games, Bundy still had the best season of his career. In 11 starts with the Angels, the righty posted a 3.29 ERA (138 ERA+) and an impressive 27% strikeout rate in 65 2/3 innings of work. Bundy finished eighth in the AL Cy Young voting that year, with a superb 2.95 FIP trailing only Shane Bieber, Zack Greinke, and Framber Valdez among AL starting pitchers.
Bundy’s outstanding performance during the shorter season won him Opening Day starter honors for the second time in his career, but the righty struggled throughout the 2021 season and was eventually demoted to the bullpen in late June. After reverting to the swing role in which he began his MLB career, Bundy improved slightly, posting a 4.21 ERA in nine appearances (five starts) for the rest of the summer before his season was cut short in late August due to a shoulder strain.
Bundy went on to pitch for the Twins in 2022, signing a one-year contract with the team. He made 29 starts with Minnesota, but he had a 4.80 ERA and 4.66 FIP, with a strikeout rate of only 15.8%. That left Bundy to sign a minor league contract with the Mets during the 2022-23 offseason, but he only made six starts for Triple-A Syracuse before being placed on the injured list in May and being released in July.
In his interview with Kubatko, Bundy detailed his decision to retire, stating that “nothing was feeling good” during his tenure in the Mets system last year, when he sat just 87-88 with his fastball, which had averaged 91.7 mph throughout his big league career. After leaving the Mets last summer, Bundy chose to stay at home for the remainder of the 2023 season, and while he debated returning to pitching over the offseason, he ultimately opted to retire. Kubatko also stated that Bundy has begun working as a real estate agent with Ary Land Company in his hometown of Sperry, Oklahoma.
Bundy pitched 910 2/3 innings in 190 appearances over eight major baseball seasons. He finishes his career with 852 strikeouts, 54 wins, and an ERA of 4.74.
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