Former Cub Shawn Camp announced retirement last week
It wasn’t that long ago when former Chicago Cubs’ outfielder, Juan Pierre, announced his retirement after 14-years in the majors. Now with Pierre hanging up his cleats, another former Cub will do the same.
According to Carrie Muskat on Twitter, former right-handed reliever Shawn Camp has also decided to call it a career after spending 17-years in professional baseball on Monday, March 9.
Camp, 39, was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the seventh round of the 1997 amateur entry draft and quickly made his way through their farm system by collecting 25 saves in a matter of two years.
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His time with the Padres would come to an end after being deal to the Pittsburgh Pirates in July of 2001 for outfielder Emil Brown. Camp’s big break came in 2004 after joining former George Mason coach Dayton Moore in Kansas City with the Royals.
The former catcher converted pitcher would appear in 42 games with the Royals during his rookie campaign. Shawn would go onto posting a 3.92 ERA, 51/16 K/BB ratio with two saves, five holds, and one blown save through 66 2/3 frames.
After jumping from the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays since his debut with the Royals, Camp finally found himself with the Cubs after agreeing to a minor league deal.
Prior to signing his deal with the Cubs in 2012, he spent only a month with the Seattle Mariners – who released him as they were looking to get younger.
In his first year with the Cubs, Camp appeared in a career-high 80 games and finished the 2012 campaign with a 3.59 ERA – a slight improvement compared to his 4.21 stamp with the Blue Jays in 2011.
Despite coming off a year in which he recorded another career-high in holds with 18, things began to go down-hill for Chicago’s seasoned reliever.
On May 22, 2013, Camp was placed on the disabled list after spraining his toe – which would lead to him picking up a rehab assignment with the Single-A Kane County Cougars.
Camp would eventually find himself looking for a job after the Cubs designated him for assignment on July 3. In his final stint on the North Side, the then 37-year-old worked only 23 innings and managed to post a second-career worst 7.04 ERA.
Both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Philadelphia Phillies would risk rolling the dice on the struggling reliever – only to cut him loose as Philadelphia’s Lehigh Valley affiliate released him last summer.