Former Dodgers pitcher Ross Stripling on Monday announced his retirement after a nine-year major league career with four different teams.
The 35-year-old right-hander was in spring training as a non-roster invitee with the Royals this season, but opted out of his minor league deal and was subsequently released on March 23. Stripling’s wife Shelby gave birth to the couple’s third son later that week.
Drafted in the fifth round by the Dodgers in 2012 out of Texas A&M, Stripling made his major league debut at the start of the 2016 season. His first game was quite memorable, lifted while pitching a no-hitter with one out in the eighth inning in San Francisco.
The Dodgers lost that game, but Stripling’s father Hayes thanked Dodgers manager Dave Roberts the day after the game for looking out for his son, who missed the entire 2014 season after Tommy John surgery. Stripling didn’t earn the win, but did join Bumpus Jones (from 1892) as the only major leaguers to that point to pitch at least seven innings without allowing a hit in their major league debut. Daniel Ponce de Leon of the Cardinals found the fountain of youth two years later to join them.
Stripling excelled in multiple roles with the Dodgers, as a bulk reliever, a high-leverage reliever, a swingman, and made the All-Star team as a starting pitcher in 2018, all the while riding his curveball as his bread-and-butter pitch.
During some offseasons early in is baseball career, Stripling worked as a licensed stockbroker for a financial management firm. That economic acumen worked in Stripling’s favor in 2020, when he was eligible for salary arbitration for the first time. He and the Dodgers worked out a $2.1 million deal for the season, but $1.5 million of it was paid as a signing bonus.
That payout came with tax benefits, but the split worked further to Stripling’s advantage when the season was shortened to 60 games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Salaries were cut by 73 percent across the board that season, but that only affected $600,000 for Stripling as his signing bonus was already considered earned money. Stripling in 2020 made more, for instance, than teammates Alex Wood and Pedro Báez, each of whom had full-season salaries of $4 million.
As the Dodgers reshaped their roster in 2020 with the addition of Mookie Betts, Stripling was in a potential trade to the Angels along with Joc Pederson, but the deal was nixed by Angels owner Arte Moreno. With young pitchers Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin taking hold in the Dodgers rotation that season, Stripling was the odd man out and eventually traded, in August to the Blue Jays, for first baseman/outfielder Ryan Noda and pitcher Kendall Williams.
“From our standpoint, this was extremely difficult moving Ross. It was a conversation that I was not looking forward to just because of the respect level,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said the day of the trade. “He’s absolutely a major-league starting pitcher and a lot of it has been a function of timing.”
A popular teammate, Stripling was even mentioned in absentia by Roberts over two months later while receiving the trophy for the Dodgers winning the World Series.
Stripling was mostly a starter in Toronto, but had more of a hybrid role in his final two major league seasons with the Giants in 2023 and the A’s in 2024.
“After 13 seasons and full of tremendous pride and gratitude, it’s time to hang up the cleats,” Stripling said in an announcement on social media Monday. “I never could have imagined the experiences and memories I’d be a part of. They exceeded every hope that my younger self could have dreamt for my baseball career.
“It never could have been possible without my family and friends. I also want to give a huge thank you to all my coaches and teammates over the years. I had so much love and support along the way, and I’m thankful to everyone that was a part of it in any form or fashion. All of you helped me be the best baseball player I could be.
“This has been an unbelievable honor, and I feel incredibly lucky to be so fulfilled and content with leaving the game behind. Now, I’m excited to be home and begin the next chapter of life with my amazing family.”
Stripling’s 110 ERA+ during his five seasons with the Dodgers is tied for 50th in franchise history among pitchers with at least 400 innings. In his nine major league seasons, Stripling had a 4.17 ERA, 98 ERA+, and 4.06 FIP in 248 games, including 129 starts, with 741 strikeouts and 197 walks in 846⅓ innings for the Dodgers, Blue Jays, Giants, and A’s.