What a difference a year makes.
One year ago, Jay Jackson was heading into Rocco Baldelli's office to find out he'd made his first Opening Day big-league roster.
Now, earlier this week, Jackson announced his retirement from the game at age 37.
Jackson made an appearance a few months ago on the Jays podcast posted above, and early in the show he seems to indicate that he pitched hurt with the Twins — or that he became injured as a result of pitching for the Twins. It's all a bit hard to discern.
Well, no matter that, Jackson announced over the weekend he was retiring after 104 big-league games spanning 113.2 innings over six seasons.
Veteran MLB reliever Jay Jackson is retiring after 17 seasons in baseball. He’d love to work for a team and is also open to a career in broadcasting, his agent Nello Gamberdino said.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) March 29, 2025
And perhaps the seasons themselves begin to tell the story. Jackson made six appearances for the Padres....in 2015. Then he made 28 appearances for the Brewers...in 2019.
Then, he resurfaced again in 2021 with the Giants (21.2), 2022 with the Braves (1.1) and 2023 with the Blue Jays (29.2).
In the meantime, Jackson had multiple stints in Japan, adding stops to a professional career that spanned 17 seasons altogether after he was drafted in the ninth round of the 2008 MLB draft by the Cubs. (The Twins drafted career minor-league first baseman Mike Gonzales five picks earlier)
So 2024 being his first Opening Day roster was a big deal to be sure. Certainly a few players know when they make their first Opening Day roster that they might not make another; that reality becomes more clear when your first such assignment comes in your age-36 season.
The Jackson signing was curious on multiple ends for the Twins, who came into 2024 figuring to have a pretty solid bullpen. But adding Jackson, who had pitched to a 2.12 ERA in 29.2 innings the season before with the Blue Jays, was hardly any sort of protest-able sin. After all, ask any MLB GM how much relief pitching they need, and they'll invariably say "more."
But Jackson didn't pitch well for the Twins, and that's where one might want to understand the nature of the injury. When was this injury suffered? That's not to call into question the veracity of his claims, but to verify them.
But here lies the issue. The player most likely to play through the pain is the one who has the most to lose from it. Every pitch a pitcher like Jay Jackson throws is a two-edged dart; will it hit bullseye or miss the board completely?
A pitcher with this little service time in the major leagues at such an age may feel like each pitch is crucial to staying in the league. And while that's true, the opposite is, as well.
And therein lies the cruel beauty of the game. A pitcher pitching to keep themselves in the big leagues will often pitch himself out of them due to the exact same set of cicumstances.
And this isn't intended to be all existential or weird, especially with respect to Jackson's retirement.
It just goes to show the fleeting nature of the game.
They say "comfort is a thief." I'd say that's doubly true in the game of baseball.
History will remember Jackson as a short-time Twins reliever with 26.1 innings and a 7.52 ERA, when in fact his story deserves a much, much better telling.