Sudden retirement removes a wild card from Mariners' trade deadline deck

Toronto Blue Jays v Colorado Rockies | Dustin Bradford/GettyImagesAfter a lengthy baseball career that spanned nearly two decades, hard-throwing reliever Daniel Bard has officially hung up the cleats.

As a first-round draft pick in 2006, Bard was known for his impressive velocity for the time, occasionally touching 100 mph on his fastball. Despite initially being groomed as a starting pitcher by the Boston Red Sox, he moved to the bullpen to take advantage of his raw stuff.

His initial success in that role between 2009 and 2011 fell apart after Boston moved him back into the rotation in 2012, and he eventually went seven years between MLB appearances before getting his pitching career back on…