Sean Doolittle, now 37, announced his retirement late this summer, after eleven seasons in the majors, six of them in the Nationals’ organization. Doolittle made just six appearances back in 2022, before a left elbow injury ended his season, and he returned to try for a late-career run in Washington again this year, before a series of injuries forced him to accept he couldn’t get back.
“So, I had elbow surgery last summer,” Doolittle explained in a press conference officially announcing his decision to retire, “... and I rehabbed that all offseason, and we had a setback in Spring Training, which — the timing of it was tough, because I was pretty far along in that process, I was doing really well.