Mets minor leaguer gives up 14 runs, retires on spot
Mets minor league pitcher Aaron Laffey began Wednesday night as the starting pitcher for Triple-A Las Vegas. By the end of the evening, he had given up 14 runs and quit baseball altogether.
Hours after allowing 12 earned runs in a 16-4 loss to the New Orleans Baby Cakes, Laffey, 33, pulled the plug on a career that spanned more than eight big-league seasons, including 68 starts.
“He just felt it from inside that he gave it everything he had after 16 years,” manager Tony DeFrancesco told the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the game about the 2003 16th-round draft pick. “Plus, the results weren’t very good so that could have been part of it. But at times, you lose your fire and that’s where he’s at.”
In his first two appearances with Las Vegas, Laffey gave up seven and eight runs, respectively, as he filled in for a shallow ro- tation in need of an extra arm.
Against New Orleans, the journeyman already had given up eight runs through three innings, but the 51s’ lack of bullpen depth meant DeFrancesco was forced to keep him in the game a bit longer.
Laffey had signed with the Mets just a few weeks ago, off the independent Somer- set Patriots of the Atlantic League, in another goround with the organization. He pitched 10 innings for the Mets in 2013 and posted a 7.20 ERA in four games. He also spent time with the Yankees in 2011.
Laffey last played in the big leagues for the Rockies in 2015.