Major League Baseball

Wagner's MLB career could be over

Published Oct. 10, 2010 1:00 a.m. ET

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Atlanta closer Billy Wagner can only wait and wonder.

If his career's going to end as he hoped – with a world championship to celebrate – he's relying on 25 Atlanta teammates and a miraculous recovery from a strained left oblique muscle to get him there.

Wagner announced last spring that he'll retire at the end of the season, and he reaffirmed that Sunday.

The end may have come without him knowing it.

He was removed from Game 2 of the NL Division Series on Friday night in San Francisco because of an oblique injury, and when he was unable to throw in a bullpen session on Sunday, the Braves replaced him on their NLDS roster by right-hander Takashi Saito.

If the oblique muscle heals sufficiently, Wagner could be activated for the World Series, but first the Braves would have to win the Division Series against the Giants, then they'd have to win the NLCS without Wagner. Under major league rules, if a player's replaced on the roster in the midst of a postseason series he can't be activated for the ensuing series, which in Wagner's case would be the NLCS.

"I'm here now to support my teammates and ride their coattails and do whatever to get a World Series ring,’’ said Wagner. "That is honestly one of the reasons that I came here this season.’’

A seven-time All-Star, he's also reached the postseason seven times in his career. None of the six previous playoff teams he was with advanced to the World Series.

"Everyone asked me all year why am I retiring,’’ said Wagner. "It didn't have anything to do with whether I pitched well or didn't pitch well. It was to compete and have a chance to win a ring. Maybe it's not going to happen the way I want it to, and that's just life.’’

Wagner's committed enough to retiring that after two days of pain killers, he convinced team doctors to give him two cortisone shots on Sunday morning in hopes of lessening the pain from the oblique strain enough to allow him to pitch. It didn't work.

"They said normally they wouldn't do that because you run the risk of really tearing (the oblique),’’ he said. "I was asked numerous times, 'Are you sure you're retiring? Are you sure you're retiring.’ They didn't want to run that risk that if I did get the shot and went out and pitched and tore the muscle worse that it would hamper me maybe for next year.’’

It's not like Wagner's being forced into retirement. His $6.5 million option for 2011 vested when he finished his 50th game of the season.

In his 16th big-league season, Wagner, who turned 39 in July, led the Braves with 37 saves and compiled a 1.43 ERA in 71 appearances.

And if it ends without that first World Series appearance, Wagner said, it'll be disappointing, but the world won't end.

"I haven't thought about it,’’ he said when asked about the key moments of his career. "We're only playing baseball. We're not changing anybody's life.

"I've enjoyed it. It allowed me to really do a lot of things for my family and my community. As far as looking back and trying to dig myself a little bit, I don't do that."

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