Red Sox Rumors: Notable Update On Ex-Boston Reliever’s MLB Career Plans

Former Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Daniel Bard missed the entirety of MLB’s 2024 season after undergoing right elbow surgery.

That’s delayed Bard’s return to a big-league mound for over a year and three months, and yet the 39-year-old isn’t ready to call it quits. Bard last pitched for the Colorado Rockies in 2023, going 4-2 with a 4.56 ERA across 50 relief appearances, before encountering his latest setback — which was said to require at least a year for recovery before the right-hander could begin considering a return.

Now, as Bard approaches what could be his age-40 season in June, the veteran is blueprinting a comeback plan. Bard intends to start throwing off a mound in February, as teams begin gathering for spring training, sign with a team in April, per WEEI’s Rob Bradford, and pitch not too long after.

Bard is two years removed from an impressive late-career ascendance with the Rockies — notching a 1.79 ERA with 69 strikeouts across 60 1/3 innings in 2022 — and five years removed from being named the National League’s Comeback Player of the Year. That 2020 season was Bard’s improbable return to the big leagues following a seven-year-long hiatus that included minor league runs with the Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs, and an initial retirement from baseball in 2018.

When the United States assembled its team for the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Bard joined a star-studded roster. However, when called upon to pitch against Venezuela in the quarterfinals, Bard underwent a meltdown. He surrendered a walk, a single, threw a wild pitch, hit a batter and walked in a forced run, ending the appearance charged with five earned runs in USA’s 9-7 victory.

Bard was a promising prospect in Boston’s farm system, debuting with the franchise in 2009 before being converted from a relief pitcher to a starter in 2012. He amassed a 3.67 ERA and logged 257 1/3 innings pitched with the Red Sox and departed in 2013.