Free agent Jim Thome uncertain about future as he hopes of returning to Baltimore Orioles-MLB News
As the season for the Baltimore Orioles comes to an end, Jim Thome confronts an uncertainty of his future ahead. He joined the Orioles half way through the regular season from the Philadelphia Phillies.
He is 42-year-old which means that his days in Major League Baseball are quite possibly numbered.
However, if his penchant to stay in the Major League is anything to go by, he can continue playing for couple of more years.
Thome is a Future Hall of Famer. He has achieved many laurels in his career as he piled up an incredible number of home-runs in the Major League.
By the time he played for the Phillies at the start of the season, the club had some of their reliable hitters injured.
Not strong enough offensively, the Phillies needed him to play an important role in the line-up.
With Chase Utley and Ryan Howard out, he was among the few players left with Philadelphia that had enough experience to help them through the first half of the regular season.
With regard to offence, Thome produced runs for the Phillies but was unable to show athleticism in the field. In light of this, the Phillies had their concerns.
No wonder as soon as Howard was activated from the disabled list, they unloaded him from the roster and sent him to the Orioles through trade where he then performed the role of a designated hitter.
Thome is still very much capable of striking mammoth home-runs. Irrespective of his injury-prone body, he does have enough power to lead any team to victory by hitting walk-off homers late in the game.
Currently, Thome is a free agent. It remains to be seen whether the Orioles retain him for next year.
"Yeah, you know, I’m gonna go home,” Thome said. “I always talk about [how] I'm not worrying about next year. This is a tough loss. This is a tough loss. I've been able to do this a long time, and felt very blessed to do it for a long time. I've always said,
you've got to have teams call. You've got to have teams that want you. Right now, this is a little tough because you wanted to keep going, you really did. You wanted to keep going."
It will be interesting to see which team Thome plays for in the next regular season.
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