David Cone
In a career that spanned from 1986 to 2003, David Cone was one of the premier pitchers in baseball. He won 194 games, was a five-time All Star, won five World Series, an AL Cy Young, and threw a perfect game. He’s not a Hall of Famer (nor should he be), but in his prime he was very, very good.
By the time he got to the Red Sox in 2001, though, he was not the great pitcher who’d won all of those awards or the World Series rings with the Blue Jays and Yankees. He was thirty-eight and hadn’t been the same pitcher since throwing his perfect game in 1999. His velocity diminished and his stuff wasn’t as good, but that didn’t stop Boston from singing him.
He made 25 starts for the Red Sox in 2001, going 9-7 with a 4.31 ERA and 115 strikeouts. He wasn’t awful, but he wasn’t great and clearly at the end of the line. He didn’t even pitch at all in 2002, simply because no one was interested in signing him.
He came back to make five starts with the New York Mets in 2003 before he hung it up for good.