Oakland A’s reliever Yusmeiro Petit hits important milestone

Oakland A’s reliever Yusmeiro Petit hit an important milestone on Wednesday, as he reached his tenth year of major league service time.

Every major league player has goals they set for themselves. It may be to reach certain statistical milestones, or to be an All Star, or even to remain in the majors for the entire season. But there is milestone every player, regardless of their role, wants to hit – to get their tenth year of major league service time.

Oakland A’s reliever Yusmeiro Petit reached that goal on Wednesday, becoming one of a relatively small group of major league players to reach that mark.

That tenth year is important when it comes to Petit’s future. If a former MLB player has at least 43 days of service time, they can collect nearly $9000 per year as of the league’s pension plan. However, that tenth year boosts the benefit to the maximum amount, nearly $210,000.

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It has been a long road for Petit to get there. He was once a top prospect, ranked by Baseball America as one of the top 100 prospects in the game prior to 2005 and 2006. However, he could not quite find his footing in the majors, spending parts of four seasons with the Marlins and Diamondbacks before spending 2010 in the minors. In 2011, he was out of affiliated ball entirely, pitching in the Mexican League.

Petit finally got to show what he can do in 2013. He was brought up to the Giants as a replacement for the injured Matt Cain, slotting into the rotation. On September 6, he was one strike from a perfect game when Eric Chavez had a pinch hit single to end his bid for history.

But Petit would eventually find his way into the history books. In 2014, over the course of seven games, including five relief appearances, he retired 46 consecutive batters to set a new major league mark and breaking Mark Buehrle’s record.

Although his days as a starting pitcher are behind him, Petit has remained as a solid bullpen option. He has spent the past three seasons in Oakland, leading the AL with 80 appearances in 2019. This season, he has posted an excellent 1.86 ERA and a 1.241 WHiP in his 19.1 innings, issuing five walks while striking out 17 batters.

It may have been a struggle at times, but Yusmeiro Petit has done it – the Oakland A’s reliever has reached ten years of service time.