Two-time Cy Young winner Roy Halladay retires after 16 seasons

Roy Halladay will never appear in the World Series.

Still, he left behind a list of accomplishments that not many other major league pitchers can boast when he retired Monday after 16 seasons -- 12 with Toronto and the final four with Philadelphia.

“As a baseball player, you realize that’s something you can’t do the rest of your life,” said Halladay, 36, who signed a one-day contract to retire as a member of the Blue Jays. “I really don’t have any regrets. You realize there’s other things for you to accomplish in life.”

Halladay cited a desire to avoid back surgery and to spend more time with his family despite the Phillies’ efforts to bring him back at a price much less than the $20 million he earned in each of the last three seasons.

He had shoulder surgery during the last season and didn’t look right when he returned in September, finishing the year at 4-5 with a 6.82 ERA in 13 starts.

A two-time Cy Young winner (with the Blue Jays in 2003 and the Phillies in 2010), Halladay finished in the top three of the voting three other times and in the top five two more times. He a threw perfect game in 2010 and a no-hitter in his first postseason appearance later that season.

He was 148-76 with a 3.43 ERA in 12 seasons with the Blue Jays and was 40-16 with a 2.40 ERA in his first two years in Philadelphia before injuries contributed to a 15-13 record with a 5.15 ERA in 38 starts his final two seasons.

“It’s so much fun to play the game and go out and compete,” he said. “I looked forward to that fifth day more than anything. To go out there and know it’s not going to feel good and I wasn’t going to do it the way I wanted was frustrating. I tried to give everything I can but something was holding me back. I felt I couldn’t give them what I wanted to.”

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