Boras: Gagne wanted to compete at highest level

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When the Dodgers granted Eric Gagne his release in spring training, Gagne went home to think. He did not direct his agent, Scott Boras, to pursue other opportunities. If one had come his way, maybe he would have had something else to think about. But, in that moment, Boras said Gagne was not thinking about pushing to find another job, another chance, another tryout.

‘He wanted to reflect on the situation,’ Boras said Monday at Angel Stadium.

Gagne announced his retirement Monday, not in a news conference or press release but in an informal interview with a French-language website. Boras confirmed Gagne’s decision, saying the pitcher did not want to spend another summer away from his children with no assurance he could return to the form that led him to the Cy Young Award with the Dodgers.

‘He wanted to compete in the game at a particular level,’ Boras said. ‘For a lot of statured players, they make every effort to try to compete at that level.’

And so Gagne’s major league career concluded in relatively anonymous fashion, on Sept. 25, 2008, as the fourth of eight pitchers for the Milwaukee Brewers in a 5-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Gagne, the greatest closer in Dodgers history, worked a scoreless seventh inning.

-- Bill Shaikin