In the minutes after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ win Wednesday night, veteran reliever Daniel Hudson did pretty much the coolest thing a player can do after winning the World Series: he announced his retirement.

“This was the only reason I came back: to get to the top,” Hudson, 37, told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. “And that’s what happens.”

It’s a storybook ending with a career that was often anything but: Not every pitcher has as many World Series rings as Tommy John surgeries.

A native of Virginia, Hudson was taken in the fifth round of the 2008 draft by the Chicago White Sox after a college career pitching for Old Dominion University. He made his MLB debut just 15 months later in September 2009, and the following year he started full-time for the White Sox – until they traded him to the Arizona Diamondbacks at the trade deadline.

But Hudson thrived in Arizona. He had a fantastic 2011 season as a 24-year-old, throwing 222 innings over 33 starts with a 3.49 ERA. But then the problems started. He tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing arm and underwent Tommy John surgery in July 2012, requiring a full year of rehabilitation. And as he neared his comeback in June 2013, he tore his UCL again during a rehabilitation start and had to undergo a second Tommy John surgery.

Hudson spent more than two full years off the mound for the D-backs. At the end of 2014, he was finally able to return, no longer as a starter but as a full-time reliever.

Returning from Tommy John surgery is difficult, which is why you almost never hear of pitchers coming back and being successful after two Tommy John surgeries. Hudson came back from two TJs, but he didn’t find that success until a few years later.

After some useful but unspectacular stints with Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, Hudson found himself unemployed in March 2019. He decided to sign a one-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays, which changed the trajectory of the last five years of his career. He pitched like gangbusters for the Jays, who engineered a trade that sent him to the Washington Nationals.

And it is at the Nationals that Hudson found the success he was looking for. He had a 1.44 ERA over 24 appearances with the Nats, then joined them for their wild postseason ride that ended with the franchise’s first World Series championship. Hudson even made headlines after the season when he missed Game 1 of the NLCS to attend the birth of his third daughter, a decision that was fully supported by his teammates and coaches, despite the ire of some fans and analysts.

Hudson returned to the Dodgers in 2022 and stayed with them for the rest of his career. He tore his ACL in 2022 and struggled with knee problems in 2023, but the Dodgers invited him back in 2024 and he decided to return. He said the only reason he wanted to come back was to win the World Series and come out on top, and he’s managed to be one of the few MLB players to actually make that happen.