Seven months after losing his right eye in a freak training accident, former Philadelphia Phillies pitching prospect Matt Imhof is retiring from baseball at age 23.
Imhof, who began the 2016 season with the Clearwater Threshers in the Class A Florida State League, was taking part in a routine stretching regimen at Brevard County Stadium in late June when a piece of metal broke loose from the wall and struck him in the face -- fracturing his nose, breaking two orbital bones and severely injuring his eye.
After consulting with doctors at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami and learning the eye was damaged beyond repair, Imhof decided to have it surgically removed and replaced with a prosthetic one.