In lieu of better things to do while Major League Baseball's lockout is ongoing, why don't we remember some guys who probably haven't been remembered in a while?
Specifically, each team's most notable one-hit wonder…since 2000.
We're limiting our scope to the 21st century because, frankly, nobody cares about that one time that Rufus T. Firefly had a good couple of months for the Boston Beaneaters a century or so ago.
Apart from that, we allowed ourselves a loose definition of the term "one-hit wonder." We were mainly looking for guys who had early-career breakouts that quickly fizzled, yet we didn't ignore cases of veteran players briefly reaching a whole 'nother level before plummeting back to earth.
In any case, one stipulation we had was that the player in question must have gotten another shot with the same team after the season in question. That means you're out, Gary Matthews Jr.
We'll go division by division, starting in the American League East and ending in the National League West.
American League East
Baltimore Orioles: RHP Chris Ray in 2006
After Ray's promising rookie season in 2005, the Orioles tabbed the hard-throwing righty to be their closer in 2006 after B.J. Ryan departed as a free agent. What followed was a 33-save campaign backed by a shiny 2.73 ERA and only 45 hits in 66 innings, all of which seemingly cemented Ray as a star fireman.
The next season, though, began as a struggle and ended with him undergoing Tommy John surgery. Ray wasn't the same after returning in 2009, and his final major league appearance came just two years later on July 29, 2011.
Boston Red Sox: 1B Steve Pearce in 2018
It was with little fanfare that the Red Sox acquired Pearce in late June 2018, yet he promptly became a key part of that year's historic run. Not just with a .901 OPS in 50 regular-season games, but especially with a three-homer, eight-RBI performance in the World Series that won him MVP honors.
Rather than let Pearce get away, the Red Sox re-signed him for 2019. Yet he appeared in only 29 games that year and couldn't get another major league deal in the ensuing offseason. So at 37 years old, he unceremoniously retired.
New York Yankees: RHP Joba Chamberlain in 2007
Even though Baseball America had labeled him as one of baseball's top prospects going into 2007, it still felt like Chamberlain came out of nowhere when he debuted for the Yankees in August and stifled batter after batter with high-octane heat. He allowed just one earned in 24 innings down the stretch.
These days, however, any word-association game with Chamberlain is more likely to include "midges" and "rules" than, say, "dominance." The Yankees' efforts to turn him into a starter failed, and Tommy John surgery in 2011 effectively derailed his career. He was not yet 31 when he pitched his last game in 2016.
Tampa Bay Rays: RHP Fernando Rodney in 2012
The Rays somehow got Rodney, then a 35-year-old journeyman reliever, to throw strikes in 2012. The rest took care of itself in historic fashion, as he set a new relief record with a 0.60 ERA and even finished fifth in the AL Cy Young Award voting.
In 2013, Rodney's walk rate reverted from 1.8 to 4.9 per nine innings. His ERA also shot up to 3.38, resulting in a respectable but far from record-breaking effort. When he threw his last major league pitch in September 2019, his 2012 campaign loomed as a clear outlier in his 17-year career.
Toronto Blue Jays: INF/OF Chris Colabello in 2015
Even if the Blue Jays offense was primarily driven by Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion in 2015, Colabello emerged as an unlikely contributor to the tune of an .886 OPS and 15 home runs over 360 plate appearances. He even tacked on a couple of home runs in the postseason.
As for how Colabello finally managed to break out at age 31 that year, well, his 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs the following season pointed to one explanation. It also marked the end of his major league career.