Bob Nightengale of USA Today, reports via Twitter, that it appears that Randy Johnson will announce his retirement. He's holding a press conference tomorrow a conference call this evening with the media to discuss his future. [Update by Jim. Looks like Johnson changed the date, to avoid clashing with the Hall of Fame announcements scheduled for tomorrow]
Johnson will finish with five Cy Young awards, 303 wins, 4,875 strikeouts, and a 3.29 ERA in 4,135.3 career innings. Baseball-Reference puts his career earnings at $175.55MM. I think it's easy to say that Johnson is a first ballot hall-of-famer, and probably the first to go in the hall as a D-back. I'm sure there should be more to follow.
Hat tip to MLBTradeRumors for the scoop.
[Update] This indeed proved to be the case, with Johnson ending his career, having reached the mark of 300 wins last season with San Francisco. No real shocks or surprises in his statements, and it seems definitive: he said, "It's taken this long into January because I definitely wanted to just kind of relax from the season being over and make sure I had a clear head when I made this decision, and that I would be making it wholeheartedly and would be sticking to it."
With regard to the cap issue, Johnson politely deflected the inquiry, saying: "That's a good question. I played for a lot of teams and a lot of teams I feel I made my mark with, but that's really a decision that's out of my control. I believe it's something that's decided for you. I'm not even 24 hours into my retirement yet so I will wait down the road and consult with whoever I have to consult with if I'm elected to the Hall of Fame." However, it would be hard to argue his best years were with Arizona (ERA+ 164) and not Seattle (ERA+ 128), even if there were a couple more with the Mariners.
There'll be more on Randy's career with the Diamondbacks shortly.