Chris Bassitt is closing in on 38, and he's still not ready to walk away from baseball.

The right-hander is wrapping up his age-37 season with the Orioles, and as an impending free agent, retirement is a real question hanging over his offseason.

"I've got a 7-year-old at home, I've got a 3-year-old at home and a wife that wants me to be home. So yeah, we'll cross that bridge when we do," Bassitt said, per Jake Rill of MLB.com.

"But overall, I still have a lot of fire in me to definitely do something. I'm gonna have to win the wife over, I'll tell you that. But yeah, there's a lot of fire still in me. I know I still can play this game at a really high level."

That's a real family calculation layered on top of a real competitive itch, the same tension plenty of veterans face heading into their late 30s.

Why the numbers still support one more contract

Bassitt has been a genuine workhorse for years, logging at least 27 appearances and 144 innings every season from 2019 through 2025.

This year broke that streak. Back discomfort cost him over two months, from early June to mid-August, limiting him to 20 appearances and 102 innings.

The overall results were passable rather than dominant, a 4.59 ERA with a 16.1% strikeout rate.

But there's a real split worth noting. He carried a 5.27 ERA before the IL stint and a 3.74 ERA after, with his strikeout rate climbing from 14.2% to 18.6% and his fastball jumping from 90.4 mph in June to 93.3 mph in September.

That late-season form suggests the rest genuinely helped, and it could matter significantly for how teams value him this winter.

He earned $18.5 million from Baltimore this season, though his next deal will likely come in lower given the overall decline in both quality and quantity of innings.

Veteran competent starters can still find real money, though. Justin Verlander got $13 million for his age-43 season with heavy deferrals last winter. Jose Quintana got $6 million from the Rockies at 37. Max Scherzer signed for $3 million with incentives at 41 and ultimately unlocked $2 million more through bonuses.

Baltimore won't make the playoffs, so Bassitt heads into his offseason decision within days.

Complicating things further, if he's still unsigned by Dec. 1, he could face a lengthy MLB lockout once the current collective bargaining agreement expires, an uncertain timeline that could stretch his decision out even longer.