After the 1978 season, he became a free agent but attracted "curiously little commotion in the marketplace," which the "New York Times" News Service speculated might have been due to collusion between the owners. Wood's 5.20 ERA had been the worst among pitchers who threw enough innings to qualify for the AL ERA title in 1978. When he went unselected in a February 1979 draft for unsigned free agents, he decided to retire. "I just couldn’t do what I could do before I got hurt. That took the fun out of it," he explained.