Infielder Jason Kipnis, who had very productive stints with the Chicago Cubs and, particularly, the Cleveland Guardians, announced his retirement from professional baseball on Monday.
Kipnis played at the MLB level until 2020.
He spent the 2021 season with the Atlanta Braves, at Triple-A Gwinnett, but never made it to the majors and decided to call it quits this year.
The player, who had one of his best seasons in 2016 when the then-Indians made it all the way to the World Series, shared a touching farewell letter thanking everybody involved in his career.
Thank you baseball. @MLB pic.twitter.com/GpR5XuibvC
— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) February 20, 2023
You can see baseball means a lot to Kipnis, and he always took it very seriously.
He also thanked fans and said that “every moment was made better because of you guys and your passion for the game.”
Kipnis, who is 35 years old, was in the majors for 10 seasons, and was comfortably above-average in most of them.
He slashed .260/.333/.416 over 4,984 plate appearances in his productive career, hitting 126 home runs and stealing 136 bases in the process.
He retires as an above-average hitter with his 103 wRC+.
He also made two All-Star Games in his career, in 2013 and 2015 when he played for Cleveland.
With them, he had a phenomenal 2016 in which he slashed .275/.343/.469 with 23 home runs, 91 runs, 82 RBI, and 15 stolen bases.
Those numbers helped Cleveland reach the World Series for the first time since the late 1990s.
They couldn’t win it, but he remains a beloved member of the 2010s Indians that were among the most competitive teams in the American League.
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