Nelson Cruz (43), who had a short stint with Kim Ha-seong (San Diego Padres), has announced his retirement.
“Cruz announced on the Adam Jones podcast that he will retire from the Dominican Winter League,” MLB Trade Rumors (MLBTR) reported on Wednesday (KST).
Cruz made his big league debut with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2005. He appeared in eight games and had one hit. He then moved to the Texas Rangers, where he gradually received more and more opportunities and played in more than 100 games for the first time in 2009. In 128 games, he hit .260 with 120 hits, 33 home runs, 76 RBIs, and a .856 OPS.굿모닝토토
Since then, he has been steady, hitting over 110 home runs in every season through 2019. Notably, he hit 40 home runs in three straight seasons from 2014 to 2016. He followed that up with 39 homers in 2017 and 37 in 2018.
In 2019, he moved to the Minnesota Twins and had one of the best seasons of his career, hitting .311 with 41 home runs, 108 RBI, 81 runs scored and a 1.031 OPS in 120 games. In 2020, which was a shortened season due to COVID-19, he still hit .303 with 56 doubles, 16 home runs, and a .992 OPS.
He continued to perform well at the start of the 2021 season. However, after being traded to the Tampa Bay Rays, he began to decline. He hit .226 with 13 home runs and a .725 OPS in 49 at-bats. In 2022, he hit .234 with 10 homers and a .650 OPS in 105 at-bats in a Washington Nationals uniform.
Heading into this season, Cruz was hoping for a resurgence in a San Diego uniform. But after hitting just .245 with five home runs and a .682 OPS, he was designated for assignment in July.
In 2055 major league games, Cruz has 2053 hits, 464 homers, 1325 RBI, 1090 runs scored, a .274 batting average and a .856 OPS. ’MLBTR’ says, “Cruz’s wRC+ (adjusted run production) is 128. That means he was 28% better than the average hitter.”