Outfielder Steven Souza Jr. took to Twitter at this time to announce his retirement from baseball after virtually a decade within the huge leagues.
“It’s been an unbelievable journey that I dreamed as a child I’d be capable to go on,” wrote Souza, earlier than occurring to provide a heartfelt due to the many individuals whose lives touched his alongside the way in which.
Souza, 33, was a third-round choose of the Nationals out of Cascade Excessive College in 2007 and made his huge league debut with the Nats in 2014. After stepping into 21 video games for Washington down the stretch, Souza went to the Rays in December 2014 as a part of a convoluted three-team trade that noticed Wil Myers go from Tampa to San Diego and Trea Turner go from the Padres to the Nats.
Souza would spent the subsequent three seasons with the Rays, which is able to little doubt go down as one of the best stretch of his profession. From 2015 to 2017, he performed 378 video games, hitting 63 residence runs, 53 doubles, 4 triples, stealing 35 bases and hitting .238/.327/.426.
Extremely, Souza was a part of yet one more three-team trade previous to the 2018 season. On this deal, Souza went to the Diamondbacks whereas Brandon Drury went to the Yankees, amongst different items altering fingers. Sadly, Souza’s journey to the desert could be a disappointing one, with accidents stopping him from sustaining the manufacturing he confirmed in Tampa. He was restricted to 72 video games in 2018 attributable to pectoral points and hit simply .220/.309/.369 when on the sector. In March of 2019, Souza sustained a far worse damage, slipping on residence plate throughout a Spring Coaching sport. The membership would later announce that Souza tore or broken a number of ligaments in his knee, which might require season-ending surgical procedure.
After lacking the whole lot of the 2019 marketing campaign, Arizona non-tendered him, permitting Souza to achieve free company for the primary time in his profession. He’d go on to see MLB motion over the subsequent three seasons with the Cubs, Dodgers and Mariners, respectively, however unable to recapture his earlier type. Over these three seasons, he hit .152/.221/.291.
Ultimately, Souza was capable of seem in 505 MLB video games and make 1,895 plate appearances. He’ll head into retirement with a lifetime batting line of .229/.318/.411, 72 residence runs, 71 doubles, eight triples, 383 whole hits, 223 runs scored, 207 runs pushed in and 42 stolen bases. He was capable of earn greater than $10MM over his huge league tenure. MLBTR congratulates Souza on a high quality profession and desires him one of the best of luck in his subsequent chapter.
Picture courtesy of USA Right now Sports activities.
