8-Year Veteran Infielder Retires

He began his career with tremendous promise, including two straight 30-HR seasons in his 3rd and 4th years in the big leagues. But now, after eight seasons, infielder Travis Shaw has decided to hang up the cleats.

Shaw posted a love letter to baseball on social media to announce his retirement.

To the game of baseball, Thank you! 💙 pic.twitter.com/M2aBpppx9G
— Travis Shaw (@travis_shaw21) January 16, 2023

For the last 8 years, I've been blessed to live out my childhood dreams of playing Major League Baseball. But today, that dream comes to an end! 12 years ago, being a 9th round pick, I would have never imagined what this game provided me. The memories will last a lifetime. To everyone that made an impact on my career (the list is endlessly long), I will be forever indebted to you! As this chapter closes, the only two words that come to mind is
THANK YOU!!

Shaw began—and finished—his career with the Boston Red Sox. It started in 2015-16 when he established himself as a reliable first and third baseman. With the Milwaukee Brewers the following two seasons, he exploded with a pair of monster offensive years, hitting 31 and 32 homers, with an OPS in the mid-800s.

But his production fell off considerably beginning in 2019, when he managed to hit just .157 for the Brew Crew with seven home runs, and from there, he never managed to regain his stroke.

He bounced back and forth between the Brewers, Toronto Blue Jays and Red Sox to finish out his career. He finished as, essentially, a league-average hitter, with an OPS+ of 99, a .237 average, .757 OPS and 114 career long-balls.

Happy retirement to the Mayor of Ding Dong City.

It was a blast watching his career come full circle in 2021. He gave a much-needed boost to a Red Sox team that was badly scuffling.

Can’t emphasize enough how much this swing meant at the time.pic.twitter.com/oXuGlLjWSu
— Tyler Milliken ⚾️ (@tylermilliken_) January 17, 2023