As first reported by Hector Gomez of the Dominican Republic’s Listin Diario, Alfonso Soriano is retiring from baseball after a 16-year major league career.
Soriano would have struggled to find a deal on the open market this winter following a 2014 season that saw him hit .221/.244/.367 in 238 plate appearances for the Yankees, who released him in July. That was the final chapter of the eight-year, $136M contract that he signed in November 2006 with the Cubs.
Soriano spent time with four different clubs — the Yankees, Cubs, Nationals, and Rangers — during his mostly-illustrious career, batting .270/.319/.500 with 2,095 hits, 412 home runs, and 1,159 RBI in 1,975 total major league games. He began his 16-year run in the bigs as a second baseman with the Yankees but was shifted to the outfield in 2006 when he joined the Nats.
