New York Yankees' veteran catcher Jorge Posada retires – MLB News
The New York Yankees’ long-time catcher and one of the best to ever play at this position in recent Major League Baseball history, Jorge Posada has decided to retire after playing almost 16 years at the highest professional level.
He officially called it a day to his career on Wednesday evening in-front of a large media presence at Yankee Stadium.
Tears fell from his eyes as he said, “Playing for the Yankees has been an honor. I could never have worn another uniform. It was just priceless. I will forever be a Yankee. As soon as the season was over, as after the last game, I got really emotional because I knew it would be really tough for me to come back. I also knew it would be really tough for me to play baseball again. I had the idea of going to play somewhere else, but it wasn’t in me. It didn’t look good. … I knew in my heart I didn’t want to play anymore.”
Posada had a tough last season where he was hitting at .235 with 14 home-runs, 44 RBIs and .315 OBP. During his talk, Posada also admitted that he knew after playing almost 115 games in the past season that it might be time to retire from the game.
His wife, both kids and some Yankees’ team-mates were present when Posada got emotional and stated several times that he never considered playing anywhere else during his whole career despite his agent being contacted by many other MLB teams.
Five-time All-Star, four-time World Series winner and five-time Silver Slugger catcher decided to retire at the age of 40. While his achievements as a successful individual will always stay above in American baseball history. Completing a 17-season career with a .273 career batting average, 275 home-runs and 1,065 RBIs, Posada played every game with high energy and never gave any loop holes to his opponents.
Posada’s retirement from the game is somewhat a bad sign for the Yankees as whole. His presence was a relief symbol for the Yankees for the past 16 years, but Posada’s sudden retirement possibly will bring about some necessary changes in the Yankees' line-up before the upcoming regular season.
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