Veteran slugger Mark Reynolds announces his retirement

“I’ve moved beyond that,” Reynolds said when asked if he planned to seek another contract once MLB’s transaction freeze has been lifted. “I’ve retired. … I’m really enjoying time with my family, and it’s time for me to move on and find something else to do.”

The 36-year-old Reynolds spent the majority of the 2019 season in the Rockies organization, serving as a part-time first baseman and bench bat until he was cut loose on July 28. He had enjoyed a quality season with the Nationals in 2018, but Reynolds struggled to the lowest offensive numbers of his career with the Rockies last season.

A 16th-round pick of the Diamondbacks out of the University of Virginia in 2004, Reynolds made his big-league debut less than three years later. Reynolds was never considered one of the organization’s premier prospects — his No. 7 ranking on Baseball America’s list of D'backs prospects prior to the 2007 campaign was the only time he broke their top 30 — Reynolds hit the ground running. 

He was promoted to the big leagues in mid-May and closed out the remainder of the season as a regular in the lineup, hitting .279/.349/.495 with 17 home runs.

By 2008, Reynolds was Arizona’s everyday third baseman. His power was unquestionable, although the same could be said of his questionable contact skills. Reynolds became one of the game’s quintessential boom-or-bust players, regularly headlining home run and strikeout leaderboards alike. From 2008-11, he averaged 35 homers per season but also led his league in strikeouts each year along the way. 

At that time, a player who was punching out in roughly one-third of his plate appearances was an alarming anomaly; the league average strikeout rate in Reynolds’ first full year was 17.5 percent — a full six percent lower than 2019’s mark.

Reynolds had a rough year in 2010, prompting the D'backs to trade him to the Orioles in return for reliever David Hernandez and prospect Kam Mickolio. Reynolds bounced back with the Birds and helped them to the postseason in 2012, but Baltimore declined an $11M club option over Reynolds’ final arbitration year and non-tendered him, making him a free agent for the first time in his career.

Reynolds would bounce from Cleveland to New York to Milwaukee to St. Louis to Colorado to D.C. and back to Colorado on a series of one-year and minor-league deals. He delivered some productive seasons along the way and even popped 30 homers for the 2017 Rockies before giving the Nationals an absurd 5-for-5, two-homer, 10-RBI day in 2018 (video link).

Reynolds concludes his playing career with a .236/.328/.453 batting line over 6,243 plate appearances and 1,688 major-league games. In that time, he belted 298 home runs, 253 doubles, 14 triples and stole 64 bases. He scored 794 runs and knocked 871. 

The slugger took home nearly $30M in career earnings while providing a litany of tape-measure home runs on which we can all fondly look back.