Infielder Jason Bartlett has told the Twins he will retire, reports Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter links). Though the club has asked him to reconsider, says Berardino, the expectation is that he will file his papers.
Bartlett had been working on a rehab assignment with Minnesota after making the club's Opening Day roster. Though he only saw four plate appearances this year, he did manage to appear in the outfield for the first time in his career.
Over parts of ten MLB seasons, spent almost entirely at shortstop, Bartlett put up a .270/.336/.366 line with 31 home runs and 123 stolen bases. He spent time as a regular up the middle with the Twins, Rays, and Padres organizations. His best season at the plate came in 2009 with Tampa, when Bartlett knocked 14 long balls and swiped 30 bags while registering a surprising .320/.389/.490 triple-slash. With his usually strong defense, that campaign was worth 6.2 rWAR. (He also had a 4.6 rWAR season in 2007 with Minnesota.) Bartlett delivered good value for his employers in the aggregate, as he put up 18.4 lifetime rWAR and had career earnings of $16.6MM.
Had a couple of really nice years in tampa, especially in 2009. Good luck in retirement :D
“Though the club has asked him to reconsider…”
They should be thanking him instead! He probably knew it was time, and April is still too cold in Minnesota to sit around on the bench and freeze.
16 million is a nice chunk of change. Best of luck to Bartlett.
Is this s legit retirement or rest and make a comeback attempt? I don’t remember him getting injured.
Kind of helped the team from themselves with retiring. He really didn’t deserve a roster spot this year. Wonder if he had a set back after being pulled in his rehab assignment.
How old was he? Seems like an odd omission for a story on retirement of a player.
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Good thing they DFAed Alex Presley to keep him on the roster.
No hard feelings, but he was a major disappointment in San Diego. However, if he hadn’t been, then Cabrera wouldn’t have gotten a second chance and the Padres would be minus an All-Star SS.
It wasn´t his fault, it was Jed Hoyer who gave up a ransom for him, and gave him a 2 year deal as well.
Cody?
Not Cody Ransom, more of a King´s Ransom.
Gonna miss this guy.