Corner infielder Mike Olt has announced on Instagram that his playing career is over. The former first-round pick hangs up his spikes at 31 years of age.
Olt was once considered one of the game’s thirty or so best prospects, but never quite panned out. Eyesight issues likely played a significant role in preventing Olt from reaching his ceiling.
After coming up through the Rangers system, and briefly cracking the bigs in 2012, Olt was shipped to the Cubs as part of the 2013 Matt Garza trade. He ended up taking four hundred MLB plate appearances over three seasons, slashing just .168/.250/.330.
Olt has tried to push his way back into the majors over the past four seasons but failed to gain traction. He appeared briefly in 2019 in the Atlantic League and Mexican League. MLBTR wishes Olt all the best in the future.
Poor guy just couldn’t hit.
What a shame…..
Neither could I… I should’ve been one of the greats
Me too. Besides having eye problems like Ott I had a weak arm and no speed.
Other than that…..
Eyes important – can’t hit, can’t play defense, and slow.
Must of had a poor agent. I can name 40 Mlb players playing making 5 to 10 m this year with the same credentials
I am old, overweight, and unathletic. Other than that…
Eyes
I must repeat he saying that I heard once “if you are a superstar in your sport you announce your retirement, if you never amounted to anything you just walk away without saying a word“. This guy had a grand total of 400 plate appearances in three seasons in the MLB. But, he felt the need to announce his retirement. Really sounds like an egomaniac.
He announced it on Instagram. There are people that follow him and probably care about him as a person and as a ball player. Why shouldn’t he have the opportunity to convey that message to them?
Yeah seriously, it’s not like he took out a page in the New York Times or something.
Based on this comment, I take it you wont be making an announcement here about your MLBTR retirement.
Bam.
why is it a big deal to you? He was a highly anticipated prospect that did not pan out. Happens all the time. He is simply putting to bed that he is stepping away and is done with baseball.
Lol you’re acting like he held a press conference. It’s not different than you going on Facebook and telling your friends you quit your job today
Correction: posting false stories on Facebook hiding the real reason he was fired, again.
An egomaniac? The guy simply announced it on his own social media account. That’s all. While you don’t care, his followers most likely do. It’s a pretty quiet basic way to do it. If no site mentioned it, you would’ve never known. He’s not responsible for MLBTR or other sites reporting on it.
What, did he hire a plane to fly a huge announcement banner over Disney World?
He is the furthest thing from an egomaniac…
UConn Husky pride
The ego on Olt.. calling an Instagram press conference. Instagram is a newspaper, right?…
Oh because you heard once somewhere … so therefore that is how it is? I heard once somewhere you can announce your retirement no matter how good you were
Well golden Michael Saunders announced his retirement too. Is that ok with you? Or is be an ego maniac too?
I’m sure there will be plenty of people saying bust but you know what he made it to the majors. More time then 99% of us so good luck in your future endeavors
Exactly. Even making it to AA is further than 99% of us.
I made it to AA. ….but it was Alcoholics Anonymous.
lol
He could have been a Joey Gallo type player had it not been for the eyesight issues
Mike Olt had potental but could never overcome the eyesight issues. He will always be known for the guy that blocked Kris Bryant at 3B to start the 2015 season, amazing Bryant was good enough 2 weeks later, never saw that coming, lol
Anyhow best of luck to Mike Olt.
If Mike Olt did not suffer the broken wrist in April 2015, he may have started the season well enough to be a decent trade chip when they promoted Bryant.
Now it looks like the Bryant hearing decision won’t be announced for months. That kills the option of trading Bryant this offseason – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
It’s a shame Olt never was able to take off with the potential he had. Good luck in your endeavors.
What I’m shocked at is that he’s only 31. His name came back up again with the KB grievance being heard since he was manning 3rd base while the Cubs had KB “working on his defense.” For some reason, I thought he was in the majors a lot longer.
When Mike Olt made contact which was rare with the Cubs, that dude made it count.
If only the Cubs would have kept Bryant down and given Olt more time, I’m sure he could have been a start. Just a joke.
I wish him well, players have a hard time walking away. I hope he finds success elsewhere.
Eyesight issues are no joke. If I was a coach of a team, I would have players eat carrots every day and stay off the computers and iPods and other gadgets. Players need to worry about hitting .300 instead of getting a high score in Angry Birds or whatever kids play these days.
Esp. when it’s caused by a concussion and you lose the ability to produce tears…..
It’s not 2012 anymore, boomer.
That career slash line just made me yack
Tough way to go out as well… hitting .098 in the Atlantic League this season. Granted, it’s less than 100 at-bats, and it’s about .097 higher than I would hit, but it would still be a tough ending.
I don’t think people realize that what ended his career was a concussion that caused the eye sight problems….. guy lost the ability to produce tears even
Oh my, that’s a horrible thing…..
He should be getting disability compensation from a variety of sources then.
Curious how disability compensation works for pro athletes, esp the guys who get injured early in career. A lot of good young athletes get badly injured early and are forced out.
Mike Out
He had exactly 400 more PA’s than i did as a major leaguer. I hope he finds something he enjoys.
I remember when he was projected as the next big thing. An uber prospect to join an already loaded Rangers roster.
Baseball can be cruel sometimes and his promise was cut short. He still spent his 20s playing a game he loved and can leave knowing he gave it his all to climb back up that hill.
Let’s give the guy a break. It wasn’t meant to be a major news story, but for fans that follow the rise and fall of top prospects it was certainly worth a posting. I saw the guy down in AA long after his star had faded and I have to give him credit for hanging in there and giving it his best shot to get back to the show. He got a taste, which is more than most of us can say.
UConn!!! He and George Springer made UConn a National Contender that one season
Most famous for being the guy the cubs used as an excuse to hold down Kris Bryant.
Hall of Fame right next to Baines.
Not one remotely decent season… he’s lucky to play in the league as long as he did
I’m not sure if most know, but Mike took a bad one in the head back in the day. It caused more than the average vision problems, taking his ability to create tears and giving him double vision. At one point in time, I recall him saying that the only drops that actually worked were a temporary solution, as they would damage the cornea long-term. Every once in a while I wonder how things could have gone for him.