Longtime major league second baseman Neil Walker has retired from baseball at the age of 35. Walker broke the news to Sweeny Murti of WFAN as a guest on the “30 for Murti” podcast.
A Pittsburgh native, Walker was a first-round pick (No. 11) of his hometown Pirates in 2004. Five years later, Walker made a 17-game big league debut, and he became both a regular and a consistently solid contributor beginning the next season. During a 3,386-plate appearance run from 2010-15, the switch-hitting Walker put up five seasons of at least 2.4 fWAR (including a career-high 4.1 in 2014, when he won a Silver Slugger Award) and batted .273/.338/.443 with 93 home runs.
Walker’s time with the Pirates concluded when they traded him to the Mets for left-hander Jon Niese prior to the 2016 campaign. The move didn’t work out at all for the Bucs, with whom Niese’s production spiraled, though Walker continued to perform well in Queens. He batted .275/.344/.462 and smacked 33 HRs over 757 PA in a Mets uniform in parts of two seasons, but with the team out of contention late in 2017, it traded him to the Brewers for the stretch run.
Walker didn’t re-sign with the Brewers, instead returning to New York n a one-year, $4MM guarantee with the Yankees. With a .219/.309/.354 line in 398 trips to the plate, Walker turned in his worst offensive season as a regular in 2018. He enjoyed somewhat of a bounce-back campaign the next season on a $2MM deal as a member of the Marlins, though he still had to settle for a minor league contract with the Phillies going into 2020. While Walker did make it to the majors for a 12th straight season, he struggled enough over 18 games that the Phillies designated him for assignment in September.
Although Walker had a less-than-ideal ending, he still enjoyed a far more successful and lucrative career than the vast majority of major leaguers. He’ll end with a .267/.338/.426 line, 149 homers and 21.6 fWAR/19.6 rWAR across 1,306 games and 5,152 trips to the plate. Walker also earned nearly $52MM in the bigs, per Baseball-Reference.com.
MLBTR congratulates Walker on an impressive career and wishes him the best in retirement.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
93 Home Runs!
Enjoy your retirement. He was definitely a good player especially with the Pirates. Seeing him play in the other side as a Cardinals fan I really like him. The Pirates had a great team not that long ago.
Francy-The Pirates had a very good team not that long ago.They had the second best ML record over a three year period.
Unfortunately,the best team was in the same division.
Then they ran into Bumgarner and Arrieta,and their window was closed.
Your Cardinals would have deserved to be called great,if any team did.
But the games between those two teams for that three year period were some of the best that I have ever seen.
Thoughts and prayers for an enjoyable retirement.
$52 million aint bad, best of luck to Neil in retirement!
Could’ve made a lot more on a long-term deal back in 2017-2018, but he got greedy. He could’ve been the infield version of Dexter Fowler right now.
I’m not sure about that. He had his best year of his career with the Mets but he was injured, had back surgery to end his season. After getting a QO his market would have been limited coming off injuries. Maybe he could have made a little more on a two year deal but he wasn’t getting Dexter Fowler money.
Like if you were here before all the “congrats” comments.
Good player and a class act. That trade for Niese was a good one for the Mets.
As a Met fan I am grateful for his performance in 2016. Have a great next stage of your life, Neil!
As a citizen of the world, I am most grateful for Spirit79’s post in 2021, on the 20th of April of that year, on the occasion of a post titled “Neil Walker announces retirement”. Good day to you good sir, and may the road always rise to meet you, oh Spirit of 1679!
Can we have a post at the beginning of the season featuring unsigned players? We’ll just assume if we don’t hear anything from them regarding continued interest in playing (let alone interest) that they’re automatically retired.
Most guys don’t get to retire on their own terms. The decision is made for them. Of course they can keep playing in independent leagues for as long as they want, but how many of you are aware or care that Mat Latos is still pitching somewhere this year (i.e. Southern Maryland Crabs of the Atlantic League)? 39 years old Jorge Cantu, whose last MLB appearance is almost 10 years ago, is still active in the Mexican League. Ruben Rivera didn’t retire in Mexico until 2019 at age-46.
When you see Mat Latos, say hi to his cat.
Latos never had an Era over 4.00.. until it was never under 4.00 again. He was productive for years then hit a wall hard. Always intrigued me when the completely durable and good pitcher suddenly goes flat when they approach 30. Lincecum, Teheran, Bumgardner, Jerad Weaver and so on.
Kind of sad to see a fringe hall of fame career end like this. Hopefully he’ll get into Cooperstown but I’m not sure.
“Fringe HOF player?!” What HOF are you talking about? This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen on this site all day… and I’ve seen A LOT! He’ll be lucky if he gets one vote,
take your meds & go to bed.
You are trolling, right?
You’re a maroon, right?
Re OP on HoF. Not about you. And no, not ship wrecked or red brown
Is this MetsFan22?
Can you read?
We’ll take that as a yes. Even sounds like a Mets fan.
Obviously this is your first day on this site so I won’t crush you like the cockroach you are. Ahahahaha!
Wasn’t he a Scott Boras client? He thought he deserved 5 year 75 million, but instead he had to sign for 2 million during spring training. Then he stunk up the joint due to no spring training (just like Stephen Drew and Kendry Morales years ago) and was never the same. Another guy whose career was ruined by greed. Funny thing is the Mets gave him a 17 million qualifying offer the year before because they were so scared to lose his mediocre production.
I, for one, am glad the era of overpaying Neil Walker, Jason Heyward, Dexter Fowler, Ian Desmond, Pablo Sandoval, Nick Markakis is finally over.
Heyward was on a different level than those other players at that point in his career
Scrooge. Now we know who the tightwad is when the check comes around. Watch out for Jakefromstate everyone. Alligator arms.
Congrats Neil Walker. Hometown star and well loved/respected player for the city of Pittsburgh. You seen the good and bad years in Pittsburgh. I know when you left Pittsburgh, you wanted a WS for the city. Your role in Pittsburgh was top notch and very proud of watching you play in the Pirates uniform. Enjoy the next chapter in your life Neil! You’ll always be a Pirate in my eyes.
Almost wasn’t a Neil walker. His dad was supposed to be on the plane that Roberto Clemente died on. I think that’s pretty well known, but maybe some people don’t know. Solid career for Neil
I like those stories. Michael Cuddyer saved the life of some no-name ballplayer who was supposed to be on one of the 9/11 flights as well. The game went into extra innings and the player missed his flight.
Or maybe said no name ballplayer was a Navy Seal type like Anthony Rizzo (per ARod) and would proceed to go all Chuck Norris on the interlopers, saving the day. In which case Cudduyers the bad guy (and not just bad at baseball). Eh?
Another 9-11 guy that backed off a flight wasn’t a ballplayer, but mark Wahlberg..he was going to visit a friend in California and backed out..clemente told walker stay home you have a young family to watch over.
Yep. Another one:
Ken Griffey Sr. would have accepted a scholarship to Marshall and almost certainly been on the plane that crashed had it not been for news of his girlfriend being pregnant with Jr. He took the signing bonus and went to minor league baseball instead of college.
Ken Griffey Sr lettered for Marshall. In that game, he got burnt on the penultimate play when he bent down to buckle his shoe, allowing West Virginia Tech to prevail on a hail Mary bomb. Instead of leaving that night for the airport, the team went to Applebee’s to drown their sorrows. There, they got into a dispute with a Mister Reese Bobbie, and the team got kicked out of the Applebee’s, while Reese spent the night in county lockup. Reese missed his Sunday morning church service and never met his future wife, the mother of Ricky Bobby. The Marshall team decided to take the bus the next morning to explore the country roads some, and picked up a young minstrel named John Denver. Mister and missus Bobby never met, and Reese decided to become an elder in the Methodist church. Ricky Bobby was never hatched, and Cal Naughton retired in 1998 as the winningest driver in Nascar.
Ironically, dad would have caught the Roberto Clemente plane, if he got to the airport quicker. Unfortunately, he was a Walker, not a Runner.
Also kinda weird that Clemente’s name was also Walker.
He had a solid run in Pittsburgh. Fun to watch him play.
.
35, it’s time. There are better younger players who deserve his spot.
Okay Millennial.
Neil Walker is a millennial. Some millennials are 40 now. Save the millennial comments for when you want to say somebody is old.
Pittsburgh will always love Neil Walker! Had the Pirates not traded him for Niese in 2016 the Pirates might have had one last run at a playoff spot (the final nail in the coffin being Melancon traded at the deadline when the management deemed them not capable of getting a wild card spot). The final year of Neil Walker for “3 years of control for Jon Niese”…. another reason Neal Huntingdon will never GM again.
Anyway, congrats to Neil! Maybe one day the Pirates will be respectable again and he and Cutch can come back and coach. Both still live in Pittsburgh.
Neil missed most of the last 1/3 of that season that you speak of. He had yet another injury. Would not have helped them even get close to the playoffs in 2016
Don-I think that the only knock on the Pirates in 2016 was that they could have tried to stretch it out one more year.
Walker should not have been signed long term.They May have got something at the trade deadline for him if they were out of it.
Niese had been a consistent #4 starter with the Mets.
Burnett had retired,and Morton was making $10M per year to be mediocre and hurt.Liriano lost it during the early part of the year.Cole was hurt and miffed.They would have had to endure Alvarez at first base for one more year.And that was that.
The typical small market team window of three years had expired.
But it was a good three year run,one of the best for any recent team.
They finished 9 games out of a wild card in 2016. They went 11-19 in September / October because everyone had given up. Put Neil Walker at 1st base instead of Jaso all season, and take Niese and his ERA of 5 and WHIP of 1.5 out of the equation, and that team still had a chance. I’m not saying they should have signed Neil to a deal, but contenders don’t usually trade away the final year of their good players just to get something back in return. I realize that is the Pirate way, but most teams will try to contend rather than worrying about getting value for a guy. Liriano fell off a cliff, but they were still 52-49 when they traded Melancon. Even if they had dumpster dove for another Vogelsong -type, I think Neil and that picther would have given them a better team than Jaso and Niese.
To the comment above that….. just because Neil hurt his back late in 2016 for the Mets doesn’t mean it would have happened with the Pirates also. if he’s playing 1st base instead of 2nd base, less wear and tear on those ground ball. He’s also playing different teams, different games, taking different swings….. everything is different and you can’t assume the same injury would happen.
The entire universe is different if he’s with the Pirates.
Don- maybe,maybe not.Hindsight is something that gm’s do not have.The Pirates were stuck in their routine,and looking back using hindsight they maybe should have tried one more year.One poster has continually argued that they should not have traded Melancon.They were obviously planning for their next three year window which never happened.The odds on winning anything in 2016 were so low that NH felt he had to strike while he had tradeable players in their contract last year.It was a difficult decision that is always open to criticism.He was basically just following the script set out by the owner and him of trying to get ML ready playes in return so that they could try to compete every year.Some posters prefer the win or lose philosophy,as opposed to competing every year and trying to get lucky.It is basically all one’s opinion which way to go.
@DonB34 it could be worse. I think that was the year Sale was traded to the Red Sox and has spent most of his time on the IR list. He may have pitched maybe 23 games since that trade. Oh, and Cole was traded to Houston following that season too. 2016 was a lot of what if’s and should have done for the Pirates. Our Buccos became a dumpster fire during and after 2016. New management should have been in place after losing against St Louis in the Divisional Round (they got swept). Watching that series was quite embarrassing and I still can’t get that mental image out of my head. Pirates where on the field, but not in any of those games. Year before, we put an all defensive and no offense against Reds and lost. 2016 should have been enough to make GM and coaching changes. Everything went south after that season. Cole wanted out of Pittsburgh and no one really knows if it was truly the coaches or the organization lack of improving the club.
1981-If you want to dump on NH and the Pirates at least get the facts straight.
First off,in 2013 they lost to the Cardinals in a full five game series.It was tight the whole time,losing the last two games to the team who had the best ML record over the 2013-2015 period.
Watching that series was quite exciting.Not sure what teams you were watching.
What team had the second best record over that period?The Pittsburgh Pirates.
They beat the Reds in 2013 in order to get to the Divison Series.
They faced the two best pitchers for that respective year in 2014 and 2015 in Bumgarner and Arrieta.The way that they were pitching the 1927 Yankees would not have beat them.
Cole was traded after the 2017 season,not 2016.
The Pirates became a dumpster fire the second half of 2019.Before that,they were mediocre with a chance for the second wild card up until the last few weeks of the seasons.
What small market owner would put new management in place after three successful seasons like the Pirates had had?A stupid one.
Cole wanted out because he was ticked off that they would not give him more than the normal pay raise for second or third year players.
I hope that as a supposed fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates your bust of memory is not a common occurrence.
I was referring when the Reds beat the Pirates in the WC and the Pirates used an all defensive lineup. No Alvarez (Home Run King that year) and used Jaso at first. Sure I had some years off. But management was moving unnecessary pieces and depleted the system with which they sold us fans on!
Alvarez won the home run crown in 2013, when they beat the Reds,not lost to them.He was replaced by SRod,not Jaso,in 2015 when he had proved that he was a terrible first baseman.Otherwise,the lineup was the same that they had been using.He has in essence not played the field since then.
Not sure what your last sentence means.
It is important to get the facts straight in any arguement.Otherwise,it is clear that the ends justify the means and the post is a simple rant at the previous Pirates management team.
While it’s sad to see when a once good player retire after struggling at the end, it’s good that he can enjoy the rest of his life in his next chapter.
It is also breath of fresh air as a fan to see a guy age naturally instead of the era not to long ago when guys would have career resurgences at 35 that lead them to performing better than they previously had all the way into their early to mid 40s…which we knew wasn’t natural.
Who?
A guy who earned nearly $52MM playing major league baseball.
Your accomplishments, please?
What?
Niese was 8-6 with the Pirates. The trade worked out okay for the Pirates
The knights who say Niese.
The trade worked out OK because the Mets were willing to overpay Walker with his injury history,and because Niese historically had been a solid fourth pitcher on decent teams.Unfortunately,he got injured,and never again pitched with any reasonably good results.
Neil essentially became a part time player after the trade due to injuries and then the normal regression in his mid thirties.All in all,though,a good ML career.
Walker was reasonably productive against righties as recent as 2019. Surprised he didn’t get a chance to compete for a bench job somewhere.
He had a good career. Was part of the Pirates when they were worth watching. Good for him
Pretty good career.
Phils put them on their roster last year so he could collect his full 10-year pension. After he showed to be no longer useful, they let him go
Future Manager
Future Consultant. One of the two Bobs. “So what do you say you do around here?”
Was pretty good for the Mets in ‘16
He was up until he had yet another back injury. Hurt his left leg in 2017. Missed 1/3 of both full seasons that he was with the Mets. His back (2016) was the reason why the Bucs had no interest in the large long term extension that he was seeking. Loved watching him play but do not begrudge the Pirates for not over spending on him
Kind of hoping he’d sign like a minor league deal with the Pirates just so he could play one more MLB game in a Pirate uniform. Still, happy retirement, Neil! Enjoyed watching you play in Pittsburgh.
Enjoy retirement
In related news, Manny Sanguillen announced his retirement. Whos next? Pedro Bourbon? Manny Mota?
Maybe his brother-in-law, the Pirates bench coach, can hook him up with a front office job.
Making copies. In the office. The one out front. Neil Walker. Making copies.
That 93 homer season in 2014 was something else. I bet it never happens again.
Bonds could’ve done it if anyone had the nerve to pitch to him.
*unsigned
Very solid player for PIT. It’s weird seeing guys that you remember coming through the minors from Day 1 retire. Also, it’s minor, but B-R doesn’t calculate what he made during his time in the majors in 2009 and 2010, so he certainly made over $52M in the majors.
I made $52 playing craps. That one time.
Amazing career. Enjoy retirement Neil. See you in Cooperstown……
……..tickets are $24.99
Players like Walker, Jason Bay and Garrett Jones made me appreciate the un appreciated. Goo Angels!
Jason Bay was appreciated by the Mets management after a very fine start to his career,but not so much Mets’ fans when it turned out what they got.
Your time on the Yanks wasn’t great but you’ll always be my starting first baseman vs rightys in mlb the show 18, Walker. Rock on.