Former major league outfielder Travis Snider announced his retirement on Instagram this morning. “Thank you baseball. You have given me countless relationships and experiences I will cherish for the rest of my life,” Snider wrote as part of his statement. “I am so thankful that I got to live out my childhood dream and share it with the people I love and care about. I have contemplated this day for a while but the time has finally come for me to hang up the spikes. … To my teammates, coaches, trainers, front office, and clubhouse families, thank you for all the amazing memories.”
A first-round pick of the Blue Jays in the 2006 draft, the left-handed hitting Snider quickly emerged as one of the sport’s more promising prospects. Baseball America ranked him among the league’s Top 100 farmhands over each of his first three full pro seasons. That included a #6 overall ranking heading into the 2009 campaign, not long after Snider had made his big league debut at age 20 late in the prior season.
Snider would go on to spend the next three-plus seasons in Toronto. He never emerged as the middle-of-the-order slugger evaluators and the Jays’ fanbase hoped he’d become, but he hit around a league average level over his first few seasons. Snider struggled in 2011, though, and the Jays traded him to the Pirates for Brad Lincoln at the following deadline. He spent the next couple years as a platoon outfielder in Pittsburgh, posting a career-best .264/.338/.438 showing over 359 plate appearances in 2014.
The following offseason, the Bucs traded Snider to the Orioles for Steven Brault and Stephen Tarpley. He didn’t perform well in Baltimore and wound up released in August. Snider hooked back on with Pittsburgh late in the season but was outrighted off the Bucs’ roster after appearing in 18 games.
That ultimately proved to be the final big league run for the Washington native, as Snider hasn’t appeared in the majors since 2015. He’s hung around the periphery of the majors as a high-priority depth option, logging Triple-A time with the Royals, Mets, Rangers, D-Backs and Braves over the past half-decade.
All told, Snider departs having appeared in eight big league seasons and suiting up in 630 games. Across 1,971 plate appearances, he hit .244/.311/.399 (93 wRC+) with 54 homers, 100 doubles and seven triples. Snider never blossomed into a star or even as a true everyday player, but he played in the bigs every year between 2008-15 and ultimately spent a decade and a half in affiliated ball. MLBTR congratulates Snider on his career and wishes him all the best in his post-playing days.
Travis will open his own BBQ place now.
Meats don’t clash!
I had such high hopes for you Lunchbox, but I wish you all the best.
How did he get the nickname Lunchbox?
High school nickname based on his performance at the buffet table I believe
baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/03/31/travis-snider-jo…
Did he ever really have a career to retire from?
Whenever these stories come out, there’s always that one idiot who thinks it’s funny to comment something like this. He did something that a very small handful of folks in this entire world can do. You’ll never achieve the success he did. He earned the right to retire from the Major Leagues. Just accept your douchebaggery and move on.
And there’s always someone like you to jump down everyone’s throat…need some sugar cubes for that high horse of yours?
Hahahahaha sorry your feelings were hurt so easily
NJBirdsFan- he’s not on a high horse, people just have little tolerance for lame, overused jokes to insult someone who is in the top .001% of their profession world-wide.
How does one criticize someone for being to critical without sounding hypocritical?
Right…what’s the difference between a .250 and .300 hitter…1 hit a week! See Bull Durham for further explanation, but it’s that fine if a line from Average to greatness
And we know he made at least 5.1 million bucks playing a game. And he’s still pretty much a kid. I can’t compare to that. I’d have to work until I was 192 to make that much money.
I bet it drives you nuts that he made more money before turning 35 than you’ll make in your entire life. Not bad for a guy who never really had a career.
A bit over $5M in major league salary, plus a $1.7M signing bonus and whatever he made in the minors.
Besides, he’s already played in the big leagues and made enough money to set him up for life. Uprooting his life to go to Asia may not have much appeal.
Better career than all of us!
Little known fact: Snider also struck out Joey Votto
Snider will turn 34 in a couple weeks. How many 34 year olds have earned $5 million so far in their jobs? Hopefully he was smart with his money.
Plus 1.7 signing bonus.
Cgallant. He played in the majors. That alone is a huge accomplishment
I have a feeling he’d be a great player participant in an MLBTR chat.
Who?
Soooo funny! I’ve never seen that joke before! You should consider stand-up.
There is literally an article posted above that answers this question.
I thought this guy was gonna be a beast. He was a great prospect to trade for in MLB 09: The Show
Good luck in retirement Lunchbox!! Was always one of my favourites on the Jays, always wanted to see him do well. I was pretty bummed when they traded him for Brad Lincoln
Pirates legend. Thank you for all the high hopes and never following through. You and almost every pirates before you truly are inspirational for actually waking up to play for such a crappy franchise. Thank you Travis, wholeheartedly.
Prior to my nod to Dustin McGowan, my original nickname on MLBTR was LunchBox45.
Snider was a dynamic prospect and at a time of an extremely empty cupboard he was a lot of Jays fans ray of hope. Jays previously always had a bad habit of bringing players up prematurely and not letting them work through their initial struggles before being sent back down. I’m not saying that the jays handling of him was the reason he didn’t reach his potential but I do wonder about confidence and mental state of players who never previously struggled being sent down after short struggles in the majors.
That being said he was still such a great person and left it all on the field. If my math is correct he made about 7.5 Mil playing baseball, more than enough to open a BBQ restaurant.
Holy crap lunchbox I remember you. Whatever happened to notsureifsrs, start wearing purple, mb923 and all the old crew? Good to see you still kicking man. I see Silver is still around too
Hey man!
Not sure, the comment sections back then were so fun though.
You got a great memory, I remember having a lot of good chats with the guys you mentioned, especially notsureifsrs
The glory days! I remember your avatar was Snider on his follow through, I was never sure if it was after a HR or K lol. Good to see you still around. Notsureifsrs is probably running a front office somewhere…
Dude made it so much farther than 99.99% of guys who lace up cleats and grab a bat. He loved the game enough to stick around on minors deals, grind, and work his butt off for another shot at the bigs.
Massive respect for guys like this.
Enjoy retirement.
This young man had a very difficult tragic youth , overcame much , always rooted for him. A link , after reading everyone will understand that he’s a special person. Good luck in retirement Travis. archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=20060813�…
Thanks for the article, 007. It’s another reminder that these players are human beings, not robots.
Thank you for sharing!
Nice job with the 4.3 career WAR. $5 Million to go along with that.
Yet another guy who showed flashes of brilliance here in Pittsburgh before flaming out completely. You mean he’s not interested in Japan, like everyone else??
Yep the Pirates had big hopes for Travis which unfortunately didn’t pan out.
Snider had a bad year in AAA in 2021, so he wasn’t going to get an NPB contract offer. He’d have to have gone for that a few years earlier.
Besides, he’s already played in the big leagues and made enough money to set him up for life. Uprooting his life to go to Asia may not have much appeal.
Good luck Travis!
Over 5 million earned. Not to shabby. Hopefully he invested well.
I saw him hit a home run at the skydome. He hit it so hard it left the park in 3 seconds
This is a good dude. Remember when the Pirates were in Chicago and we chatted for 10 minutes or so on the warning track/bleachers. He’s the type that spotted kids in the stands and made sure to give out balls and autographs as much as possible. Best of luck to him.
Good guy. Had fun playing. Didn’t realize he’s been out of the bigs that long.
Agreed, Travis is a good guy … it’s not like we’re talking about Brett Lawrie here. There’s no justification for all the Snider-hate.
He was a real good fourth outfielder for the Pirates in 2014 but Polanco was called up to start in right field which eliminated any chance to stay there for Snider.He fell off a cliff in Baltimore and I always wondered whether he was bummed out from leaving the Pirates where he had a following.He hung in there for a number of years afterwards but one only gets a few chances to stay in the ML.I wish him well as I think that he seemed to be a good guy.
He spent 15 years in and around MLB. I.’m sure with his experience and perspective, he’ll land a FO job some where
I’ll always remember this guy for his HR robbery at Citi Field when he was on the Pirates back in the day. Best of luck in retirement Travis!
I’ll always remember him for the right hook he took from Martin Maldonado
The most impressive hit in his career.
One of the biggest bust for the jays ever. He looked so good coming up.
I’ll never forget his sick catch at citi field in
Dickeys 20th win game