Longtime big league catcher Kurt Suzuki will retire once the 2022 season concludes, he tells Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. That comes the day after the Hawaii native’s 39th birthday.
“I feel like it’s time,” Suzuki told Fletcher. “I’ve had a great run, won a World Series, All-Star Game. Played 16 seasons. I’ve accomplished a lot of things I never would have dreamed of. I felt like it’s time for the next chapter. My three kids, all they’ve known is baseball.”
Suzuki began his professional career in 2004. A second-round pick of the A’s out of Cal State Fullerton, he made it to Oakland three years later. Suzuki debuted in June 2007 and cemented himself as the A’s primary catcher from essentially that point forward. The right-handed hitter topped 130 games every year between 2008-11, generally hitting at a slightly below-average level overall but better than average for a catcher. Suzuki’s high-contact approach made him a solid offensive backstop for much of his time in Oakland, and the A’s dealt him to the Nationals in the summer of 2012.
After finishing out that season in Washington, Suzuki wound up back in Oakland via trade in August ’13. He qualified for free agency for the first time after that year, signing with the Twins. Suzuki bounced back from a couple down offensive years to hit .288/.345/.383 and earn an All-Star nod that year, and Minnesota signed him to a two-year extension that summer. His production dipped during his final two seasons in Minnesota, but he rebounded with one of the best years of his career after signing with Atlanta going into 2017. He popped a career-best 19 home runs and hit .283/.351/.536 through 81 games, earning a midseason extension for a second season with the Braves.
Suzuki didn’t quite replicate his 2017 production, but he posted another above-average offensive season to wrap up his time in Atlanta. After hitting .271/.322/.444 with 12 longballs, he landed another multiyear deal in free agency. Heading into the 2019 campaign, the Nationals inked Suzuki to a two-year, $10MM deal to pair with Yan Gomes behind the dish. That contract paid off in year one, as the veteran hit another 17 homers with a .264/.324/.486 line in 85 regular season games. Suzuki saw his most extensive playoff action during the Nats run a World Series title that year. That included a go-ahead homer off Justin Verlander in the seventh inning in Game 2 of the World Series, the biggest play in a win that gave Washington a 2-0 series lead.
After another solid showing with Washington during the shortened 2020 campaign, Suzuki has played the last two seasons on successive one-year pacts with the Angels. He’s had a couple down years to wrap up his career, working primarily as a backup in Orange County.
Suzuki’s career totals won’t be finalized until the season concludes, but he’s not likely to change his ledger all that much over the final two weeks. As he noted, Suzuki has played in 16 consecutive big league seasons and surpassed 1600 games. He owns a .255/.314/.388 line with 143 home runs, 729 runs batted in and 594 runs scored. Suzuki made an All-Star game and played a key role on a World Series team. Baseball Reference values his career around 20 wins above replacement. FanGraphs, which factors in Suzuki’s below-average pitch framing metrics, pegs him around nine wins.
Independent of that discrepancy in value, there’s little doubt about the impressiveness of a major league career that lasted more than a decade and a half. It’s possible he’ll continue his baseball career in some capacity, as Suzuki indicated he’d be happy to discuss the possibility of assuming a non-playing role with Halos general manager Perry Minasian (with whom he’s also familiar from their overlapping stints in Atlanta). MLBTR congratulates Suzuki on his lengthy career and wishes him all the best in his post-2022 endeavors.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Very solid career. Was a respectable catcher.
I’m not gonna say anything until I see his retirement confirmed elsewhere.
My trust is gone after the Price fiasco.
over 1400 hits as a catcher is indeed very solid! plus, he raked in around $50M. he should be set for life.
Solid career but should’ve retired 5 years ago lol
But why? He would have three more productive seasons with the bat after 2017. Maybe after last year, but he was still productive at the plate as late as ’20.
He made $1.75 million this year, would you retire making that? I wouldn’t.
No human being needs millions upon millions of dollars other than to strengthen their ego. So yes, I wouldn’t care because millions don’t matter after you’ve already made millions
That’s kind of a narrow-minded way of looking at it. Many of these guys have played baseball since they were 10 years old or younger. It’s hard to let go of something you’ve done regularly for the last 20, 30, sometimes even 40 or so years of your life. If someone is willing to pay you to live out your dream for a little longer, you wouldn’t do it?
Friend in HS his dad was multi millionaire. Me being a dumb HS kid asked him if it wasn’t enough. He looked at me smiled and said it is never enough.
If you have $10M, you’ll have a little more than $6M after tax. If you invest that, you’ll make about 300,000 a year or so on the average year. Granted, it’s $300K without working, but is that enough to throw away $1.75M? If you’re 65, maybe. If you’re late thirties? Probably not.
Hawaiian…
Have kids? Generational wealth is a big deal. It isn’t just about one person.
ALL HAIL YANKS2! THE ALL KNOWING, THE ALL JUDGING!
Get over yourself, you’ll have a better life.
We could say the same about you making cheeseburgers at mcdonalds
He really had a pretty productive and long career. Good for him.
Solid career. Even without eye popping stats, he stuck around the big leagues for 16 years. Congratulations Kurt.
Which teams are calling him to join their off field team?
Flowzuki was one hell of a battery in atlanta
Really liked Suzuki when he was a Brave. Affable, solid guy.
I always loved Kurt Suzuki because for his entire career he always looked and played like an old backup catcher. Looks wise, it’s basically like your local mechanic playing professional baseball, and that’s pretty cool.
Great career for Kurt. Followed him as a Titan and always rooted for him. No coincidence that pitching staffs improve when he’s on the roster. The improvement in the current Angels staff is a great example.
Take care of those kids Kurt and enjoy retirement.
All settled for him
Awesome person and a pretty darn good baseball catcher.
Enjoy your well deserved retirement!
I remember hearing about Suzuki during his Rookie Season in 2007 on my Dad’s fantasy team. I’ll always remember his heroics with the Nats in 2012 and 2019. I hope he has a good retirement.
Mets should sign him they have terrible offensive production from their catching core.
They spent 40 million on a soiled Maxey pad so they can afford to sign him LOL
A very professional player.
Solid career. Won a ring with the Nats in ’19. I could see him going into coaching down the road
This guy has been playing forever. Pretty solid as a catcher too. Wish him luck.
He really went above and beyond to raise funds for his college teammate who was the lone survivor in the Nick Adenhart tragedy.
Always smiling. Signs for kids in Spring.
He’s another in the long list of guys who spent the end of their careers sucking as an Angel.
But I wish him well.
Hubie Brooks, Dave Parker, and Vernon Wells just raised a glass to your second to last statement.
Cheers boys.
The only one on that list who ended their career as an Angel was Dave Parker.
Suzuki’s the definition of a pro. Was one of my favorite A’s/players growing up.
As it stands today, he’s top 40 in both hits and games played among catchers, and 24th in doubles — impressive career!
Solid career but probably should have retired a few years ago.
Glad he’s retiring because that’s the only way to keep Perry from re-signing him.
If people are going to keep paying you a million bucks to play baseball, why should you ever retire? This ‘he should have retired years ago’ thing makes no sense.
losers opinions saying he should have retired a couple years ago. couple years ago he earned a world series ring hitting at least over .240 for the past 5 years. average player, class act, good to have in the club house, fun to watch. enjoy retirement Kurt….
He’ll always be the guy Trump felt up when they visited the White House after winning the World Series.
dumb comment
Was waiting for this type of comment.
Underrated player. Hung around and caught a lot of games. A fave of mine. I think he’ll be a coach in due time.
Lots of catchers could easily be coaches. So much game planning, strategy, forward thinking, along with leadership goes with the catching role already.
Wouldn’t it be cool if somehow MLBTR could send retirees these comments? It’s always nice to be appreciated and mlb ball players, with careers this long are rare. Especially catchers.
How about it MLBTR. Is this possible?
Always had the utmost respect for Kurt Suzuki, he was a very good player his whole career and had excellent seasons when he was with the Braves. I always wanted him to be signed in front of Flowers, but they re-signed Flowers, Suzuki then got picked up by Nats and got himself a ring with them. Suzuki hit his most home runs in any one season during his career whilst with the Braves with 19 in 2017, that’s no real surprise though given that Kevin Seitzer was hitting coach. 31 home runs in total in 17 & 18, and 100 rbi’s in total for those two years. Then he went and hit 17 HR with Nats and 63 rbi’s, Seitzer can take some degree of credit for those numbers. Prior to being a Brave his home run totals were in single digits since 2012 until he joined the Braves. Even though he may not have had a cannon of an arm, he was certainly an excellent defender and excellent at blocking balls in the dirt and calling a good game.
He was a steady contributor to the Nats during both of his stints with them, and regularly seemed ‘clutch,” however scornfully the sabermetric crowd views that term. Congrats to Suzuki for his career and may he enjoy the next phase of his endeavors.
Good guy, glad he got a ring. Best Wishes….
Great guy with consistent play, but I’m happy to see him retire – that 2019 walkoff off Diaz still gives me nightmares.
Congrats to him. Always a solid guy on the team. Never heard a bad thing about him reported from the clubhouse, and did his job.
No one is expecting a catcher to hit .285, but he at least kept his bat competitive. Also, a fan wasn’t dreading his defense like some catchers.
I saw him play on my visit to Vancouver way back in 2004. I still remember thinking he was gonna be a major leaguer and was excited when he came up. Great career!
Minnesota fan here.
Always admired Kurt Suzuki. Limited athlete with a heart of pure GOLD.
Now, someone please explain to me what has happened to our friend NELSON CRUZ??
2.5 season in Minnesota, and he looked like the Tom Brady of MLB. Elite performance despite advanced age.
Now, in TB and WSH, he can’t hit? What is going on there?
Twins fan also. Maybe age finally caught up to him. He will live on in Joe Ryan! (That was a great trade.)