Former major league infielder Eduardo Nunez announced his retirement from professional baseball today in a post to his Instagram. “Today, it is with mixed emotions that I officially announce my retirement from professional baseball,” Nunez wrote. “I had the opportunity of a lifetime to play the game I love for more than a decade while competing for five amazing MLB teams.”
Nunez, 35, played for the Yankees, Twins, Giants, Red Sox, and Mets during a career that spanned 11 seasons in the majors. His last season in the majors was 2020, when he appeared in two games for the Mets. He played in the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2021 and did not play professionally during the 2022 season.
He made his major league debut with the Yankees in 2010, the first of four seasons spent in a utility role in their uniform. During his time in the Bronx, Nunez slashed .267/.313/.379 (86 wRC+) in 270 games while logging time at second base, third base, shortstop, and both outfield corners. Nunez’s career as a member of the Yankees ended when he was traded to Minnesota in 2014, where his career would begin to improve, with the highlight of his Twins tenure being the 2016 season that earned Nunez not only his only career All-Star appearance, but a deadline trade to the Giants. That season, he slashed .288/.325/.432 (101 wRC+) while splitting time between second base, third base, and shortstop.
Nunez would remain with the Giants until the following year’s trade deadline, when he would be swapped to the Red Sox. He re-signed with Boston during the 2017-18 offseason, and split time between second and third base while batting .265/.289/.388 (78 wRC+) in 127 games as the Red Sox won 108 games en route to a World Series championship. Nunez remained with Boston in 2019, appearing in 60 games before being designated for assignment in July.
Altogether, Nunez spent parts of 17 seasons playing professional baseball and batted .276/.310/.404 (90 wRC+) in his 3008 major league plate appearances, collecting 776 hits, 142 stolen bases, and 1136 total bases along the way. MLBTR wishes Nunez the best in his future pursuits now that his playing career has officially come to a close.
See you in Cooper’s Town, Eduardo.
Ok not cool. Look, he may not have had THAT great of a career, but those are not bad numbers at all. I’d like to see one of us try to do that.
I think he is referring to Coopers Town in the DR
Oh shoot then I apologize. I just thought it was an auto-corrxt or typo thing.
Liked him a lot. Too bad his knee injury shortened his career.
Giving ETB the benefit of the doubt, he did mention Cooper’s Town, Bahamas and not Cooperstown, NY.
Yeah, I totally missed your point. I must be bear of little brain.
Coop always a touchy lil fella. Do some research before jumping up into someones grill like that.
You know it’s pretty easy to make that mistake. I wouldn’t call him out for it
He was way overrated on the Red Sox but not a bad backup player.
He was the perfect utility guy to plugin where needed and was capable of starting for long stretches if needed. Unfortunately like Pedie, a knee injury ruined his career. Pedie was on his way to the HOF when he got hurt. Nunez was as others stated more likely to go to a pub than be enshrined but his career was not something to laugh it.
17 million clown, or more than you’ll make collecting soda cans.
Be nice.
Thank god the days of a grown man crying on the podium while giving a retirement speech are over. However, they should start using the power of TikTok with viral songs and sound bites. IG is a dinosaur
Slider, how is life in the Caymans? Isle of Mann?
I’m staying with Richard Branson in Necker Island while the contractors are adding a fifth wing to my estate. Will update you when I return
Keep living it up for us plebes friend! Talk soon.
Cayman is like Swiss you can hide you money and have a excellent vacation
Ramiro Pena 2.0
Big career, solid success.
0.2 career WAR. You have to think that he was just a lucky one that for some reason stuck in the big leagues. I’m sure there were other minor leaguers who could produce the same results – if not more – but never got the chance
He was good at baseball
He made an All Star team and got 776 career hits. If minor leaguers could do that, they wouldn’t be minor leaguers.
Quite a simplistic view. Imagine if there was a site dedicated to your job? I doubt your resume would impress me.
WAR be damned. Teams don’t keep signing a player for no reason for 17 years
Jeff Mathis comes to mind.
12.6 career dWar is why Mathis was kept in the majors.
Better number $17.8 mil. in salary. Good for him.
He was a good player who was consistently played out of position which killed his WAR total. He never belonged at SS.
He was a utility player, so when teams ran out of viable options and needed a stopgap to fill in for injuries, suspensions, or whatever else, Nunez was one of the guys who got the call. All he had to do was outplay the top AAA guy and he did that for the better part of 11 years.
Eduardo Scissorhands.
Nooooooooooòooooooooooooo,okay do it…
Only 2800 at bats for a versatile infielder that could hit
He had some good tools. Quick bat with some pop and excellent speed. He played a variety of positions but he really mastered none defensively. That’s what held him back from more ABs and an even longer career. Both fun and at times painful to watch.
He wasn’t really a versatile fielder he was just misconstrued as a SS for the majority of his career.
Best of luck and happy retirement. I enjoyed him when he was with the Giants
the forrest gump of baseball, always seemed to be in middle of weird plays. he was never not entertaining. enjoy retirement and keep your hat on!
So I’m gonna rant for a minute. This is one of those times, where I just do not get WAR. Now hear me out. I looked at his baseball reference page, as I do about 137 times a day for other players. So he amassed a career OPS of .714, 225 extra base hits, 142 SB, an OPS+ of better than league average for 3-4 years, made an All-Star team, played 3-4 positions competently, and played every position on the field at least once, except for 1st base. Made about 20 million bucks, and stuck around for pretty decent amount of time. You’re telling me he was worth 0.2 WAR!?! I’m not pleading the guy’s case for the HOF or anything, but surely he had more value than 0.2 WAR. One of those times where sabermetrics don’t tell the whole story. For a utility infielder that no one expected All-Star play from, you could have done worse than this guy. Alright, that’s all I got today. Hope the Yankees tie it up tonight. My team has been done since May. Just trying to see as much baseball before the cold dark winter takes away our favorite thing again. About 120 days until pitchers and catchers report!!!!
Would it make you feel better if Fangraphs gave him 2.9 career WAR? He did have three decent years from 2025-2017, but a lot of negative WAR surrounding that. Below average defensive metrics appear to be the main culprit which are usually a utility infielder’s bread and butter.
He was a TERRIBLE short stop. That killed his WAR value. If he had played exclusively at second his WAR totals would look different. Decent bat, not a great glove but often played at SS that’s why his total is so low.
His offensive stats would make one think his WAR would b higher at quick glance. However he was a poor defender and only once had 500+ ABs in a season. That’s where he’s getting dinged in WAR. He was a nice utility bat off the bench and had decent speed. Nice option to have had as a pinch hitter and pinch runner late in games.
WAR doesn’t take into account that he was a utility player. There is unaccounted value in that for some teams as they don’t have to roster another guy with Nunez’ and his versatility. Plus he was a good clubhouse guy.
WAR has a positional adjustment. Since he played mainly SS, he got positive value for that.
“Positional adjustment” is the main reason WAR is not a fair statistic. Designated hitters get charged negative dWAR despite not playing defense. How the hell does that make sense? If you don’t play defense,, your defensive WAR shouldn’t be anything other than zero. And playing mediocre shortstop is somehow much better than playing equally mediocre first base? It is just silly.
I bet you that WAR does kick up the value a bit in consideration of versatility. Of course, WAR is based on replacement value, how difficult are this players skills to come by? I’d say a lot of players could be “utility” guys if you don’t mind them playing their extra positions poorly so how much extra, irreplaceable value is there in that really?
A solid mediocre big leaguer. Made a lot more money than most people see in a lifetime, had a few seasons showing decent power, a respected defensive player, saw time on some very respectable clubs. He can be proud of dreams fulfilled, a tiny fortune earned.
He wasn’t great, but he hit .276, made the All-Star team once and got a ring. I call that a darn good career. Best to you, Eduardo.
I always try my best. Thank you for the well wishes!
Happy retirement, Nuney!!
Good luck Eduardo!
Thank you!
He was good in his short stint with the Giants. Was disappointed when he got traded to Boston.
Congrats on a nice career!
A consummate professional. Good luck in your retirement.
Please allow me to save him the time of thanking you
solid player. very reliable utility guy. Disfruta del retiro Eduardo muy buena carrera. Saludos desde Panamá.
I remember watching this guy play for the Yankees. Was my favorite bench player.
This is the kind of player who only looks mediocre because he’s compared to the elite. He had exceptional talent to make it to The Show and stick for a solid eleven years. No, he wasn’t a perennial All-Star, but he deserves congratulations for accomplishing something that less than .00001% of all people can do.
Better than half the current Yankee lineup.
Numbers like that would be welcome on any MLB team – especially the Yankees – for a supporting team player.