Catcher Grayson Greiner announced his retirement from professional baseball today, posting a message on Twitter. He then extends profound thanks to his family, friends, agents, teammates, coaches, team staff and fans. “While I’ve given almost my entire life to playing this game, I’m extremely excited for the next chapter of my life,” he says. “I’ll miss you, baseball.”
Greiner’s professional career began when he was selected by the Tigers in the third round of the 2014 draft out of the University of South Carolina, getting a signing bonus of $529.4K at that time. Unusually tall for a catcher at 6’6″, he was nonetheless considered a strong defender in his time as a prospect. He was also considered to have decent pop in his bat but wasn’t expected to be an especially strong bat-to-ball hitter or baserunner. Baseball America had him in the 20-25 range in their lists of top Tiger farmhands on three separate occasions, projecting him to be a solid backup catcher unless his bat surpassed expectations.
He was able to reach the big leagues in 2018, the first of five straight seasons where he made an appearance. He never really carved out a regular role, however, with his 58 games and 224 plate appearances in 2019 being career highs. Over those five years, he got a bit under a full season of work, getting into 139 games and taking 485 trips to the plate. He hit nine home runs but struck out in 32.2% of his plate appearances, producing a batting line of .201/.275/.307.
His time as a Tiger went through 2021, but he was outrighted off their roster after that season. He elected free agency and signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks, getting into a couple of games as a COVID substitute but otherwise staying in the minors that year. Returning to free agency in the most recent offseason, he signed a minor league deal with the Twins but didn’t make the club out of camp. He was released and signed another minor league deal, this time with the Rockies. He got into 20 games for the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes this year but hit just .186/.269/.286 before deciding it was time to hang up his spikes.
Greiner wasn’t a star, though by making it to the majors he realized a dream that many have but few can turn into reality. He got into 139 big league games, collecting 87 hits, nine homers, 42 runs scored and 46 batted in. MLBTR congratulates him on his career and wishes him the best of luck in whatever’s over the horizon.
This dude has the hottest wife. A legit 10. She’s worth a Google fellas.
Brittney Griner 10/10
Dr. Van Nostrand: BG is a dude! Freckle’s ugly cousin.
She’s a man playing in the WNBA
All testosteroned and covered with skanktoos.
Hotter than BRITTNEY Greiner’s wife?
She’s a looker, but a bit too Barbie-doll for me.
Milt: Definitely. Madison is cute but chubby, with that gross bleached-white hair, and the cookie-cutter long hair with the twist curls at the end, like every chick on youtube and tv for the past decade. (They’re probably extensions anyway.)
At least she’s not all skanktooed (as far as I could see). Talk about gross!!
@jazzjazz post the link to your glamour shots.
I would say let’s see your wife/girlfriend but based on your comments I assume you don’t have either. And if you do, maybe we can start a gofundme for her.
Hey, Beanie!
If she’s being Googled, she’s apparently a public figure.
What SORT of figure… is in the eye of the beholder.
All the best!
Hey Bronco!
I just googled myself and found a couple articles. Does that make me a public figure now?
Maybe it’s just me, but someone making a whole comment to say how they think this dude’s wife is gross seems a bit pathetic and misogynistic. All in response to another person saying she is attractive. But, I don’t frequent 4Chan or wherever incels hang.
Nor do I, Beano (frequent 4Chan or wherever incels hang).
Nor do I check out other peoples’ wives/husbands/mistresses.
Whether you consider yourself a public figure, I’ll leave that up to you to decide. You’re kind of famous around these parts.
This dude played in the big leagues. According to Baseball Reference he is literally the 21,632nd in major league history to do so!
That alone makes him a man of uncommon achievement and accomplishment. I’d be the last one to crack on ANYONE’s partner in life… let alone anyone who is 6’6″ and 238!
All the best!
Beans-Weirdo: Roy said she’s a legit 10. I explained that she’s not. Simple as that. Why do you get all triggered by nothing??
Beanie: Now what are you rambling about??!
What does whatever 4Chan is have to do with discussing an athlete’s wife?
And, I didn’t say Greiner’s wife is gross, I said skanktoos are gross, and I said that as far as I could tell she didn’t have any. And I said that phony-looking (and probably hard and dead-feeling) bleach-white hair is gross.
Always triggered, you are….
The mental image of this dude calling it quits on a career he spent his entire life working towards and everyone shaking his hand out the door just saying “congrats on the hot wife” is hilarious to me.
She is pretty, but not worth the Google search.
She’s on the spectrum of the pretty American blonde, but nothing to tongue wag about. He is lucky though.
She seemed average to me, seen a lot more beautiful women than her.
hardawg: I saw hotter women an hour ago at the grocery store.
This saddens me.
I think I’ll call off work.
All these guys who retired recently. I haven’t of any of them.
That’s an amazing coincidence.
I mentioned you to each of them and they got this funny quizzical WTF expression on their faces.
Maybe this being in the works is why the Rockies signed Wynns and bumped Serven back to AAA. Or maybe the causation went in the other direction.
and?
I am glad he made the announcement, otherwise I would never have heard of him.
Makes sense that he’s mostly remembered by Tigers fans.
Saw him play on several occasions. A decent player but sure, not a decent MLB player. A very nice guy as well. Wish him well in the future.
Who?
He’s the guy that played big league baseball.
You must be the other guy.
Awesome career as far as I’m concerned as a human… he made the bigs and stuck around for 5 years with essentially the lowest level of skill of any catcher in the league. He closes out that chapter of his life at 29 with a clean slate and hopefully a couple million saved up. Good luck Grayson!
He had a solid career in college at South Carolina. He was a freshman on the 2012 team that finish as the national runner up to Arizona.
I thought for sure the Cardinals would have him on the roster, disappointing
Maybe they can talk him out of retirement with this catching emergency they suddenly have.
Slow news day, huh?
He was the last one to realize his career was over.
Actually, (squints at cheesy nametag), Birdie, he was the first.
He wasn’t released. He retired.
He’s got pension pocket money as well as medical benefits. Good on him.
Why do people say stuff like that about baseball players when they are done playing? I find it odd because most people don’t even care about their neighbors anymore but if it’s a ballplayer….
I prefer it to the comments trashing the guy’s skill set/career numbers
Yeah that’s good. No need to trash people. You’re response doesn’t really answer my question but thoughtful answer.
Well, I wasn’t being sarcastic or negative. Medical expenses can be VERY expensive so based on him meeting the minimum service time, he’s quite fortunate in that respect.
And our neighbors’ job, salary and performance aren’t broadcasted on the internet. Most of us likely know more personal details about athletes than those living around us.
neurogame: He probably made roughly a million dollars. Of course, after taxes, agents, and expenses, most of that’s probably already gone.
Greiner’s not a college grad. Other than getting into coaching, what do most of these young-stud retirees end up doing….?
Bagging groceries at Safeway.
Retrieving shopping carts.
That sort of thing.
bronxmac: : (
“He probably made roughly a million dollars. Of course, after taxes, agents, and expenses, most of that’s probably already gone.”
Worse, Jazzy. He’s probably drowning in debt. Underwater, as it were. He’ probably gets sweaty palms, heart palpitations and hyperventilations just thinking about it.
Probably explains that .186/.269/.286 ‘slash” line.
You’re not far off but according to Sportac, he made just shy if $2M, before taxes and paying his agent. Of course, that’s over 5 major league seasons so when you take into account taxes and living expenses, who knows how much he has left.
Hopefully he dies have a coaching job lined up or something in the family business. He has two very young kids to raise.
neuro: I seriously wonder what these guys do afterwards. Hopefully nepotism kicks in and some fan gives him a job, or another player calls-in a favor.
No college degree or work experience is fine when you’re 17 or 18, but this guy’s in his 30’s now. Sounds a little scary.
Just like anyone who changes careers, what ever they want to.
Sell life insurance
Or cemetery plots.
Other than Jeff Mathis, Grayson Greiner might be the most persuasive person in baseball. How this guy kept getting MLB chances, I’ll never know. Can’t hit, below average defensively his whole career
Respect and praise on your MLB career Double G!!!!
Shohei! Whadda man! Whadda playa!
This actually makes me sad to read; I’ll always think really fondly of Grayson because randomly on an MLB the Show franchise he hit .404 for the Tigers and I started following his career because of that.
Catchers usually have a longer shelf life in the minors than other players. Greiner must have something in store; he was also under contract when he retired. I wish him good luck!
Gruß,
BSHH
A lot if these guys lately, retirement means “no one signed me so I quit.”
Of course I did that years ago!
He only did the announcement to stop the phone calls he was getting from St. Louis and San Francisco.
For a guy nobody heard of, he sure garnered a lot of comments. At least he made it to the show. The rest of us?
488 days on an MLB roster at $5750 per every 43 days comes out to $63,250 at age 62 and Health care!Great job!
Too bad. I expected him to play well. I hope he keeps trying.
I wish him well.