Veteran infielder Hanser Alberto announced his retirement via Instagram earlier this week, bringing a career that saw him spend parts of eight seasons in the majors to a close. He played for the Rangers, Orioles, Dodgers, Royals, and White Sox throughout his time in the big leagues.
Alberto, 33, signed with the Rangers out of the Dominican Republic as an amateur and made his pro debut back in 2010. He hit well out the gate in the Dominican Summer League and went on to slowly climb his way through the minors before making it to the majors in 2015. He struggled early on in his big league career and hit just .194/.204/.226 across 76 games in the majors as an up-and-down bench bat for Texas during his first two years in the show. After missing the 2017 season due to a shoulder injury, Alberto re-emerged with the Rangers in 2018 but once again struggled badly across a 13-game sample.
After being designated for assignment by Texas during the 2018-19 offseason, Alberto bounced around the league on waivers before finally landing in Baltimore ahead of the 2019 campaign. The Orioles were headed for a 108-loss campaign that year, but Alberto proved to be a major bright spot for the club as he took over a regular role with the team. He enjoyed a career year in Baltimore, slashing .305/.329/.442 in 139 games. That batting line was good for a 95 wRC+, and combined with strong defense at second base was enough to make Alberto a 3.4-win player according to Baseball Reference. He also struck out at a career-low 9.1% clip. Alberto took a step back during the shortened 2020 season, posting an 87 wRC+ with 13.1% strikeout rate, but still managed to appear in 54 of the Orioles’ 60 games that season.
Impressive as he had been in 2019, the Orioles opted to non-tender Alberto rather than carry him on the 2021 roster at his arbitration price tag. Over the final three seasons of his career in the majors, Alberto bounced between various clubs in a utility role. He joined the Royals on a minor league deal for the 2021 campaign, and his 83 wRC+ in 103 games for the rebuilding club was enough to convince the Dodgers to give him a major league contract for 2022. Alberto’s productivity took a step back as he neared his 30th birthday, however, and he slashed just .235/.259/.374 with a wRC+ of 74 over his final two years in the majors with L.A. and Chicago.
After being dogged by injuries during his time with the White Sox, Alberto missed most of the 2024 campaign and was limited to only playing winter ball. He returned to full-season play in 2025 when he joined the Mexican League’s Piratas de Campeche, and ultimately appeared in 26 games for them (plus an additional one for the Saraperos de Saltillo) before returning to winter ball. He appeared in 24 winter league games during the 2025-26 season for the Gigantes del Cibao but has now called it a career.
In all, Alberto made it into 488 games at the big league level. Along the way, he collected 378 hits, 22 homers, 12 steals, and 4.4 bWAR. He wraps up his career with a lifetime .269/.292/.381 slash line. MLB Trade Rumors congratulates Alberto on his career and wishes him the best in his future pursuits as his playing career comes to a close.
Pretty cool that he appeared in 10 games as a pitcher for the Dodgers in 2022.
Yeah saw him at Dodgerland on a visit: no better way to troll the DBacks than to insert him in the 8th w a 10-2 lead. It’s like we dont care enough to roll someone on our staff out there, just try and catch us. The Sox picked him up thinking maybe we have us an Ohtani
Don’t know how you write a Hanser Alberto tribute without mentioning his 11 innings of 4.09 ERA work for the 2022 Dodgers, which led to the rule change limiting the use of position players as pitchers.
Which is another example of useless Manfred rule engineering, no?
Even as a Padre fan I found it entertaining.
I so dislike reactive Buffalo Bills rules. If teams find someone who can pitch a bit so what. Maximize your roster.
Oh boy. Retired?
Now what will we do?????
Cynically complain and be miserable,in your case.
Thank you Mrs. Alberto. 🙂
Regards to everyone back home.
Ratio’d so hard, “Buckner” deleted the account and became a “User 2384204884” lol
Including Hanser’s brother also named Alberto.
**He hit well** I’m assuming not will.
We don’t really know. Maybe Will deserved it.
Nick Deeds special
choof – He’s a rookie and it’s a Sunday morning, he probably just got home when he wrote the article. LOL
Copy and paste what you said last time lol, I found the Nick Deeds burner
What did you do today, dear? Well, I spent some time pointing out spelling errors on a blog.
I like his stat line from 2019 season. Over 300 avg and averaged more than a hit per game played.
Over how many games?
The article says 139. That is a good season. Anyone that can make it 8 years in the majors deserves a tip of the cap. Congrats Hanser. Good luck in retirement.
Modern day Manny Mota ?
The weird thing about that season. He was a 3.4 war guy, but 98 ops+. He didn’t walk or hit with much power. Pure Luis Arraez that line. He did play good defense so not a complete Arraez.
Man, I loved Alberto with the O’s. Such a great attitude, always smiling, and the hard work he put in to improve his defense was evident. He was a hoot for the Dodgers too. Stand-up guy, great fun to watch during some bad O’s years. Congrats Hanser!
Loved him too. He absolutely destroyed left handed pitching. Could’ve really used him last year!
“Hanser, he’s hot right now”
The next article will state he’s “considering” ……
Good dude
Easily a top 17 veteran infielder of all time.
I’ll wager none of his 22 career home runs were cheepies. He took a cut like the Lord said “My dear son Hanser, you have only one swing left.”
I haven’t heard that name in forever. He had a good albeit brief run on some terrible Orioles teams.
Journey men like this make me appreciate big league more.
He certainly deserved more money over his career with a career earnings of just under $7,000,000 and with every WAR being worth $8,000,000.
What does that tell you about the accuracy of the value of 1 WAR?
It tells me that you feel it to be inaccurate.
Forgot all about this guy. Good for him. Will likely start coaching somewhere
A bright spot during dark years of the rebuild, a player that was easy to root for. When I was scratching for things to cheer about, he was usually the Hanser.
Will be remembered as one of the premier juiced ball merchants of the 2019 season
Such a stupid comment. His entire hitter’s profile was based on contact, not power. If you watched him in ‘19, you’d know that.
The irony is not lost on me. Well baited, my friend.
If you were kidding, then I apologize. Seems like the kind of comment people make about the O’s on here all the time.
So if I am understanding your comment correctly, you are saying that juiced balls only affected deep fly balls, and not line drives?
I am saying juiced balls doesn’t make a spray hitter successful. Regular playing time does.
so the juice “turns off” for an opposite field line drive, but it “activates” for a deep fly ball. ok, I get it.
Bbb
You’re not really making a coherent point. More MLBTR Slop, but what are trying to say about Alberto?
Do you think he benefitted more than the average hitter in 2019? If so, why do you think that is?
Kevin Newman hit over 300 for the 2019 Pirates.
Josh Bell looked like Willie Stargell for much of the year.
I think that what these posters are saying is that every batter benefitted from the juiced ball of 2019 and that is why it was changed.
Including Hanser.
Good Luck Hanser!
Respect for Handsy Al’s contributions to the Orioles. Solid career, congratulations for achieving your big league dreams.
He bounced around and wasn’t a top tier player in the bigs. However, reaching the big leagues are among the top tier players in the world, congrats.
I liked this guy and he definitely had a solid career. 2019 was quite a year for him I thought he was on his way to stardom but unfortunately that never happened.
“Alberto made it into 488 games at the big league level. Along the way, he collected 378 hits, 22 homers, 12 steals, and 4.4 bWAR. He wraps up his career with a lifetime .269/.292/.381 slash line”
You know what would be useful information here?
wRC+, yes, but that’s a pipe dream if you can’t even post plate appearances. What good is knowing how many home runs a player hit or what their WAR if you don’t know how much they played
No glory grunt. Every team uses 3-5 such guys every season. It’s a hard AAAA existence for those guys.
I hated him on the dodgers. A guy like that is a bandaid and rich teams shouldn’t employ bandaids.
That said, he performed really well considering his limitations/track record.
Juan- Any of those statistics are available elsewhere.They gave the important ones.
What I would like to know is if the 2025 Campeche Pirates hit more home runs in a limited schedule than the Pittsburgh Pirates hit in 162 games.
ML
“They gave the important ones.
No. They didn’t
Thanks for your useless input
“Impressive as he had been in 2019” is NOT proper English. You can’t just leave “as” out at the start of the sentence because you feel like it. Grammar is not optional, especially when you’re being paid to write.