Following the Tigers' loss to the White Sox on Wednesday (CHW 6, DET 5), Detroit designated hitter Victor Martinez indicated he's leaning strongly toward retiring following the 2018 season.
"I'm pretty sure this is going to be it," Martinez told reporters after the game. "Like I said, I'm just enjoying these last six weeks and finally go home."
Martinez, who turns 40 in December, has struggled badly in this, his 16th season in the bigs. So there's no doubt it's time. While Martinez isn't a Hall of Famer, he has indeed enjoyed an excellent career. Here's a look at his current career numbers in MLB ...
V-Mart, in addition to being an excellent hitter during his prime, also spent more 7,000 defensive innings at catcher. He's also a five-time All-Star, and twice he finished in the top 10 of the AL MVP balloting. Particularly impressive was his age-35 season for the Tigers. Roughly two years removed from ACL surgery that cost him all of 2012, Martinez wound up leading the AL in OBP and the majors in OPS en route to winning the Silver Slugger and finishing runner-up to Mike Trout in the MVP vote.
Martinez also played in 39 postseason games with the Indians, Red Sox, and Tigers. Over that span, he batted .315/.374/.503 with six home runs.
