Former Padres All-Star Adrian Gonzalez retires from baseball

Did you know that Adrian Gonzalez was still an active professional baseball player up until this weekend? Some of you probably didn’t and that isn’t surprising because his last action in the major leagues came with the New York Mets in 2018. After that he played in the Mexican League for the Mariachis de Guadalajara in 2021. Gonzalez, 39, officially announced his retirement via Instagram on Saturday:

Perhaps some baseball fans (including a certain San Diego news outlet) will remember “A-Gon” most as a Dodger since Los Angeles made the playoffs every year he was on their roster but his best years came with the Padres.

While Gonzalez wore a Padres uniform, he compiled a 20.4 WAR—his highest WAR among any team he played for—and was named to three consecutive All-Star teams in 2008, 2009, and 2010 before heading to the Boston Red Sox where he earned a fourth straight All-Star appearance. Gonzalez ranks sixth all-time in Padres history in WAR behind only Tony Gwynn (69.2), Dave Winfield (32), Jake Peavy (26.8), Trevor Hoffman (25.8), and Andy Ashby (22.6).

Gonzalez’ major league career spanned across 15 seasons and he played for five different teams. The Eastlake High School product hit at least 30 home runs in four seasons and 20+ home runs in nine seasons.

I leave you with one of his best games he ever played in the majors. The date was August 11, 2009 in Milwaukee and Gonzalez went 6-for-6.