Breaking: former shortstop for the Atlanta Braves, announced his retirement.

Breaking:a former shortstop for the Atlanta Braves, announced his retirement. 

After being one of the best defenders of his generation, the multiple Gold Glove Award winner hangs up his cleats.

Andrelton Simmons’ agency, ISE Baseball, announced on December 26, 2023, that Simmons, who is only 34 years

old, is retiring from professional baseball. The agency shared a congrats picture on Instagram.

Given that Simmons had earlier this year committed to play in the newly

established Middle East and South Asia professional Baseball United league, it is

unclear from the post whether Simmons is leaving baseball altogether or just from MLB.

Should Simmons’ playing career come to an end, he will go out as one of the best defensive players of his generation in the

sport. He played shortstop for the bulk of his career, and for his defensive efforts, he was awarded four Gold Gloves and

one Platinum Glove. In six different seasons, he was also awarded the Wilson Defensive Player Award.

With his glove and strong right arm, Simmons made a significant impact that

is not entirely captured by those accolades and awards. Despite the subjectivity of defensive ratings,

Baseball-Reference awards Simmons 28.5 dWAR for his career as a shortstop in 10,388.1 innings played, with 201

DEFENSIVE RUNs SAVED above average. According to Fangraphs, he has a career Ultimate Zone Rating of 114 runs above average.

Western Oklahoma State College’s Simmons was selected by the Atlanta

Braves in the second round of the 2010 MLB Draft. Curacao native Simmons made his Braves debut in 2012, moving

up to shortstop in June and starting for the majority of July until missing nearly two months due to a hand injury.

When he came back in September of that year, he started an almost ten-year streak of defensive dominance.

Despite signing a contract extension with Atlanta prior to the 2014 season, Simmons would play in 499 games for

the team until the end of the 2015 campaign, at which point he traded to the Los Angeles Angels.

He was 14th in the NL MVP voting in 2013 and won two Gold Gloves with the

Braves. Though he did not take home the Gold Glove, 2015 might have been his best defensive season as a Brave. He led

the NL in bWAR (4.1) and was named Wilson’s Overall Defensive Player of the Year.

He amassed an astounding 13.7 bWAR in games played with Atlanta over the course of slightly more than three full seasons.

While he was a slightly below average hitter overall, in 2013 he hit a career-high 17 home runs, and in Atlanta he slashed.256/.304/.362.

He was not a deep count hitter, but he had good bat-to-ball ability. He was not

only a seldom standout player but also a sparse walker, never walking more than

47 times in a season and only ever reaching 67 strikeouts. His contact-based approach had the unintended

consequence of making him a low power hitter; in 4,816 career plate appearances, he only collected 294 extra base hits. .

After playing for the Angles for five seasons, Simmons was released by the

team due to throwing shoulder problems. He then spent the 2021 season

with the Minnesota Twins and finished his MLB career with a 34-game stint with the Chicago Cubs in 2022.

He maintained his stellar defensive play while with the Angels, winning two Gold

Gloves and topping the AL in 2017 with a career-high 5.1 dWAR. At that time, he

had an amazing 31 infield range above average (a career total of 75). In addition, he had his two best offensive seasons to date in 2017 and 2018, finishing with 102

and 108 OPS+, respectively. In 2017 he placed eighth in the AL MVP voting, and in 2018 he came in fifteenth

With the Angles, he improved his slash line to.281/.328/.394 and developed into a threat for stolen bases, robbing 51 bases

while only being caught 11 times. That was a far cry from his time in Atlanta, where he only succeeded in 16 out of 29 thefts.

He missed a lot of time due to injuries in both 2016 and 2019, and he decided to

withdraw from the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign early in order to address mental health concerns.

He participated in just 1,225 games over the course of 11 seasons, seeing action in 140 or more games just five times.

Baseball-Reference rates Simmons’ 28.5 career dWAR as tied for 11th all-time

despite his shortened career, even though he played four fewer seasons than any of the players ranked higher. In

terms of dWAR, he finished in the top four eight times and led his league in 2013–2015– 2017. To further illustrate his defensive prowess, even though he

played in 13 fewer games than Omar Vizquel during his career, he only recorded 1.0 dWAR less than Vizquel

In the 2012 NL Wild Card game, Simmons’ flyball to left field was called

an infield fly, which famously caused a stoppage in play after Braves fans strewn debris all over Turner Field after what

looked to be a single was called an out. This play is among the most contentious in Braves history.

Five years ago, Simmons looked set to become one of the greatest defenders in

NBA history, about to enter his 29th season. While he still ranks among the

best defenders of his era, injuries ultimately caused his career to end prematurely. One must wonder if he

could have reached the pinnacle of defensive wizardry with all-time great defensive shortstops Ozzie Smith and

Mark Belander as well as third baseman Brooks Robinson had he had a longer and healthier career.

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