New York Yankees News: One Of Baseball’s Best Latinos Retires

One of baseball’s best Latino players has decided to hang up his cleats. Dominican, Alfonso Soriano, who played the last two seasons with the New York Yankees has called it a career at the age of 38. In his prime, Soriano was one of baseball’s best players. The power hitting player who started as a second baseman was a seven time All-Star, had one 40/40 season (40 home runs and 40 stolen bases), and finishes his career with a remarkable 412 home runs.

Born in San Pedro de Macoris, a hotbed of sorts for talented Dominican baseball players, Soriano had a unique combination of size and speed that separated him from his counterparts. Soriano made his MLB debut at second base for the New York Yankees in 1999. He was traded to the Texas Rangers in 2004 and then traded to the Washington Nationals a year after that. As a free agent in 2007, Soriano signed a huge eight-year, $136 million contract with the Chicago Cubs, but he never materialized into the player they thought he’d be. They tried moving Soriano to the outfield, but his power numbers dropped, his average fell, and he became a defensive liability in left field. He was traded to the Yankees at the trade deadline in 2013, where he could bat DH for the team that initially gave him a chance in the Majors.

Soriano was a four-time recipient of the Silver Slugger award, and won the All-Star game MVP in 2004. He retires as the 7^th active player on the home run list, and is one of only 50 players to hit over 400 home runs in their career. Soriano was cut by the Yankees at the end of this season, and received mild interest on the free agent market this offseason.

“I’ve lost the love and passion to play the game,” Soriano told a local radio station in the Dominican Republic. “Right now, my family is the most important thing. Although I consider myself in great shape, my mind is not focused on baseball.”