Former third baseman Todd Frazier has decided to hang his bat at the age of 36 after playing for 10 seasons in Major League Baseball.
Frazier, who played for five different teams in his career, announced his retirement on Tuesday.
“It’s been my love my whole life,” Frazier said in a phone interview. “It’s very hard to let go. Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made in my life. But where I’m at in my career and where I’m at in my life, I think it was the right decision. I think it’s time to be that family figure that I’ve always wanted to be.”
Frazier started his MLB career with the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds selected him with the 34th overall selection of the 2007 Major League Baseball Draft. He spent eight seasons in Cincinnati and then moved to Chicago to be part of the White Sox in 2015.
The next chapter was the most exciting for Frazier since he could play for two of the most iconic teams in the world, the New York Yankees and the New York Mets.
“[It meant] everything, to be honest,” Frazier said. “When I got traded to the Yankees, I was like, ‘Holy cow, this is unbelievable.’ … The next year, getting picked up in free agency by the Mets. Every time I go to my batting cage, I look at those two jerseys and it’s really cool.
“I know a bunch of people have done it, but being from Jersey, some of your friends hate you at the time, then they love you because you’re with the Mets. So it made for good banter. It was awesome. I wish I could have stopped time during those years.”
Frazier signed his last MLB contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates before he went to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics with the United States national baseball team where they got the silver medal after being defeated by Japan in the gold-medal game.
