A year and a half after being traded by the Cubs, and months after being released by the Yankees, Alfonso Soriano announced his retirement yesterday, saying he’s lost the passion for the game.  After coming up to the big leagues with the Yankees in 1999, Soriano became a regular in 2001 and an all-star the following year.  He was traded to Texas in 2004 as part of the Alex Rodriguez deal.  After 2 seasons with the Rangers, Soriano headed to the Nationals, where he was moved from second base to left field.

Soriano signed an 8-year contract with the Cubs prior to the 2007 season and helped lead the team to back-to-back division titles in 2007 and 2008.  Unfortunately, the Cubs were swept in both division series and, as the team started to unravel in the next few seasons, injuries and time started to take their toll on Soriano.

As new leadership came in and the Cubs started to rebuild, Soriano and his $18 million contract no longer fit with the team’s needs.  After some aborted moves in 2012, thanks to an ill-advised no trade clause attached to his albatross of a contract, Soriano finally agreed to a deal in 2013 to go back to the Yankees.  The reunion was short lived, however.  Despite losing Alex Rodriguez for the season due to a steroid suspension, the Yankees found they could do without Soriano’s production in July.

The end of the season also brought about the end of Soriano’s Cubs deal, making him a free agent.  Rather than subject himself to the open market again at age 38, where he was unlikely to find much of a deal, he’s decided to call it quits.

Soriano’s numbers in a Cub uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:

Career Batting

BA	At Bats	Runs	Hits	RBI	Walks	Strike Outs	Doubles	Triples	HR	SB	GIDP	Errors	Games
0.277	476	67	132	46	32	101	25	2	16	10	9	6	119
0.264	3403	469	898	526	245	829	218	13	181	70	79	42	889