Opening Day is often thought of as a beginning for, well, obvious reasons. But, sometimes, I guess it’s an ending as well. Jason Heyward has announced his retirement after a 16-season MLB career:
For many of us, Heyward’s career was a big part of Braves fandom. His hype, amazing first MLB game, and overall awesome rookie season dovetailed with me going from a guy who largely just watched all the games to being really interested in how everything in baseball worked. His Braves tenure overlapped with a resurgence in the team’s fortunes after a few years wandering in the wilderness after the division title streak ended, though he also had to endure the disappointing conclusions to the 2011 and 2014 seasons. And, of course, his trade to the Cardinals heralded the first (and perhaps only, if we’re lucky) demonstrative Atlanta Braves rebuild.
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Heyward put up nearly 20 fWAR in his five seasons as a Brave, matching his rookie season’s 4.7 with another 4.7 in his final season pre-trade. His best season actually came immediately after he was dealt to the Cardinals — 5.6 fWAR. He he actually hit better as a rookie, which was his best offensive season overall (134 wRC+). However, his defense didn’t rate highly that year as compared to the next decade-plus of his career, hence the higher overall performace in 2015. His career included five Gold Gloves, an All-Star selection in his rookie season, and a World Series title in 2016 with the Cubs — despite his lackluster performance that year for his third team.
His career descended into more a role player/clubhouse guy vein from 2021-onward, though he did have a nice half-season while outhitting his xwOBA a bunch for the Dodgers in 2023. He’ll now put some of those experiences to work in mentoring the next generation of athletes at his eponymous academy.
Thanks for the memories, Jason Heyward. We’ll always have that amazing debut game against the Cubs in 2010. I know it’s a baseball moment I won’t ever forget.
