Former Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons has announced his retirement from Major League Baseball at the age of 34.
Drafted by Atlanta out of Western Oklahoma State in the 2nd round of the 2010 MLB Draft, the Curaçao product finishes his career with a career .263 batting average and 70 homers across his 11 seasons in MLB.
Jumping from AA straight to the majors in 2012 at the age of 22, Simmons quickly showed a prenatural talent for defense, using his cannon of an arm and plus speed to make not only every play expected of a shortstop, but several he had no business even getting to.
Simmons only won four Gold Gloves in his career, but also won the 2013 NL Platinum Glove and was named the Wilson Defensive Player seven different times in his career. He three times led his respective league in defensive WAR, doing it twice in Atlanta (2013 & 2015) as well as once in Los Angeles (2017), with eight seasons in the league's top ten.
For all of Simmons talent as a defender, his bat lagged behind during his tenure in Atlanta. During those four seasons, he batted .256/.304/.362 w/ 31 homers and 168 RBIs in 499 games.
Atlanta traded Simmons to the Los Angeles Angels in November of 2015 as part of their rebuild, acquiring SS Erick Aybar, LHP Sean Newcomb, RHP Chris Ellis, and cash for the shortstop and C Jose Briceno.
Simmons seemingly hit another level of performance in Los Angeles, twice-finishing with MVP votes while averaging a .281/.328/.394 slash line during his time out west.
He spent one year with the Twins and a brief time with the Chicago Cubs in 2022.
It's worth a reminder of exactly how good Simmons was as a defender - I'm someone who grew up watching Andruw Jones, and I can confidently say Andrelton Simmons is the greatest defensive player I've ever watched play the game of baseball.
Best wishes to Andrelton in his retirement.
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