Former Mets Gold Glove Winner Retires From Baseball

Lagares was born in Constanza, Dominican Republic, a mountainous town located near the center of the island nation. Due to a lack of baseball teams in his local area, he grew up playing softball, which helped him build up considerable arm strength before transitioning to baseball as a teenager.

Lagares was signed by the Mets as a non-drafted free agent during the 2006 season and was promptly converted from shortstop to outfielder. He spent the entirety of the next seven years in the Mets' minor league system, slowly but surely climbing the latter from the Dominican Summer League in 2006 to Triple-A in 2013.

In early 2013, Lagares was promoted from Triple-A to the New York Mets' active roster, making his MLB debut on April 23 in a home game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He entered that game in the fifth inning and registered his first major league hit in his second at-bat, a single to left field in the seventh inning.

After such a long, arduous journey to the bigs, Lagares was poised to stay there. His rookie season was very impressive, and he quickly earned a penchant for collecting web gems out in center field. He also earned a 2013 NL Player of the Week Award during July after recording a .700 batting average and five RBIs in just 10 plate appearances during a three-game homestand against the Philadelphia Phillies.

With such a promising rookie season under his belt, Mets manager Terry Collins was convinced to trust Lagares as the team's full-time center fielder in 2014. Collins' faith was rewarded, as Lagares was recognized as the best defensive center fielder in the National League. Lagares' Gold Glove Award that season is still the most recent instance of a New York Mets player being bestowed with that honor.

Lagares inked a four-year, $23 million extension with the Mets in the early days of the regular season, but it would be the postseason where would make his mark on the team's 2015 season. Lagares enjoyed a stellar run of form throughout the playoffs, playing a crucial role as the Mets won the NL pennant, dramatically vanquishing the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs along the way before falling to the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.

The center fielder's .810 OPS (.375 OBP and .435 SLG) was the third-best among all Mets players throughout the team's 14 total playoff games, only trailing Daniel Murphy and Curtis Granderson. His ability to prolong at-bats, put the ball in play, and cause terror on the basepaths were on full display under the bright lights of the postseason.

While the rest of Lagares' Mets tenure between 2016 and 2020 was derailed by injury, he compiled an impressive 12.3 bWAR over eight years and 718 games with the organization. Short stints with the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Angels closed out his MLB career in 2022, and since then, Lagares has spent time in the KBO League (South Korea) and in his native Dominican Republic.

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