Jed Lowrie Announces Retirement

By Steve Adams | March 23, 2023 at 11:13am CDT

Former All-Star second baseman Jed Lowrie tells Susan Slusser of the San
Francisco Chronicle that he’s retiring after 15-year Major League career
and a professional career that spanned parts of 18 seasons. Lowrie tells
Slusser that he’s “gotten to the point where I listen to my body and
when I think about playing another 162, I don’t want to do that.” He
adds that he’s looking forward to spending time with his young family
and is already an assistant coach with his daughter’s softball team.

Now 38 years old, Lowrie was the No. 45 overall draft pick by the Red
Sox back in 2005. The Stanford product reached the Majors three years
after being drafted, hitting .258/.339/.400 in 81 games as a rookie with
the Sox in 2008. He spent parts of four seasons in Boston before being
traded to the Astros in exchange for reliever Mark Melancon.

That stop in Houston wound up being for just one year, as the Astros
traded Lowrie to the A’s on the heels of a solid .244/.331/.438 showing
and netted Brad Peacock, Chris Carter and Max Stassi in that swap. He’d
spend the next two seasons in Oakland, performing at a high level
(.272/.334/.405) before reaching free agency and signing back with the
Astros. In a full deja vu sequence, Lowrie spent one season in Houston
and was traded to Oakland a second time — this time in exchange for
righty Brendan McCurry.

Lowrie spent the next three seasons in green and gold, culminating with
a 2018 All-Star season that saw him club a career-best 23 home runs.
That standout campaign helped Oakland secure a postseason berth, though
the 2018 A’s fell to the Yankees in the one-game Wild Card format.
Lowrie went on to ink an ill-fated two-year deal with the Mets, with
whom he was limited to just nine games due to ongoing knee troubles.
Lowrie reached free agency and once again signed with the A’s, making
good on a minor league deal and reemerging as the team’s regular second
baseman. He signed one final deal with Oakland for the 2022 season but
was limited to just 50 games.

Overall, Lowrie spent parts of seven seasons in Oakland, four in Boston,
two in Houston and two in New York (though he was on the injured list
for the bulk of that time). He’ll retire as a career .257/.330/.406
hitter (103 wRC+) with 121 home runs, 292 doubles, 17 triples, 590 runs
scored, 594 runs batted in and eight stolen bases. He made an All-Star
team and reached the postseason in six of his 15 seasons as a big leaguer.

Given his obvious talent, he’d surely have further padded those totals
had he been able to avoid the injured list with more regularity, but
health troubles followed him throughout his career. Lowrie most notably
was plagued by a torn ligament in his thumb, a capsule tear in his knee
and a broken finger in his right hand, amid several other nagging
injuries. It’s easy to wonder what might have been with better health,
but Lowrie’s career was still valued nearly 20 wins above replacement,
per FanGraphs, and just shy of 16 WAR per Baseball-Reference. He was
regularly an average or better hitter when healthy, peaking with
particularly big showings at the plate in 2010, 2013 and 2017-18. All
told, he banked more than $60MM in salary over the course of his career
and will be remembered particularly fondly for his time in Oakland.

What’s next for Lowrie isn’t clear, but he tells Slusser that he “loves
the game too much” to simply ride off into the sunset. Lowrie adds that
he has a “deep-rooted obsession with seeing the game continue to evolve,
continue to get better, continue to promote participation and see it
thrive because it’s the best game in the world.” Best wishes to Lowrie
in whatever path he takes in the next step of what sounds like a
lifelong baseball journey.

On 3/23/23 19:13, Popping Mad wrote:
> Jed Lowrie Announces Retirement
>
> By Steve Adams | March 23, 2023 at 11:13am CDT
>
> Former All-Star second baseman Jed Lowrie tells Susan Slusser of the San
> Francisco Chronicle that he’s retiring after 15-year Major League career
> and a professional career that spanned parts of 18 seasons. Lowrie tells
> Slusser that he’s “gotten to the point where I listen to my body and
> when I think about playing another 162, I don’t want to do that.” He
> adds that he’s looking forward to spending time with his young family
> and is already an assistant coach with his daughter’s softball team.
>

They paided this creep 20 million dollars for something like 8 apearances.

On Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 6:17:01 PM UTC-5, Popping Mad wrote:
> On 3/23/23 19:13, Popping Mad wrote:
> > Jed Lowrie Announces Retirement
> >
> > By Steve Adams | March 23, 2023 at 11:13am CDT
> >
> > Former All-Star second baseman Jed Lowrie tells Susan Slusser of the San
> > Francisco Chronicle that he’s retiring after 15-year Major League career
> > and a professional career that spanned parts of 18 seasons. Lowrie tells
> > Slusser that he’s “gotten to the point where I listen to my body and
> > when I think about playing another 162, I don’t want to do that..” He
> > adds that he’s looking forward to spending time with his young family
> > and is already an assistant coach with his daughter’s softball team.
> >
> They paided this creep 20 million dollars for something like 8 apearances..

Hopefully he wears a Mets cap into the HoF...his plaque will give special thanks to his longtime friend BVW.