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Posada ready to retire
From CBS Sports:
Long-time Yankee Jorge Posada will announce his retirement from baseball in the next few weeks, CBSSports.com insider Jon Heyman has confirmed. The news was first reported by Sweeny Murti of WFAN.
While it would be a stretch to say Posada is one of the very best Yankees of all-time, he's certainly someone who will go down in history as a very important member of the storied franchise.
Posada, 40, was a member of five World Series championship teams, made the All-Star team five times and also won five Silver Sluggers. He joined with Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter as the nucleus for the Yankees over an extended period of time, becoming known as the Core Four.
Posada definitely saw his fair share of winning. By 1997 he was getting some important at-bats and in 1998 he was the primary catcher. The only season the Yankees didn't make the playoffs with Posada on the roster was 2008. In addition to the five championships, Posada also played in two other World Series.
Over the course of his career, Posada hit 275 home runs while amassing 900 runs scored and 1,065 RBI. His career .273/.374/.474 line is outstanding for a catcher. The only catchers who hit more homers in their career were Mike Piazza, Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Yogi Berra, Gary Carter, Lance Parrish and Ivan Rodriguez.
Using Baseball-Reference.com's similarity scores, four of the top ten most similar players to Posada in baseball history are currently in the Hall of Fame.
Speaking of which, Posada does have a shot at enshrinement. It will probably be a tall order, though, with several loaded ballots coming through the ringer in the next five seasons. My colleague C. Trent Rosecrans examined Posada's case when he took a look at borderline candidates this past week.
Whether the Hall comes calling or not, Posada should be proud of his baseball career. It's been a great one.
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