MLB first baseman/DH Eric Hosmer has announced his retirement from baseball after 13 seasons in the majors. Hosmer, who won the World Series with the Kansas City Royals in 2015, posted to social media saying in part: “the playing days are unfortunately over but I’m committed to giving back to the baseball community …You have to be 110% committed and doing what is necessary both physically and mentally to play at the major league level and I reached a point where I wasn’t there anymore. I’m very satisfied with my career. I feel like I accomplished a lot, was around a lot of great people and have a lot of good stories to tell.”

Hosmer also shared that he is launching a new podcast, “Diggin’ Deep,” hosted with former MLB pitcher Peter Moylan and process and development coach Justin Su’a, from his new media company, MoonBall Media. Hosmer said of the podcast: “We’re not trying to break news, we’re not trying to figure out if any team has interest in trading for Mike Trout or anything like that. What we’re doing is digging deep into how people got started in their baseball careers, how something might have happened during their careers that changed them in a big way, things of that nature. That’s going to be something unique and a lot of fun.”

Hosmer retires with a .276/.335/.427 career average. He made his debut in 2011 with the Kansas City Royals, hitting 19 home runs over 128 games and hitting .293, earning him third place in AL Rookie of the Year voting. With the Royals he won the 2015 World Series against the New York Mets, the franchise’s first championship trophy since 1985.

In his best season (2017) Hosmer played in all 162 games, hitting .318/.385/.498 with 25 home runs, and earned a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger, and finished 14th in AL MVP voting. Hosmer signed an eight-year, $144 million contract with the San Diego Padres (the biggest in franchise history at the time) but was traded to the Boston Red Sox in 2022, who released him during the offseason. In 2023, Hosmer signed a one-year deal with the Cubs and appeared in 31 games, hitting .234/.280/.330 with two home runs before the Cubs released him in late May.

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