Major League Baseball infielder Mark Reynolds retires at age 36

Mark Reynolds (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)

Major League Baseball corner infielder Mark Reynolds of Pikeville, Kentucky has retired from professional baseball at age 36 according to Steve Adams of www.mlbtraderumors.com. Reynolds, who played 783 regular season games at third base and 772 regular season games at first base, played 13 MLB seasons from 2007 to 2019 with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Indians, the New York Yankees, the Milwaukee Brewers, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals.

Last season with the Rockies, Reynolds only played in 78 games and a dip in production was evident. He only batted .170 with four home runs and 20 runs batted in. On July 26, the Rockies released Reynolds.

Reynolds’s finest Major League Baseball season came in 2009 with the Diamondbacks. That season he batted .260 with career highs in home runs (44), runs batted in (102), runs scored (98), hits (150), doubles (30), stolen bases (24), slugging percentage (.543) and total bases (314).

However Reynolds was not always known as a consistent hitter and struck out frequently. He only batted .236 for his career, was below the Mendoza Line in three separate seasons and led the league he was playing in in strikeouts for four straight seasons from 2008 to 2011. In fact, Reynolds had more strikeouts (1927) than games played (1688) by a wide margin. During the 2009 season, Reynolds set the Major League Baseball record for most times a player struck out in a season with 223.

In Reynolds’s career, he had 298 home runs and 871 runs batted in during 5432 at bats. He also scored 794 runs, had 1283 hits, 253 doubles, 14 triples, 64 stolen bases, 707 walks, an on base percentage of .328, slugging percentage of .453, 2458 total bases, three sacrifice hits and 45 sacrifice flies.