It appears that veteran center fielder Denard Span is done with professional baseball. Span, who hasn’t played since 2018, said in a recent interview that he considers himself retired.
According to Span, he realized that he won’t play baseball after he failed to land on a team ahead of this season.
“I would say, in my heart, once I didn’t sign a contract going into the 2020 season, that was it for me,” Span told MLB Trade Rumors website.
Span had numerous offers to return both in 2019 and this year, but they were a lot lower than he expected. The 36-year-old CF felt he deserves more than a minimum contract, so he decided to sit instead of settling for less.
“At the end of the day, I want people to get that I didn’t play because of principles. Point blank,” he added.
Denard Span started his MLB career with the Minnesota Twins in 2008 and went on to accumulate more than 500 hits and 32 triples during the four years he spent with the organization. Span, however, left the biggest mark with Washington Nationals where he had 11 triples in 2013 to lead the National League and followed that up with NL-leading 184 hits in 2014.
Span, who also played with San Francisco Giants, Tampa Bay Rays and Seattle Mariners, retires with career stats that include .281 batting average, 71 home runs, and 490 RBIs.
