Breaking News: Howie Kendrick Announces Retirement from Baseball

Former Washington Nationals player Howie Kendrick has announced that he is retiring from baseball after 15 years in playing professional baseball.

by Richard Wachtel

Updated December 21, 2020

In an Instagram post, former Washington Nationals player Howie Kendrick has announced that he is retiring from baseball after 15 years.

In the post, Howie Kendrick mentions all the teams he has played for over his 15-year career, including the LA Dodgers, LA Angels, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Washington Nationals.

In his post, he calls out the Nationals and says: "thank you for embracing me as one of your own. I feel as though I’d been a National my whole career and the wild, humbling and crazy ride we had in 2019 truly culminated everything I’d learned in my career, and we all became World Champions. To my teammates throughout the years, thank you for the times and hardships we’ve shared. I’ve learned from you and hopefully taught some of you the bits and pieces I got from the guys before me. To the fans, without your support and love for the game, our stage and lights would not shine as brightly as they do. Know you will be missed as well. I will always love the game of baseball and will constantly reflect on the lifelong memories made. For now, it’s time to drop the mic and enter a new stage of my life."

Kendrick played in 121 regular-season games in 2019, finishing with a batting average of .344 in 330 at-bats, alongside 62 RBIs and 17 home runs, second-most of any season in his career and a total of 115 hits all season long.

During the 2019 season, Kendrick played a significant time at first base while in the infield. During the season, he played 48 games at first, 23 at second. Kendrick also appeared as a pinch hitter 41 times during the season. While playing at first base, Kendrick performed great by only committing one error and had a fielding percentage of .997%.

Kendrick became an essential player for the Nationals during the 2019 Post Season. His presence was felt in Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the top of the 10th inning of that game, Kendrick hit a grand slam off Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly to give the Nationals a 7-3 lead held up as the final score, advancing the Nationals to the National League Championship Series. It was just the second extra-innings grand slam in MLB postseason history, the other being hit by Nelson Cruz in the 2011 American League Championship Series.

In the National League Championship Series, Kendrick went 5 for 15 with four doubles and 4 RBIs in the Nationals’ four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, earning him the National League Championship Series MVP award.

In the World Series against the Houston Astros, Kendrick had a batting average of .280, an OPS of .708, a slugging percentage of .400. Howie Kendrick had 3 RBIs, one home run, seven hits, 26 plate appearances, and appeared in all seven series games.