Mark Ellis’ 2014 season with the Cardinals appears to have been his last in professional baseball, as the 37-year-old has decided to hang up his spikes after 12 big league seasons, he tells Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle:

“It was definitely time,” Ellis told The Chronicle on Wednesday evening. “My kids are getting older and I kind of realized it was time to do something else.”

Ellis retires with a .991 fielding percentage, fifth all time among second basemen.

“That’s cool, I took a lot of pride in my defense,” Ellis said. “That’s what kept me in the big leagues. All those great pitching staffs I played behind, I tried to do anything I could to help them win.”

Ellis spent the first nine seasons of his big league career with the Oakland Athletics, hitting a collective 86 home runs with 434 RBI, 62 stolen bases and a .265 batting average. Over those nine years, Ellis was one of the best second baseman in baseball and compiled roughly 25 wins above replacement.

After he was traded to the Rookies in 2011 midway through 2011, Ellis spent two seasons with the Dodgers before signing a one-year deal last offseason with the Cardinals. Ellis stumbled to a .180/.253/.213 batting line with St. Louis, but continued to provide steady defense and a reliable veteran presence.

A’s manager Billy Beane expressed hope that Ellis would return to work for the A’s in some capacity, and while Ellis told Slusser he plans to stay home with his family for a while, he didn’t rule out a return to the A’s some time down the road.

 

Feature image used under Creative Commons from Keith Allison. No changes made. Image license.