Todd Frazier’s remarkable career has come to a close.
The Toms River native, who was a Little League World Series hero, starred at Rutgers and then played 11 MLB seasons that included stints with the Mets and Yankees, two All-Star appearances and an Olympic silver medal, will retire.
Frazier made his announcement in an interview with The New York Post, calling it “one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made in my life.”
“It’s been my love my whole life,” Frazier told The Post. “It’s very hard to let go. … But where I’m at in my career and where I’m at in my life, I think it was the right decision. I think it’s time to be that family figure that I’ve always wanted to be.”
Frazier’s last “full” big league season was 2020, when he played 45 games with the Rangers and Mets during the pandemic-abbreviated campaign. He played in 13 games for the Pirates in 2021 before being released. He then capped his career playing for Team USA at the Tokyo Games.
The third baseman retires with a .241 career average and 218 home runs; he was an All-Star for the Reds in 2014-15, hitting 29 homers with 20 steals the first year before slugging 35 bombs in the second.
Frazier was the 2015 Home Run Derby champion. He also played for the White Sox before being traded to the Yankees for the 2017 pennant chase. He signed with the Mets that offseason and spent two seasons there before he was later traded back by Texas in 2020.
“Every time I go to my batting cage, I look at those two jerseys and it’s really cool,” Frazier told The Post. “I know a bunch of people have done it, but being from Jersey, some of your friends hate you at the time, then they love you because you’re with the Mets. So it made for good banter. It was awesome. I wish I could have stopped time during those years.”
