Former Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Kolten Wong announced his retirement from baseball where his baseball journey began — in Hawaii.
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At University of Hawaii’s Les Murakami Stadium, Wong threw out the first pitch before the Rainbow Warriors’ matchup against UC San Diego. He took the time to address the Honolulu crowd and revealed he would be hanging up his cleats.
“Pretty much right now, I’m done,” Wong said via Spectrum News. “I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that I’m probably going to be hanging them up. It’s just one of those things where, the game how it’s going now, there’s no sense of chasing (it). … I’m a dad now, yes, I’m enjoying that. I’m trying to be the best big league dad that I can be. So I’m going to stick to that.”
Wong, 34, spent 11 seasons in Major League Baseball and spent part of the 2023 season with the Dodgers. The two-time Gold Glove winner signed a minor league contract with the organization in August. He played five games in the minors before the Dodgers called him up on Sept. 1.
In Wong’s first career at-bat with the Dodgers, he hit a three-run home run. Wong slashed .300/.353/.500 with an OPS of .853 across 20 games with L.A. at the end of the 2023 campaign. He was 9-for-30 with two homers and eight runs batted in.
Wong became a free agent following the 2023 season, but did not see any playing time in the big leagues after his stint with the Dodgers.
The infielder spent most of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, the team that drafted Wong in the first-round of the 2011 MLB Draft. It was during the 2013-20 seasons with the Cardinals where Wong earned two Gold Glove awards at second base in 2019 and 2020, and well as three Fielding Bible awards from 2018-20.
Wong is a career .265 hitter with 86 home runs and 120 stolen bases. His 22.0 career bWAR ranks among the eighth-highest total from a standout 2011 draft class, which features Gerrit Cole, Francisco Lindor and current Dodger Blake Snell.
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