On the heels of a groundbreaking 2019 campaign, Lonnie Chisenhall is retiring from baseball.
With the Pirates last year, Chisenhall, 31, slashed .000/.000/.000 with zero home runs, zero RBIs, zero runs, zero hits, zero stolen bases, zero doubles and zero triples in zero at-bats.
Following that season, in which he earned $2.75 million to work through the world's worst calf injury from his North Carolina home, Chisenhall's hanging up the cleats for good.
“I’ve only played 29 games in the past two years,” Chisenhall recently said during a Q&A at his former middle school, Newport Middle School, in Newport, N.C. “So between that, and I have three kids at home, they are all in school, traveling around the country wasn’t practical anymore. It was a pretty easy decision.”
Those 29 games he mentions came with the Indians in 2018, when he slashed .321/.394/.452 in 95 plate appearances before signing with the Pirates.
Chisenhall wasn't just randomly back at his old school for a Q&A session, either. Newport baseball coach Paul Sproul recently found Chisenhall's No. 16 jersey while cleaning out his office, and they intend to have it "prominently displayed" at the school for all to see.
And while the jokes regarding Chisenhall's time in Pittsburgh are easy and fun, he did piece together a respectable eight-year major-league career, and that's something worth legitimately recognizing.
“When I was in the second grade, I wrote down that I wanted to be a Major League Baseball player,” Chisenhall said. “I never had a backup plan.”
Chisenhall retires with a career .268/.320/.427 slash line, 64 home runs, 296 RBIs and 578 hits in 688 games played, all for the Indians.
