Hunter Pence: 37 and Retired? GOALS.

37 year old Hunter Pence who is a four time all-star outfielder recently announced that he will be retiring from the MLB after 14 years.

He took to twitter to say “Nothing can really prepare you for this part of your career when you have to say: I am retiring from baseball. Forever thankful and Gr8ful.” Within his 14 years of playing, he’s played for the Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies, Texas Rangers, and San Francisco Giants and was recently named as fan favorite after helping the club to a pair of World Series Championships.

While it is always a bittersweet moment after leaving somewhere you spent years, according to mlb.nbcsports.com, during spring training, Pence mentioned how he liked to learn from the new players.

“A lot of times the young guys have a lot to teach us because they have new perspectives and the new coaches that they’ve learned from are so much different than what I grew up with. There’s so much more information out there. To me it’s about growing together and having that growth mindset and that culture of playing with passion and playing smart and getting a little better every day. Those are the things I look forward to doing.” Pence stated.

It is obvious that his wise words will be missed. Giants manager, Gabe Kapler said “I was pretty confident in this when we parted ways earlier that he would be spending some time contemplating a decision like this,-- I’m sure he spent a lot of time talking to his family and his friends and his teammates to come up with what was the best decision for Hunter. He had a tremendous career, did a ton for the community in San Francisco and obviously for the San Francisco Giants. I’m just happy for him and would send congratulations on a fantastic career.”

According to LA times, “Pence always believed he would be back with the Giants — it just took a season-long detour with the Rangers last year for his reunion to come together. Pence reinvented his swing during 2018 with San Francisco, played winter ball in the Dominican Republic to further perfect it, then batted .297 with 18 homers, 17 doubles and 59 RBIs over 83 games for Texas in 2019. He was part of the Giants’ 2012 and 2014 World Series champion teams. Pence signed a $3-million, one-year contract in February to return to San Francisco.”