Chicago White Sox rookie Yermin Mercedes has announced his retirement from baseball Wednesday night on Instagram.
As a 28 year old, Mercedes finally made it to the big leagues at the start of the 2021 season. He performed well enough in spring training to earn himself a spot on the opening day roster. As soon as he stepped onto the MLB field he put the baseball world on notice.
Mercedes Making Noise
He became the first player in the modern era (since 1900) to start the season 8-8 at the plate. That is an incredible stat which most players cannot do at any point in the season.
In 82 at bats in 22 games in April he put up extremely impressive numbers where he rivaled the best in the game. He was tied for the most hits in all of baseball with 34, second in batting average with .415, third in On Base Percentage (OBP) with 0.455 and On Base Plus Slugging percentage (OPS) with 1.153, and seventh in slugging percentage with 0.659.
After one of the most impressive months for a rookie in MLB history he sat alone at the top of the Rookie of the Year discussion.
The Dropout
Following that first month his production started to decline. In the month of May he had 95 at bats in 28 games and struggled immensely.
Had had only 21 hits, two homers, a 221 batting average, .292 OBP and .619 OPS and .326 slugging percentage. All of his numbers from May were nearly sliced in half.
As he moved in June it did not get much better.
He only played in 18 games prior to being sent back down to the minor leagues. His average and slugging percentage both dropped to under .200 for the month at .159 and .190 respectively. It is easy to understand why his numbers were so low when he only had 10 hits in 63 at bats.
With those kinds of numbers it was inevitable that he would end up in the minors.
During his time in triple-A he was playing much better. He had a .309 batting average, .377 OBP and .655 slugging.
The Announcement
Sadly, on Wednesday night he took to Instagram to let the baseball world know he is stepping away from baseball. He wrote a heartfelt message to all of his family, friends and the baseball world.
This was not what anyone expected after the way it started. He fit in perfectly in a young, talented White Sox team. He put in the work and turned himself into one of the premiere players. Unfortunately, not all players can keep the stardom going.
There is no clear indication to why Yermin Mercedes decided to leave baseball. Baseball fans love to see young talent take over baseball each season, but this is not what anyone wants to see. Hopefully he finds a path outside of baseball that he can take by storm.
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