LOS ANGELES — Longtime major league outfielder Jason Heyward, who played in two of his 16 major league seasons with the Dodgers, announced his retirement from baseball on Friday.
“I’d like to take one last time to show LOVE to the game of BASEBALL as a player. You’ve taken me around the world. Given me something to dream of and work towards as a kid and a professional,” Heyward said in an Instagram post. “You’ve shown me the value of sacrifice, support, family, friends, competition, winning, respect,
growth and many other lessons along the way.”
The five-time Gold Glove Award winner was released by the Chicago Cubs after two injury-plagued seasons in 2021-22. Heyward signed with the Dodgers that winter at the urging of Freddie Freeman, his friend and longtime teammate with the Atlanta Braves since they were both drafted out of high school by the team in 2007 — Heyward in the first round, Freeman in the second.
“I never talked about really the baseball player Jason Heyward, I always talk about the person Jason Heyward,” Freeman told Mookie Betts on the Off Base podcast in 2023. “Because if anybody comes in contact with Jason, for me it’s a life-changing moment for a lot of people. The wisdom, the care, the love that he has for each person that he comes across.”
Heyward immediately held stature in the Dodgers clubhouse, and not just by his 6’5, 240-pound frame. Less then three weeks into his first season in Los Angeles, Heyward was tabbed by manager Dave Roberts to give a speech at the Jackie Robinson statue, delivered to both the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs ahead of their April 15, 2023 game at Dodger Stadium.
With the Dodgers, Heyward in 2023 had one of the best offensive seasons of his career, hitting .269/.340/.473 with a 119 wRC+ and 15 home runs, the latter matching his total for the previous three years combined. In 2024, Heyward hit .208/.289/.393 with a 90 wRC+, fell down the depth chart and was released in August. His last at-bat with the Dodgers was a game-winning three-run home run to beat the Seattle Mariners.
Heyward signed on with the Houston Astros to finish out 2024, and he played 34 games last season for the San Diego Padres. In 16 major league seasons, Heyward hit .255/.336/.408 with a 104 wRC+, 186 home runs, and 308 doubles in 1,824 games, totaling 41.5 bWAR and 34.8 fWAR for the Braves, St. Louis Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers, Astros, and Padres.
“Great teammate, very, very good team leader. He was old school, in the sense of always doing nice things for young players, buying dinners, buying stuff for them, showing them how to be a big leaguer,” Roberts said of Heyward on Friday. “Worked his tail off everyday, was bought into everything we asked of him. He’s had a great career, and I’m happy we got to be teammates for a minute. That was great.”
“I hope he stays in the game in some capacity, whether it be the front office side or the coaching side,” Roberts added. “The game needs guys like Jason.”
