Yankees’ Mark Teixeira announces his retirement Friday

It’s been a rough season for Mark Teixeira after what looked like a career revival in 2015. So, it’s a surprise, but not necessarily shocking, to hear that Teixeira announced his retirement on Friday, first reported by ESPN’s Buster Olney.

It’s easy to get distracted by Teixeira’s mid-30s, in which he was often hurt and ineffective nearly as often: from 2013 onward, the first baseman hit .222/.320/.433 over 326 games, and that line is buoyed entirely by his strong 2015. Before that, though, Teixeira was great, and one of the better first basemen in the game. Not only was he a strong defender while with the Rangers, Braves, and Angels (and early on with New York), but Tex hit .279/.369/.527 over a 10-year stretch that started at 23.

The Rangers believed in Teixeira’s future so much that they traded Adrian Gonzalez to the Padres. The Braves believed in Teixeira so much that they gave up Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia to get him from Texas. He was paid over $213 million over 14 years, and inspired a bidding war among the rival Yankees, Red Sox, and Orioles when he hit free agency after the 2008 season that landed him an eight-year, $180 million deal. No wonder he’s ready to retire if the production just isn’t there.

Teixeira made three All-Star teams and collected MVP votes in seven of his 14 seasons. His greatest season might have been in 2009, in which he batted .292/.383/.565 with a league-leading 39 homers for the Yankees, numbers that resulted in a second-place finish in the MVP vote, an All-Star appearance, a Silver Slugger award, and, of course, helped push the Yankees to the only World Series they’ve won since 2000.