Se Retira Edgar Renteria Del Beisbol Professional

Though he was out of Major League Baseball since the end of the 2011 season, Edgar Renteria offically retired from Baseball on March 20, 2013. In doing so, Renteria goes down as one of the best players to ever come out of the country of Colombia. Renteria was the fourth player from Colombia in MLB and has the longest career to date for Colombian born major leaguers. With two World Series rings and the MVP trophy of the 2010 World Series with the San Francisco Giants, his legacy is cemented. It is crazy to think that he was only 20 years old he went 3-for-5 including a walk-off single in the 11th inning driving in Craig Counsell in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series against the Cleveland Indians. Seems like yesterday. And here we are 16 years later.

Renteria signed with the then Florida Marlins in 1992 as an amateur free agent and spent most of four years in the minors before he was called up in 1996. Renteria played for a total of seven teams (Marlins/Cardinals/Red Sox/Braves/Tigers/Giants/Reds) and put up the following career statistics:

Player		G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI		BB	SO	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	AVG	OPS
Edgar Renteria		2152	8142	1200	2327	436	29	140	923		718	1182	294	108	.343	.398	.286	.741

It seemed to me that Renteria was a better player while in the National League than in the American. It was percieved by many Boston faithful that he failed in his only season in Fenway. It was also deemed to be the same in Detroit. Granted his offensive numbers were a little less than what he was putting up in the National League, he put up a career high in strikeouts with 100 whiffs. His defensive numbers in Boston were downright horrible. He went from 11 errors the year before with the Cardinals to 30 with the Red Sox. No wonder he was run out of Boston in the trade with the Atlanta Braves with cash included in 2005.

Though by the time he was playing with the Giants in their World Series title year of 2010 he wasn't a full time player any longer, he was still a consistent presence in the lineup hitting .412 with 7 hits, 2 homers and 6 RBI in 17 at-bats against the Texas Rangers in the World Series.

I personally believe that his best year was in 2003 with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Player		G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI		BB	SO	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	AVG	OPS
Edgar Renteria		157	587	96	194	47	1	13	100		65	54	34	7	.394	.480	.330	.874

Renteria put up career highs in average, hits, doubles, RBI's, walks, slugging percentage, OPS, and a career low in strikeouts. Renteria was an all-star, won his second Gold Glove and was awarded the Silver Slugger for the National League Shortstop position. He was came in 15th in MVP voting.

Overall, Renteria put up a solid career in MLB. I don't think he will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown but he might surprise some people in terms of vote percentage. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Renteria will pick up some coaching duties at some point both here in the U.S. but also in his native Colombia.

FH

For Further Reading:

- Click Here to access Edgar Renteria's career statistics from Baseball Reference.com

- Click Here to access Edgar Renteria's carrer major AND minor league statistics from Baseball Cube.com

- Click Here to access the list of all Colombian born Major Leaguers from Baseball Reference.com