Former Jays OF Thames announces retirement

Eric Thames has called time on his career.

The former Toronto Blue Jays outfielder announced his retirement in an Instagram post.

"I’ve been so blessed over these last 14 years to call baseball my job," the 36-year-old Thames wrote. "The friendships that will last a lifetime, the memories that I’ll never shut up about (and those that I’m sworn to secrecy to take to my grave)."

A native of San Jose, Thames was taken in the seventh round of the 2008 MLB Amateur Draft by the Jays out of Pepperdine.

He would go on to make his big league debut in 2011. After being dealt to the Seattle Mariners in 2012 for pitcher Steve Delabar, Thames spent time in the minor-league systems of the Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros before jumping to the KBO in 2014 with the NC Dinos.

Thames quickly became a star in Korea, named MVP in 2015 and leading the league in home runs in 2016.

He returned to North America in 2017, signing a three-year, $19 million deal with the Milwaukee Brewers and hit 31 home runs in his first year with the team.

Thames' last year in the bigs came in 2020 with the Washington Nationals. He signed with the Yomiuri Giants of the NPB for the 2021 season, but his campaign ended prematurely with a ruptured Achilles that April.

Thames finished his big league career with a .241 average, 96 HR, 235 runs batted in and a .792 OPS in 605 career games over six seasons.