I got the news that White Sox player Yermin Mercedes is retiring halfway through his rookie season. (via a tweet from @AndyMarfia)
Wasn’t Mercedes incredible? First player ever to have 8 consecutive hits to start the season. I was surprised to hear he’s back down in the minors.
His controversial 3-1 homerun (May 17). At that time Mercedes lead the majors with a .364 batting average. His last MLB game was June 30th, hitting .271.
Ah, he couldn’t hit the fastball: Yermín Mercedes struggling to reach top speeds
As a rookie, at 28 years old, he’s no spring chicken. He’s played in the minors for 9 seasons. Whoa. 2,459 plate appearances.
Googling: average length of minor league career
“If you make it to the minor leagues, you find that everyone else is as young, talented, and highly thought of as you are. Around 700 players participate in the major leagues each year. Once there, the average career lasts 2.7 years.” —Princeton Review
So yeah, Yermin was probably just sick of being in the Minor Leagues. He spent a lot of time there.