Infielder Mark Loretta has retired to take a position as special assistant to the Padres' baseball operations staff, tweets MLB.com's Corey Brock.
Loretta finishes with a .295/.360/.395 line in 6,558 plate appearances across 15 seasons for the Brewers, Astros, Padres, Red Sox, and Dodgers. He mainly played second base, but also logged significant innings at the other three infield positions. Loretta appeared in two All-Star games and finished ninth in the NL MVP vote in '04, when he hit .335/.391/.495 for the Padres. According to Baseball-Reference, Loretta banked $29.4MM in his career.
Mark Loretta had a pretty nice career.
This is the right move. He looked really bad with the Dodgers and had no power left. I think he had less power than Juan Pierre… without the speed, contact or defense… it was a good move to retire
As a Dodger fan however, I will never forget the RBI single off Ryan Franklin in the NLDS. Kudos Mark. Enjoy this next phase.
agree. He provided our first walkoff in the playoffs since Gibson, I believe. Had a good career, according to the numbers, just looked overmatched for most of the season.
Met him in Chicago last year when they were in town to play the Cubs. Very much a CLASS act and deserves a long career outside the game. Good Luck Mark!
i sort of guessed it was the padres as the “mystery team.”
seems fitting.
His career numbers are a little better than I realized. Solid player for sure, he had a nice career
Thanks for some great baseball Mark! Good luck with your future endeavors with my alma mater.
.295 career avg, not too shabby!
Can the Padres bring him out of retirement mid-season? I’m only half joking…
Nice OBP too, seems like a guy that would have a low OBP. He was also a quiet player, and kind of lost in the crowd. Great career Mark!
My all-time fave player… I am really gonna miss him out on the field.I wish him a long and very, very enjoyable career off the field. This job will keep him closer to his family, which is probably what he really wants. Good luck, Mark. Always love you!
Solid big-league career. I wish him a happy retirement
Very nice signing for the Padres front-office. Another strong baseball mind in the front office. Very smart ballplayer who made the most out of his opportunities on and off the field…I really like the direction Hoyer is taking the baseball operations side of the Padres.
Great career and guy. Glad to see him with my Padres.
as a cardinals fan, i wish he would have retired 3 at bats ago š
Very good player. Very under appreciated during his career. Good luck to him in the future.
Get back to where you once belonged
Get back, Loretta
Go home
Nice player played for the Brewers for a while. Good luck to you
Thanks for the Coolest moment in my baseball related life.
Just a solid baseball player, underrated, it’s nice to see he retired on his own terms.
Mirroring the majority, good luck with your future endeavors Mark. You may not have had the flashiest career, but you got the job done, and done right. Great career, great man. Hopefully he can parlay that into being a great executive/manager/coach
2006 Hutch Award Winner. Came back to wage and win his own private battle with skin cancer. Totally a class act. Met him at Safeco Field when he won the award and it couldn’t have gone to a nicer guy. Congratulations Mark on a terrific career and a firstclass representation of the Hutch Award!
Good Career Mark , wish you nothing but the best !
Mark was a class act, and one of the quietest, most under appreciated players in baseball. We loved him in Milwaukee.
agreed. we loved him in san diego as well.
god bless mark loretta. he was a key part of those late-season charges by the astros. good guy to have around.