Twins outfielder Torii Hunter has decided to retire, he tells LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star-Tribune. The 40-year-old played in parts of 19 years with three organizations.
“I’m sad because it’s all I’ve known for half of my life,” Hunter said. “This great game of baseball has done so much for me. I have learned a lot of lessons. … I still love the game, but time has taken a toll on me mentally and physically.”
Hunter ended things where he began by returning to Minnesota for the 2015 season. He broke in with the Twins back in 1997, earned regular playing time as a reserve in 1999, and locked down an everyday job with the club in 2001.
From that 2001 season through the end of 2007, Hunter put up over 4,000 plate appearances of .272/.326/.484 hitting with 178 home runs. Then serving as a center fielder, he received the Gold Glove award in every single one (and for two more years thereafter).
The winter of 2007 seemed to spell the end of Hunter’s tenure in Minnesota. He departed via free agency to join the Angels, who promised him $90MM over five years. Hunter continued to thrive, posting a .286/.352/.462 cumulative batting line in nearly 3,000 trips to the plate over the life of that contract.
Having transitioned to right field in the back half of his tenure with the Halos, Hunter caught on to take over there for the Tigers. He was a strong contributor to two good teams in his two years in Detroit.
While other organizations came calling before 2015, Hunter decided on a return to a Twins club that wasn’t expected to do much. But it proved more than a farewell tour, as the club surpassed expectations (and underlying performance barometers) with an 83-79 record.
Believers in the power of clubhouse chemistry would surely attribute some of the Twins’ success last year to the presence of the fiery Hunter, who is respected highly in that regard. He didn’t have a great season — to the contrary, he played at or below replacement level — but was still expected to be courted for a return, albeit in a reduced role.
Minnesota has plenty of options to proceed without the veteran, whose departure could open the way for some of the organization’s young talent. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams explained in his offseason outlook for the team, there are some options on hand that figure to step in.
As a forty-to-fifty win player who was more consistently excellent than great, Hunter seems unlikely to land in the Hall of Fame, though he surely deserves a spot in the proverbial “hall of very good.” He has come under fire for homophobic comments made in recent years, an area that tarnished his reputation to many, though Hunter is widely lauded as one of the game’s good guys. All told, Hunter enjoyed a memorable career as one of the better players of his generation.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Noooooo
Torii was a great guy. I had a chance to meet hike and he was very nice and geuine
So long, Torii. See you in the front office in a couple years.
Yup
or a field job soon
best wishes Torii!!! Met him in the Detroit airport before tiger fest… super nice person. we talk baseball for 10 minutes just like two guys at a game. super classy. all the best
I am so happy I got to watch him play in Anaheim for 5 years. One of the nicest people in the game. Best of luck to him. Hopefully he sticks around baseball in some way
Got to interact with him quite a bit in Right Field at Comerica. Lots of fun!
Only wish he could have judged that Big Papi ball a little better. Would have been the greatest catch in the history of the postseason
Torii will be missed…one of the best to wear a Twins uniform.
definitely a hof candidate, sad to see him go
Great player and surprising that he wouldn’t come back for another year considering both his and Twins success.
Let’s not forget this comment about the possibility of playing with gay players,
“For me, as a Christian…I will be uncomfortable because in all my teachings and all my learning, biblically, it’s not right. It will be difficult and uncomfortable.”
Now he did go on to retract and say he was misquoted, but that’s as forward a quote as you can get.
Not taking anything away from his MLB career, but a backwards thinker, absolutely.
Love him on the diamond but after following him on IG for about a month or so I decided it was best to just to enjoy his exploits on the ball field.
Should not be associated with his career, this is a baseball website. Great career torii and best of luck.
You mean that comment he made about other BASEBALL players in a BASEBALL clubhouse?
I mean that he had a great career and that it’s unfair to judge someone’s worth based on their comments or beliefs just like how it’s unfair to judge someone based on their lifestyle.
My apologies, I fully agree with you on the fact that he shouldn’t be judged based on his beliefs or comments.
I guess him stating that comment back then has always stuck with me and hit me rather personally even to this day.
I appreciate your perspective and have no interest in passing judgment. I don’t believe what I wrote does that.
But it is associated with his career, particularly because it was a comment directed at actual or potential teammates. It’s also relevant to note that 1) he is a highly-respected veteran and that 2) there are many gay players who have not revealed that fact, at least publicly. This is a case where words can function as actions.
I also would add that controversy was simply noted among other “soft” facts about Hunter (clubhouse respect, him being a good dude) in giving added depth and context to his career. It wasn’t exactly given prominent placement or repeatedly mentioned.
Out of curiosity , I know this would look rude if i didn’t clarify this, I’ve seen stuff in the NFL suggesting that there are gay players that have not come out publicly, but haven’t in the MLB, can you maybe put up a link out of interest? Thanks
Those comments also weren’t directed at you. Love your work and never have problems with other Nats fans!
Haha no worries.
Re your question, I don’t know offhand of any stories, though a Brewers prospect (David Denson) did come out of the closet recently. I base that largely on my assessment of the probabilities.
The baseball players were hypothetical; the comment is meaningless until the situation enters the realm of reality.
What’s wrong with being honest? He was asked a question and he gave an answer. He said he would be uncomfortable, I can understand that response. That doesn’t mean he’s not willing to adapt and change.
Well, if you ever have a daughter who brings home a Hells Angel for dinner, we’ll see about all that tolerance you claim to have. I’m sure there’s a subculture out there that you don’t feel totally comfortable with, so welcome to the world of “backward thinking”.
tough to see him leave, great player will land a field job soon
A real professional. Good luck.
Terry Ryan get out and leave room so Tori can work his magic
great career glad he could finish with the twins
Good Player, Marginal HOF.
Wow
In my mind he’s been around since Cal broke the streak
My favorite player. Sad to see him go, happy to see him play.
Always hoped I’d see him in a Rangers uniform someday. Either way it was a great career Torii!
very respectable player will be missed
Would it be ok if homosexuals in the locker room said they’d be uncomfortable playing with a Christian? I respect Torii, loved him as a Twin in the early 00s, but dude, that’s discrimination plain and simple, religious beliefs or no. Really soured me on a player I’d always liked. Would’ve been way better if he self-censored in that one case.
Hunter’s comments were deemed ‘not okay’ by the PC media, so your rhetorical question seems unwarranted. Its not as if everyone praised Hunter for what he said. In fact it has become a part of his legacy unjustly as some sort of knock on him as a person. All because he said he would be uncomfortable with something as polarizing as homosexuality in a locker room.
The homophobic comment stuff is way overblown considering he was expressing opinions the vast majority of people were voting in favor of across the country a decade ago. We’re evidently so fixated on conflict and controversy that a baseball player’s fairly mainstream opinions on social issues of the day can overshadow a very good 19-year career.
I think I speak for more than just myself when I say that I follow baseball as an alternative to following politics and it’s beyond annoying when the two intersect for any meaningful length of time.
Oh how I long for the days when reasonable people could disagree on things and be okay with that.
I respect Torii’s views and your opinion, even if I disagree. I’m OK with that.
Just because a viewpoint is mainstream doesn’t make it a sound one.
Sports is a distraction from other parts of life but also a metaphor and reflection of our society. Baseball has always intersected with politics and social values and will continue to do so.
The easy comparison is the pre-integration MLB.
That’s the problem, though. It’s kind of philosophically indefensible to go beyond disagreeing with someone’s opinion to make judgments regarding which opinion is the “sound” one. These days if you haven’t marched in an LGBT rights parade in the last 72 hours you’re a mouth-breathing Neanderthal.
Baseball is like you said is to some extent a reflection of society, but the way I see it it’s also an ideal that’s always been eons ahead of society. Jackie Robinson didn’t break the color barrier because he was a black, he broke the color barrier because he was good — that’s why baseball integrated before most everything else in this country. The box score is as pure and impartial of a judge as there is. It doesn’t care who or what you are or how you got into the batter’s box, it only cares what you do based on your talents and skills.
That couldn’t be more different from 2015 where it’s all about identity — what group you’re a member of, what your ancestry is, et cetera. We’re so fixated on identity that we have to make online profiles telling everybody else who we are, and some people out there take more pictures of themselves in any given 24-hour period than I’ve ever had or ever will have taken of me. We have sixth graders that feel like failures because we tell them if they don’t get in to seventh grade math, they’ll end up an ever-cascading series of failures and end up panhandling motorists on Chestnut at Shepard. People go on shooting rampages because they’ve been so conditioned to feel inadequate about their identity that they end up alienated from the rest of society.
In that way, I think that much of what makes baseball an awesome sport to follow is exactly what’s wrong with society.
Spot on, JD. I’d add more but you said it perfectly.
Seriously ??? At or below replacement level ??? Could swear I read a .240avg with 22 HR’s. Do you know how many teams would like to have that power in the outfield ?
Seriously! His OBP was in the toilet, leaving him as a below-average offenive player despite the HRs, and he is a poor defender now. He’s still good enough to be a fourth outfielder – and the Twins wanted him back in that role – but he had more or less replacement-level results last year. (FG credits him with .5 WAR last year and has him as exactly replacement level for 2014; B-Ref has him at -.8 for ’15 and .5 for ’15.)
And I’d add: that’s no slight to Torii, the guy is 40 years old and still more than capable of playing big league baseball. Amazing.