Former Chicago Cubs’ infielder Mark DeRosa to retire

Former Cubs fan favorite Mark DeRosa will retire from baseball.

DeRosa, 38, spent the last five seasons of his career in a reserve utility player role with the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Washington Nationals, and most recently Toronto Blue Jays.

Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

He batted .235 with 36 RBIs and a .733 OPS in 88 games last season for Toronto in his lone year as a Blue Jay. The retirement announcement comes two weeks after Toronto exercised a $750,000 club option on his contract in hope to bringing him back.

DeRosa spent two seasons (2007-08) with the Cubs and hit .289/.373/.451 with 31 home runs and 159 RBIs in 298 games. He was a major contributor to the Cubs’ back-to-back National League Central division titles.

DeRosa played every position except catcher, pitcher and center field and finished his career with a .268 average, 100 homers and 491 RBIs over 16 seasons.

"“I’m happy with what I’ve done in my career,” DeRosa said. “I’m not 100 percent happy with the way I’ve played this year, but I did a lot of good things. I’ve proved a lot of things to myself, which is what I wanted to do.“I’m 38 years old and I can come back from a traumatic injury — after three years of being unproductive, I helped us win some ballgames. So I’m proud for the fact that I didn’t walk away, that I grinded through what was a tough situation for a couple of years and was able to reestablish myself as a pretty good ballplayer.”"

The Cubs traded DeRosa during the winter of 2008, acquiring Chris Archer in the deal who was a pivotal element to the Matt Garza trade.

DeRosa is reportedly a candidate to replace Keith Moreland as a color analyst on the Cubs’ WGN Radio broadcast. Former Cubs Todd Hollandsworth, Doug Glanville, Ryan Theriot, Rick Sutcliffe are also on the list.

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