Colorado Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon announced on X that he’s retiring after the Major League Baseball regular season concludes this week, putting an end to one of the best careers in team history.
Blackmon had the type of loyalty that’s all but a relic of past generations of MLB players.
Drafted out of Georgia Tech in the second round of the 2008 MLB Draft, he played the entirety of his career with the Rockies — a 14-year career in which he played the second-most games in franchise history (1,618 games as a Rockie) behind only Todd Helton.
“As a kid you play the game because you love it, like nothing else matters,” Blackmon wrote in his post on X. “I still play the game that way, but I don’t feel like a kid anymore. My perspective has changed. I have been blessed to call the city of Denver and The Colorado Rockies my baseball home for the entirety of my career. I am grateful for the support of this organization, my teammates, and most of all Rockies fans. It is with a thankful heart and a career’s worth of memories that I choose a new path.”
Since he played so many games in a Rockies uniform, he’s near the top of the list in all-time franchise achievements in several statistical categories.
There’s a good case to be made that he’s one of the greatest players in franchise history.
When it comes to career franchise records, Blackmon is first all-time in triples (67), second in runs (991), second in hits (1,797), second in doubles (333), second in stolen bases (148), third in walks (482), fourth in RBI (797), sixth in home runs (227) and eighth in on-base percentage (.352).
Of course, he still has a few games left to change those totals, but there’s no changing the fact that he’s top-10 in nearly every statistical category for Rockies history and has a career WAR of 20.9, per Baseball Reference.
With Blackmon out of the picture for next season, the longest-tenured Rockies for next year’s team include Kyle Freeland and Ryan McMahon, players who have been with the franchise since 2017.
And stats aside, it's hard not to love Blackmon for his personality.
This was his last tweet before announcing his retirement:
"Do you ever get jammed up when your chip-eating hand is also your phone-scrolling hand, and you want to do both at the same time?"
It looks like he'll do just fine in retirement.
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