With the Atlanta Braves coming off a convincing Opening Day win over the Royals, many fans have been reminiscing over their favorite memories from Opening Days past. One moment that has is often shared is Jason Heyward's introduction to MLB, when he hit a three-run blast off of Carlos Zambrano in 2010.
Just shy of 16 years later, the former Braves All-Star has called it a career, announcing his retirement after 16 MLB seasons.
Jason Heyward has finally decided to call it a career after 16 seasons
There have been few prospects who made as much noise as Jason Heyward did in 2010. At just 20 years old, the 6'5" right fielder entered the season as the number one prospect in baseball. During spring training, shattered windshields during batting practice and was heralded as the next Henry Aaron.
Heyward started the season on the Opening Day roster and made a loud introduction to the bigs when he hit a three-run homer in his first big league at bat. While the lefty didn't show the power fans expected of him, his rookie season was still outstanding, as he put up 6.4 bWAR, making his only All-Star appearance and finishing second in NL Rookie of the Year voting.
This rookie showing had writers billing him as "the next great Brave", but unfortunately, this ended up being the height of his career, at least from an offensive standpoint.
While he was above-average in three of his remaining four seasons with the Braves, his OPS+ never came close to the 131 mark in his rookie season. However, his glove excelled, as he won two of his five Gold Gloves with Atlanta.
After the 2014 season, Heyward was entering his final year of arbitration and the Braves felt they were better off starting a rebuild, so they traded him along with Jordan Walden to the St. Louis Cardinals for Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins. Heyward had a 7.0 bWAR season in his only season in St. Louis, and parlayed that into a massive eight-year, $184 million deal with the Chicago Cubs.
Heyward never lived up to the contract's expectations, as he only an above-average hitter in two of his seven seasons in the Windy City. He was released before the 2023 season.
After signing with the Dodgers, Heyward saw a resurgence in 2023, hitting .269/.340/.473, but was released by the Dodgers the following season mid-season and signed the Astros for the remainder of the season.Heyward spent his final season with the San Diego Padres, but had a 37 OPS+ in 34 games before being cut in June.
While Heyward never lived up to the potential Hall-of-Fame billing, he still had a career most players would envy. The Georgia native put up a career 41.5 bWAR, won a World Series in 2016, and took home five Gold Gloves.
We congratulate Jason on an excellent MLB career, and wish him best for whatever comes next!