One of the key members of the 2014 San Francisco Giants World Series team has retired.
Joe Panik is hanging up his cleats at 31 years old according to multiple reports, just three years after leaving San Francisco in a trade.
A former first-round pick by the Giants in 2011, Panik was once considered the franchise’s long-term future at second base. Panik broke out in the 2014 season, finishing sixth in NL Rookie of the Year voting, and playing a key role with both his bat and his glove for the second half of the regular season and SF’s magical postseason run.
His flip to Brandon Crawford in Game 7 of the World Series was part of one of the most iconic defensive plays in Giants postseason history.
Panik made the All-Star team the next season — his first full campaign as a big leaguer — and won the Gold Glove the following year in 2016. For the next three seasons, however, Panik’s production at the plate gradually dropped, eventually losing his full time starting spot to a platoon with Donovan Solano in 2019.
Panik was then signed by his hometown Mets for the stretch run in 2020, before bouncing around with the Blue Jays and Marlins over the past two seasons.
As a Giant, Panik slashed .271/.334/.383 and hit 36 home runs from 2014-2019.