Former Orioles Right Fielder Nick Markakis Announces Retirement
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Former Baltimore Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis announced his retirement from baseball Friday.
He played in the MLB for 15 seasons with the Orioles and the Atlanta Braves.
WJZ Sports Director Mark Viviano called Markakis an "all effort and intensity gamer" and "reliable and consistent."
Markakis was the Orioles first round pick (7th overall) in the 2003 Draft out of Young Harris College. Three years later, he made his debut with the team in 2006, hitting .291 with 16 homers and 62 RBI finishing sixth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting that season. Over the course of nine seasons with the O's, he batted .290 with 141 homers and 658 RBI while playing a steady right field winning Gold Gloves in 2011 and 2014.
After being granted free agency in October of 2014, Markakis signed on with the Braves and spent six seasons in Atlanta posting a .283 batting average with 48 homers and 388 RBI. He made his only career All-Star game appearance as a member of the Braves in 2018. Markakis retires holding the record for most consecutive games without an error for an outfielder with 398.
"I tell myself all the time, whether it is now or if I was fortunate enough to get that opportunity to be a Hall of Famer -- to get that many hits -- that 3,000 hits or 2,400 hits, it's not going to define the player that I was," Markakis told The Athletic. "I think I played the right way and that's all that really matters to me."
