Former All-Star and two-time World Series champion Chris Taylor has retired from professional baseball, according to Major League Baseball’s transaction log, ending a 12-year career that included a decade-long run of success with the Dodgers.
Taylor, 35, was a key member of the Dodgers’ core during their rise to superteam status from 2016-2025.
Originally acquired in a trade with the Mariners as a reclamation project — famously, in exchange for only reliever Zach Lee — the Virginia native blossomed in Los Angeles after overhauling his swing and becoming a versatile utility threat.
He played 1,007 of his 1,123 career big-league games in Dodger blue, collecting 790 hits, 108 home runs, 423 RBIs and plenty of highlight moments to go with it.
“He’s had a great career,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who was in his first season with the club when Taylor arrived in June 2016. “He got everything out of his ability.”
In 2017, Taylor was named co-MVP of the National League Championship Series, helping lead the Dodgers to their first World Series appearance in 29 years by batting .316 with two home runs in a five-game elimination of the Cubs.
He had another memorable moment when the Dodgers defended their pennant in the 2018 NLCS, making a sprawling, over-the-shoulder, run-saving catch in left field against the Brewers in the series’ decisive seventh game in Milwaukee.
“Man, worlds would have been different if he hadn’t made that play,” Roberts recalled.
When the Dodgers finally ended their championship drought in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Taylor played an important role, starting in all but two games of that October’s postseason run.
He then became an All-Star for the first time in 2021, when he batted .254 with 20 home runs and a career-high 73 RBIs in the regular season, before hitting a walk-off home run in the NL Wild Card game against the Cardinals.
In his postseason career, Taylor had nine home runs, 26 RBIs and a .791 OPS.
Following the 2021 campaign, Taylor became a free agent but re-signed with the Dodgers on a four-year, $60 million contract struck shortly before a lockout in the middle of the offseason.
As a 31-year-old by then, however, Taylor’s play slowly declined amid repeated slumps and recurring injury problems. He never again hit more than 15 home runs or better than .237 in a season. He was relegated to a bench role during the Dodgers’ run to the 2024 World Series, then released last May in the final year of his contract.
Taylor had been with the Angels ever since, appearing in 30 big-league games with them last season while battling more injuries that hampered his play. This year, he had been with their Triple-A affiliate in Salt Lake City, batting .255 in 32 games.
But on Friday, the husband and father of two decided it was time to hang it up, 14 years removed from originally being selected in the fifth round of the 2012 draft.
“I hope he, [his wife] Mary and the kids can ride off into the sunset,” Roberts said, while also noting the charitable work Taylor has done through his CT3 Foundation. “He was a joy, a complete pro.”
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