ATLANTA – Former Cubs great Anthony Rizzo is retiring from playing and re-joining the organization as an ambassador, the Cubs announced Wednesday.
The Cubs plan to celebrate Rizzo’s decorated career as a Cub on Saturday, when the Cubs face the Rays at Wrigley Field.
Rizzo spent 10 out of his 14 major-league seasons with the Cubs. A core member of the 2016 World Series team, Rizzo earned three All-Star nods, four gold gloves, a platinum glove and silver slugger award in his time in Chicago.
The Cubs didn’t have a captain, but Rizzo became the unofficial owner of that title as he helped lead the Cubs to five playoff appearances, three trips to the National League Championship Series, and of course a World Series title, all in the span of six years.
He also earned the Roberto Clemente Award, MLB’s top humanitarian honor, in 2017 for his work supporting children battling cancer and their families through the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation. Rizzo himself is a cancer survivor.
Rizzo began his professional career in the Red Sox organization, under future Cubs executives Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer.
After Hoyer became the general manager of the Padres, he traded for Rizzo in December of 2010. Rizzo debuted the following season. And when Epstein and Hoyer reunited in Chicago, they again acquired Rizzo as a key piece in their plan for a new era of Cubs baseball.
That era ended with a trade deadline teardown in 2021, a defining moment early in Hoyer’s tenure as president of baseball operations, after Epstein stepped down in November 2020.
Rizzo was the first core domino to fall that July, traded to the Yankees for two prospects, including towering outfielder Kevin Alcántara.
“It was obviously very emotional,” Rizzo said that day. “Still a rollercoaster. … This city will be engrained right in my heart for the rest of my life.”
Rizzo spent three and a half seasons with the Yankees before they declined his $17 million club option for 2025, making him a free agent. No team signed him this season.
Rizzo retires with a career .261 batting average and .828 OPS. He amassed 303 home runs and played in 1,727 regular-season games.
Rizzo’s 109 home runs at Wrigley Field as a Cub stand as the second-most by a left-handed hitter, behind only Billy Williams (231). On a related note, Rizzo holds the record for most home runs off the right-field video board at the Friendly Confines, with four since its debut in 2015.
In 59 postseason appearances, he added nine more home runs to his overall total, with 47 postseason hits in all.