Former Oriole Brian Roberts announces his retirement: 'It was just kind of my time'
Father time caught up to Brian Roberts.
The 37-year-old has retired after 14 seasons in the big leagues, all but one of which was with the Baltimore Orioles, Dan Connolly of The Baltimore Sun reported Friday.
Roberts, a two-time All-Star, came to the decision shortly after he was released by the New York Yankees in August following a 91-game stint with the club.
"It was just kind of my time," he said. "There were numerous reasons that I felt like I couldn't play at a level that I was accustomed to and wanted to play at if I continued to play. I always said that I wasn't going to be the guy that tried to hang on as long as I could."
The supplemental first-round pick of the Orioles in the 1999 draft enjoyed some big years in Baltimore before injuries curtailed his career.
Roberts was worth 24.9 WAR from 2004-09, according to FanGraphs, which ranked second among all major league second basemen. He hit .290/.365/.438 over that stretch with 69 homers and 212 stolen bases, highlighted by a career-high 50 in 2007.
The last productive season of Roberts' career came during an abbreviated 2010 year that marked the beginning of the end for the North Carolina native. He was slowed by concussions after and had multiple surgeries, including surgery to repair a sports hernia.
In 2007, Roberts was named in Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report as a user of performance-enhancing drugs, an allegation he later admitted to. A fan favorite in Baltimore, Roberts signed a four-year, $40 million deal with the Orioles shortly after the big blemish on his career became public.
Roberts hit an Orioles season-single record 56 doubles in 2009 and ranks among the franchise's top 10 leaders in runs scored (810) and stolen bases (278).
He hit .237/.300/.360 in his final season with the Yankees.