Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” is now the fitting soundtrack for veteran MLB infielder Kolten Wong, who officially announced his retirement from professional baseball.
Over the weekend, while speaking to local media at the University of Hawaii—his alma mater—Wong revealed he’s stepping away from the game. In town to throw out the first pitch at a Rainbow Warriors game, the former St. Louis Cardinals second baseman shared that he’s ready to focus on life off the field, particularly spending more time with his wife and two children.
“Pretty much right now, I’m done,” Wong said of his career, according to Brian McInnis of Spectrum News Hawaii. “I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that I’m probably going to be hanging them up. It’s just one of those things where, the game how it’s going now, there’s no sense of chasing \[it] … I’m a dad now, yes, I’m enjoying that. I’m trying to be the best big league dad that I can be. So I’m going to stick to that.”
Now 34, Kolten Wong began his MLB career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013 and stayed with the team through the 2020 season. Though he was initially remembered for a costly baserunning mistake in the 2013 World Series, Wong went on to redeem himself and become a postseason standout for the Cardinals. Over time, he developed into one of the league’s premier defenders at second base, earning back-to-back Gold Glove Awards in 2019 and 2020.
From 2021 to 2022, Kolten Wong held down second base for the Milwaukee Brewers, posting a solid .262 batting average over those two seasons. Afterward, his career became more nomadic, with brief stints on the Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers, the latter of whom he last played for in 2023. Wong signed a minor-league deal with the Baltimore Orioles in 2024 but never made it back to the major league roster.
The last notable moment involving Wong came when he made headlines for outspoken comments about Orioles phenom Jackson Holliday. Now, with 11 MLB seasons behind him and more than \$47 million in career earnings, Wong is ready to close the book on his playing days and embrace the next chapter of his life.
