Nick Markakis retiring from baseball after 15 seasons: Im gonna be a stay-at-home dad

After a 15-season big-league career that included three Gold Gloves and more appearances logged in right field than all but seven players in the game’s history, former Baltimore Orioles and Atlanta Braves outfielder Nick Markakis told The Athletic he is officially retiring from baseball.

In his typically understated fashion, the 37-year-old Markakis made up his mind shortly after the 2020 postseason with the Braves ended, and, therefore, the pending free agent didn’t pursue any playing possibilities this winter, though a few teams expressed some interest. He just didn’t tell anyone outside of those closest to him that he was retiring. Until now.

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“I just think it’s my time,” Markakis said. “My No. 1 decision and my main focus on this is obviously my kids and my family. I’ve been fortunate enough to do this for a very long time and not many people get to do what I’ve gone through. I’m thankful for every second and every minute.”

Known as an intense competitor and consummate professional who stressed throughout his career that he played the game cleanly, Markakis never drew attention to himself, preferring the lowest of big-league profiles. He never participated in social media and, through much of his career, didn’t have a working email account. There was never going to be a big retirement announcement from Markakis.

“Nick just thought he could slip away into retirement without anyone noticing,” said his longtime agent, Jamie Murphy. “He played his entire career under the radar, so he thought he could slip away under the radar, too.”

Markakis’ plans for retirement are equally as simple: Spending more time at his home in Alpharetta, Ga., with his wife, Christina, and their three boys: Taylor, 12; Tucker, 10; and Toby, 7.

“I’m gonna be a stay-at-home dad. My wife is actually back working. She’s enjoying herself, being a personal trainer. I’m just gonna take care of the house and take care of the boys,” he said. “I’ve missed so much over the years and sacrificed a lot. I think this is the least I can do for them. It’s an important age that these guys are at right now and I think I need to be there.”

Markakis spent nine of his 15 seasons with the Orioles, the club that selected him with the seventh overall pick in the 2003 amateur draft out of Young Harris (Ga.) College, where he had been the national junior college player of the year.

Some scouts viewed Markakis as a pitcher, but the Orioles drafted him as an outfielder and kept him there. He debuted in 2006, hitting .291 with 16 homers as a 22-year-old. He quickly became a fan favorite in Baltimore for his smooth, left-handed swing and hard-nosed style of play.

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Alongside his best friend on the team, center fielder Adam Jones, Markakis became one of the club’s two most marketable stars. In 2009, the Orioles’ promotional department renamed the right-center seats at Camden Yards, “2110 Eutaw Street,” in honor of Markakis (No. 21) and Jones (No. 10).

Along with his wife, Markakis created his own nonprofit in 2009, The Right Side Foundation, which provided various services and opportunities for Maryland-based children. It ultimately merged with another children’s charity in 2014. For years, even after he went to Atlanta, Markakis and his family lived full-time in Baltimore County, making themselves a vital part of the community.

“How do you encapsulate everything about him?” said Buck Showalter, who managed Markakis from 2011 to 2014. “It’s like I’ve said about (Don) Mattingly, Nick’s substance was his style. There was such a universal respect for Nick from other teams and opponents. He did those things that everybody wasn’t necessarily willing to do. He just brought it every day. You’re trying to find things you can check off and count on. Nick was something you could check off and count on.”

Under Showalter, Markakis helped navigate the Orioles from a string of 14 consecutive losing seasons to the playoffs in 2012. But that September, his thumb was broken by a 93 mph fastball from New York’s CC Sabathia, sidelining Markakis for what would have been his first postseason.

“That just crushed me, it crushed everybody,” Showalter said. “But here’s Nick. He goes back (to the trainers’ room), gets it taped up, X-rays it and comes back and sits in the dugout. Most people are in their cars, going home. But he says, ‘OK, there’s a game going on. I’m part of the team.’ He always embraced being part of a team and his words carried so much weight.”

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The Orioles won the American League East in 2014, and, in the second playoff game of his career, Markakis homered off Justin Verlander to help the Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers and advance to the ALCS, where they lost to the Kansas City Royals. It’s the closest Markakis got to the World Series until the Braves lost last year in the NLCS to the Los Angeles Dodgers. He said he can live with never reaching his goal of playing in an October Classic.

“I chased it for 15 years. And I understand not everybody’s gonna get the opportunity to hold that trophy,” Markakis said. “That’s life. Life goes on. And I tried and I gave my best effort for 15 years. That’s all I can really do.”

Markakis was a pending free agent at the end of the 2014 season, and it appeared as if he’d be returning to the Orioles on a four-year, $40 million extension.

But Markakis, then 31, had to undergo neck-fusion surgery to repair a herniated disc that winter, and the Orioles ultimately were spooked by potential long-term effects the operation might have on the durable player. So, they pulled their offer.

The Braves swooped in, offered Markakis four years and $44 million, and Markakis returned to Georgia, where he had lived since he was about 10.

“John Hart called me when he was with Atlanta. … He said, ‘We’re trying to build this. I’m thinking about Markakis. I need that one guy,’” Showalter said. “And I said, ‘John, he’s your guy.’ … He just leaves that stamp wherever he goes of credibility. He embraced me. If he embraces somebody, you have credibility.”

Markakis joined the Braves and played in all but six of the team’s games in 2015. In the final year of his initial deal with the Braves in 2018, Markakis played all 162, slashed .297/.366/.440, made his first and only All-Star Game, won his only Silver Slugger Award and captured his third and final Gold Glove.

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“One of the most consistent, professional pros that I’ve ever been around. I’m glad I had the honor to manage him in his last years, because he’s a special player,” said Brian Snitker, who managed Markakis from 2016 to 2020. “How consistent he was, how professional he was, the way he played the game, how he grinded every at-bat. He never took a pitch off. And to see what he did late in his career, winning that Gold Glove, and the stabilizing force that he was for our club while I was here. You don’t appreciate a guy like Nick until you manage him. What a great career he had.”

After suffering through three losing seasons when Markakis arrived in Atlanta, the Braves have won each of the last three NL East titles. Along with superstar first baseman Freddie Freeman, Markakis became one of the most respected veteran leaders in Atlanta’s clubhouse and helped show a talented young core how to win, Snitker said.

“Just like Freddie. I mean, that guy (Markakis) was so important, because you could always count on him. He was always there. You could count on him to go out and play every day, and give everything he had,” Snitker said. “The stability that he provided me and the club, in the clubhouse, that demeanor that he had, that ‘boring pro’ type as I call them, that you knew every day what you were going to get when he came to the ballpark.”

Markakis ends his career with 2,388 hits (127th all-time), 514 doubles (54th all-time), 189 homers and 1,046 RBIs. He played in 2,154 games, including 155 or more in 11 different seasons.

He holds the MLB record for most consecutive errorless games by an outfielder (398) and is sixth in putouts by a right fielder. Of the seven men in the sport’s history who have played more games in right field than Markakis, all but Dwight Evans, who played 19 seasons in Boston and one in Baltimore, is in the Hall of Fame.

“His body of work is outstanding,” Showalter said. “He’s a body-of-work guy. That’s Nick.”

Although he’s certain to appear on the Hall’s ballot after five years of retirement, Markakis is considered a longshot to be inducted. He said it crossed his mind to attempt to play a few more seasons and try to get closer to 3,000 hits — once considered the gold standard for offensive players — but the pull to be with family was too strong.

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“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 said. “I think I played the right way and that’s all that really matters to me. I went out there and did my job for my teammates and my fans and the cities. And I look back and have no regrets. I had a long and successful career in my eyes.”

Markakis, however, is a slam dunk to be inducted into the Orioles’ Hall of Fame. He is the modern franchise’s leader in right field starts, appearances and innings logged at the position. He’s seventh all-time in hits, sixth in doubles and sixth in average among Orioles with at least 2,000 plate appearances.

In Baltimore, Markakis will be considered one of the most important Orioles of the past 25 years. In Atlanta, he was a Georgia boy who came home to help the Braves return to the postseason.

“Those are the two teams that welcomed me into their family. Baltimore is where I started and that will always have a special place for me. They’re the ones that gave me an opportunity to be the person and the baseball player I was,” he said.

“Things don’t necessarily go down a straight path your whole career. There are some detours, and my first detour took me to Atlanta, back home. And they embraced me here. The fans were great. It was just two really, really awesome places to spend my entire career.”

(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)

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