Left-handed pitcher Alex Wood posted a long message on social media Friday announcing his retirement after 12 major league seasons that included a World Series title with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.<\/p>\n
Wood began his post on Instagram by saying he had “immense gratitude” following a career in which the 34-year-old was an All-Star selection in 2017 and reached the postseason seven times.<\/p>\n
“I never could’ve imagined it would turn out this way,” Wood wrote.<\/p>\n
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“Baseball was my first love. Outside of God and my family, nothing else has shaped me the way this game has,” he added. “Even writing this, I can’t help but smile thinking about how much I still love the game after all this time.”<\/em><\/p>\n Wood’s retirement comes after he went 1-3 with a 5.26 ERA in nine starts for the Oakland Athletics last season. Overall, the 6-foot-4 pitcher from Charlotte, North Carolina, went 77-68 with a 3.78 ERA over 278 games split between five teams, including two stints with the Dodgers.<\/p>\n He played collegiately at Georgia, was selected in the second round of the 2012 draft by the Braves and made his major league debut with Atlanta a year later. Wood’s best season came in 2017 when he went 16-3 with a 2.72 ERA in 27 games for the Dodgers.<\/p>\n After spending 2019 in Cincinnati, he returned to Los Angeles and pitched four scoreless innings during the Dodgers’ six-game World Series win over Tampa Bay. He also spent three seasons with the San Francisco Giants.<\/p>\n “Playing for five iconic franchises and becoming part of those communities is something my family and I will always cherish,” Wood wrote.<\/em><\/p>\n He then closed his message by writing: “Cheers to what’s next. See you at the park! Love, Woody.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Left-handed pitcher Alex Wood posted a long message on social media Friday announcing his retirement after 12 major league seasons that included a World Series title with… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n