After 13 Major League seasons, Josh Harrison officially announced his retirement exactly 14 years to the day after he played in his first MLB game. The 37-year-old Harrison thanked his family, teammates, and the many others in his life that contributed to his career in a post on his X account, and ended his statement by thanking baseball itself:
“Thank you for helping shape me, humble me, and give me a platform to grow, not just as a player, but as a man. I’m blessed to have been a 2x All-Star and to play for as long as I did, but I never sought to prove people wrong, only to prove myself right in my beliefs. With that being said, future players don’t get other people’s expectations of you limit you from reaching your full potential. Put in the work and go get what you deserve.”
A sixth-round pick for the Cubs in the 2008 draft, Harrison never suited up for the Cubs at the MLB level, as he was dealt within the NL Central to the Pirates as part of a five-player trade deadline swap in July 2009. Harrison made his big league debut with Pittsburgh in 2011 and then spent the next eight seasons with the Bucs, playing several positions but primarily handling second and third base.
As Harrison noted, he was named to two All-Star teams in his career, in 2014 and 2017. The 2014 campaign was the best of Harrison’s career, as he hit .315/.347/.490 with 13 homers over 550 plate appearances, and finishing ninth in NL MVP voting to help lead the Pirates to a wild card berth. Andrew McCutchen was undoubtedly the biggest star of that era of Pirates baseball, but Harrison’s emergence as a regular (and in 2014, a star in his own right) contributed to the core of a Pittsburgh club that reached the postseason every year from 2013-15.
Harrison cashed in on his 2014 performance by signing a four-year, $27.3MM extension with the Pirates in April 2015. The contract also contained club options for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, but the Bucs declined the first of those options (paying Harrison a $1MM buyout instead of a $10.5MM salary for 2019) following the 2018 campaign. Beyond the fact that the Pirates have traditionally been wary of even moderate spending, Harrison’s performance dipped in 2018, and he spent a good chunk of the season on the injured list due to a fractured hand.
The last five seasons of Harrison’s career saw him hit .254/.314/.367 over 1335 PA with the Tigers, Nationals, Athletics, White Sox, and Phillies from 2019-23. He hit quite well with Washington in 2020 and in the first part of the 2021 season, though his bat cooled off after being dealt to the A’s at the 2021 trade deadline. Beyond these big-league appearances, Harrison also signed minor league contracts with the Rangers in 2023 and with the Reds in 2024, though those deals didn’t translate to any time at the MLB level. The latter contract represented a bit of a homecoming for the Cincinnati native, but Harrison opted out of his deal with the Reds during Spring Training 2024 after being told he wasn’t making the team.
For his career, Harrison hit .270/.316/.396 with 73 home runs, 1080 hits, 218 doubles, 91 steals (out of 128 attempts) over 4347 plate appearances and 1208 games. The utilityman played at least one game at every position except catcher over the course of his career, including six mop-up appearances on the mound.
We at MLB Trade Rumors congratulate Harrison on a fine career, and we wish him all the best in his post-playing days.
