Mike Moustakas, third baseman who won 2015 World Series with Royals, retires

Longtime MLBer Mike Moustakas is hanging up his cleats.

The third baseman, who was part of the Kansas City Royals 2015 championship team, announced Monday that he is retiring after 13 seasons.

Moustakas, 36, will sign a one-day contract with Kansas City on May 31 to officially retire as a Royal.

The three-time All-Star bashed 215 home runs over his 1,427-game career, 139 of which came in his eight years with the Royals.

He was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers midway through the 2018 campaign and spent one-and-a-half seasons there before signing a four-year, $64 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds.

After three mostly disappointing seasons with the Reds, Moustakas, the Los Angeles native, spent the final year of his career in 2023 with the Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Angels.

He will be most remembered as part of the resurgent Royals of the mid-aughts, where he helped the team reach the 2014 World Series before winning the Fall Classic the following year.

Blue Jays fans will remember him as a key part of the 2015 team which stopped Toronto’s playoff run in the ALCS. Moustakas batted just .208 in the six-game series, but recorded one homer and five RBIs.