Mike Moustakas is returning to KC to retire as a member of the Royals this spring
Roughly a month after Lorenzo Cain signed a one-day contract and retired as a member of the Royals in 2023, one of his former teammates returned to Kansas City for a game.
Third baseman Mike Moustakas was playing for the Colorado Rockies at the time and before taking the field was asked if he’d also like to retire from baseball as a member of the Royals.
“Now that I’m getting a little older and obviously you don’t get to play baseball for the rest of your life, you start thinking about those things,” Moustakas said at the time. “But I still feel like I’ve got a couple of years left in me, and obviously I loved being a Kansas City Royal. I’ll always be a Royal, and at the day that time comes that’ll be a decision I make. I think it’ll be pretty easy.
“But I love the city. I love these people and I love this team. So I’m happy that I got to come back here and be a part of it again. And to be able to play in front of these fans is gonna be awesome.”
Kansas City also loves Moustakas, who was part of the Royals’ 2015 World Series championship team. He also helped the Royals win the 2014 American League pennant, and now that he’s done playing baseball, he’ll retire as a member of the franchise that drafted him second overall in 2007.
The Royals announced Monday that Moustakas will retire at a ceremony at Kauffman Stadium on May 31. Moustakas will sign a ceremonial contract with the team on that day.
Moustakas, 36, had some iconic postseason moments with the Royals. His home run in the 11th inning of Game 1 of the 2014 American League Division Series helped the Royals beat the Angels 3-2.
And Moustakas stretched into a dugout suite to make a dazzling catch against the Orioles in the 2014 American League Championship Series.
Moustakas hit five homers in 15 playoff games during the Royals’ 2014 run to the World Series.
He also had a homer against the Blue Jays in Game 6 of the 2015 ALCS as the Royals clinched a second straight American League pennant.
In eight seasons with the Royals from 2011 to 2018, Moustakas hit 139 home runs with 184 doubles and 441 RBIs in 934 games. He twice made the All-Star Game with KC.
This story was originally published March 3, 2025 at 11:41 AM.
