Wladimir Balentien took advantage of his social networks to announce his retirement from professional baseball in Japan.
“Today I want to announce to all my fans in Japan that I am retiring from Japanese baseball,” reads the first part of the statement that quickly went viral on social media.
Today I wanna announce to all my fans in Japan that Im retiring from japanis baseball wanna thank the swallows for the opportunity to play in Japan an make that opportunity a great baseball career an one of the greatest home run hitter in the japanis baseball hr king forever
— Wladimir coco balentien (@cocobalentien) January 22, 2022
The Curaçao-born slugger was initially considered a star prospect in the United States. However, he was unable to exploit all his talent when he received the opportunity to play in the majors between the 2007 and 2009 seasons, with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds.
For life in the Japan league, Balentien posted a .266/.370/.546 slash line with 301 home runs after 11 seasons.
