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Longtime Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford retiring after 14 seasons

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Longtime Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford retiring after 14 seasons

Brandon Crawford won a pair of World Series titles with the Giants, who he spent nearly all of his MLB career with. (Brandon Vallance/Getty Images)

Brandon Crawford is calling it a career.

The longtime San Francisco Giants shortstop announced on social media on Wednesday night that he has officially retired.

“I’m incredibly grateful for all the years I spent playing the game I love, but now it is time for me to spend it with the people who I’m most thankful for,” Crawford wrote, in part. “Thank you to all of you who have [been] there for me throughout the years. It’s been an incredible ride … It’s time for the next chapter, and I can’t wait for the new opportunities and different experiences that it will create.”

Crawford spent nearly all of his 14-year career in Major League Baseball with the Giants, who selected him in the fourth round of the 2008 MLB Draft out of UCLA. He made his debut with the franchise in 2011, and he helped lead them to a pair of World Series titles over the next 13 seasons — first in 2012, when they swept the Detroit Tigers, and again in 2014 when they beat the Kansas City Royals in seven games. Crawford, a three-time All-Star, won four Gold Glove awards throughout his career and he picked up a Silver Slugger award in 2015.

Crawford spent this past season with the St. Louis Cardinals, though he appeared in just 28 games with the team before he was released. In total, he held a .249 batting average with 1,404 hits and 147 home runs over his 1,682 games in the league.

The Giants will officially honor Crawford, who grew up in the Bay Area, next season on April 26.

“It was an honor to get to know Brandon as a friend and teammate,” Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey said in a statement. “From the day we were both drafted in 2008 to our final year playing together in 2021, it was an honor to play alongside him for 14 years. Whether it was the clutch moments like the grand slam he hit in the 2014 wild card game in Pittsburgh, the franchise-record seven-hit game he recorded in Miami or the dazzling defensive plays and acrobatic throws he made over and over again, Brandon made his mark in a way few athletes ever do.

“I’m beyond grateful for our friendship and wish him all the best in this next chapter of life.”

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