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Former Cardinals 2B Kolten Wong announces retirement

Longtime St. Louis Cardinals second baseman and two-time Gold Glover Kolten Wong has officially retired from baseball.

The Cardinals paid tribute to their 2011 first-round draft pick in a post to X on Monday.

Wong first announced his retirement Friday night when he was inducted by alma mater University of Hawaii into the school's Circle of Honor.

"Pretty much right now, I'm done," Wong said. "I've kind of come to the conclusion that I'm probably going to be hanging them up. It's just one of those things where, the game how it's going now, there's no sense of chasing (it). ... I'm a dad now, yes, I'm enjoying that. I'm trying to be the best big league dad that I can be. So I'm going to stick to that."

Wong, 34, finishes with a .256 average and winds up 27 hits shy of 1,000 over an 11-year career in the majors. He hit 86 home runs, scored 511 runs and stole 120 bases. He earned Gold Glove honors in 2019 and 2020.

Wong last played in 2023, batting .183 with four homers in 87 games with the Seattle Mariners and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Wong played eight years with the Cardinals (2013-20). He also played two seasons in Milwaukee from 2021-22.