Rutgers great Todd Frazier retires

After 11 years playing in the big leagues, former Rutgers star Todd Frazier announced on Tuesday that he was officially retiring from baseball.

The 36 year old was selected in the first round of the 2007 MLB Draft by the Cincinnati Reds was a two-time All-Star third baseman for them in 2014 and 2015. He went on to play for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates, as well both the New York Yankees and Mets.

Frazier finished his major league career with a .241 batting average, a .763 OPS, 218 home runs, 640 RBI and 604 runs scored. In his second All-Star appearance, he won the 2015 Home Run Derby on his home field for the Reds at Great American Ball Park. He hit a career high 40 home runs and 98 RBIs for the White Sox during the 2016 season. The following year, Frazier hit a three-run home run for the Yankees in Game 3 of the 2017 ALCS against the Astros. For the Mets, Frazier’s three-run home run in the ninth inning against the Nationals gave the club their 14th win in 15 games in the summer of 2019. He last played for the Pirates briefly in 2021 before starring for Team USA in the Summer Olympics and winning a Silver Medal.

The first major accomplishment of his baseball career was leading Toms River East American to a Little League World Series championship in 1998. He then became one of the best players in Rutgers baseball history. In 2007, Frazier was named consensus First Team All-America and was a unanimous selection for Big East Player of the Year. He led the Scarlet Knights to the the Big East title, where he was named tournament MVP and the program to its last appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

For his Rutgers career, Frazier is currently the all-time leader in home runs (42) and runs scored (210), second in walks (138) and total bases (434), third in hits (241), slugging percentage (.625) and stolen bases (65) and fifth in runs batted in (152). What is most impressive is that Frazier only played three seasons and still is firmly entrenched in the RU record books. He was inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.

Frazier appeared as a guest to the On The Banks podcast in 2018 and discussed his career and love of Rutgers, which you can listen to below.