World Series Champion Catcher Mitch Garver Retires from Baseball at 35
World Series champion catcher Mitch Garver has announced his retirement from professional baseball at the age of just 35, bringing a 10-season Major League Baseball (MLB) career to a close.
Garver confirmed the decision himself in a text message to MLB.com. It ends a career in which he played both as a catcher and as a designated hitter, and lifted a World Series trophy along the way.
The Albuquerque native spent the first five seasons of his career with the Minnesota Twins, and it was in a Twins uniform that he produced the finest season of his career.
In 2019 he won a Silver Slugger Award, hitting 31 home runs and driving in 67 runs with an impressive .995 OPS — an outstanding return for a catcher.
In 2022 Garver was traded to the Texas Rangers, and the following year he became a key contributor to the Rangers' 2023 World Series championship team.
In that postseason he played 14 games, hitting .226 with three home runs and 14 RBI. His contribution to the title run will be remembered by Rangers supporters for a long time.
After the World Series success, Garver signed a two-year, $24 million contract with the Seattle Mariners. At the time it was the richest contract Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto had ever handed out.
In Seattle, however, Garver could not reproduce his Texas form. His offensive output declined and he was eventually relegated to a backup role behind catcher Cal Raleigh.
Even after losing his starting place, Garver remained an important presence in the clubhouse, and he is credited with helping Raleigh during the younger catcher's record-setting 2025 season.
The Mariners released Garver in August. He then signed a minor league contract with the New York Yankees but never appeared in a major league game for them.
Across 701 career games, Garver finished with a .229 batting average, 110 home runs and 324 RBI — numbers that reflect a decade of durability at the top level.
What Garver plans to do after retirement is not yet known. But supporters of the Twins, the Rangers and the Mariners will all remember him, above all as a member of that 2023 championship team.
