San Francisco Giants World Series MVP Edgar Renteria seemed like he was about to go out on top after hitting the series-clinching home run against the Texas Rangers. But he shot down retirement rumors pretty quickly when he spoke to Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes.
“I’m staying, I feel that I still have a lot of baseball in my body,” Renteria said Saturday to ESPNdeportes.com from his home in Miami.
“[On] Monday I have a very important meeting with my agents to talk about my future, but I have already decided I will keep playing. That’s all I can say until I meet with them,” Renteria said.
And now it seems he’s thinking about changing positions to prolong his career. D.J. Short of Pro Baseball Talk relays and analyzes the story from the Spanish translation from ESPN Deportes.
For all his injuries and general lack of production over the past two seasons, Renteria is still a perfectly capable defensive shortstop. Perhaps moving to a less demanding position would allow him to stay on the field, but this sounds like an effort to increase his marketability rather than his true preference. He’s not going to find anywhere close to the $9 million he made this past season, but the 35-year-old should be able to find a starting job somewhere.
However, the big question Giants fans are wondering about is where will Renteria fit into this equation? San Francisco already has a dedicated second baseman in Freddy Sanchez, and he’s as good as they get defensively (.991 field percentage last year). Renteria’s .707 OPS is hard to ignore though, but he’d likely have to accept a smaller role. Would Renteria be willing to accept what amounts to a bench position after such a successful postseason campaign, or will he look elsewhere?