Veteran 1B Justin Bour announces retirement

Veteran first baseman Justin Bour announced his retirement, saying on his official Twitter feed that “there comes a time in every player’s career when they know it’s time to hang them up. Today is that day for me. Thank you baseball and everyone that helped me along the way.”  

Bour, 34, will hang up his cleats after hitting .253/.337/.457 with 92 career home runs over 1,950 plate appearances and 559 big league games with the Marlins, Phillies and Angels.

Bour’s career began as a 25th-round pick for the Cubs in the 2009 draft, but the Marlins took Bour away from Chicago in the 2013 Rule 5 draft. That selection opened the door for Bour’s MLB debut in 2014 and, eventually, his role as the Marlins’ new regular first baseman. Retaining his rookie eligibility into the 2015 campaign, Bour finished fifth in NL Rookie of the Year voting that season after a 23-homer performance.

All told, Bour hit .262/.346/.470 with 83 home runs over 1,726 PA with Miami from 2014-18, until the Fish dealt him to the Phillies in August 2018. Bour was one of several notable Marlins players traded around that period as the franchise went through yet another fire sale, but Bour’s offensive numbers also started to dip in 2018. As a first base-only player without much success against left-handed pitching, Bour’s limitations worked against him for salary-arbitration purposes, as the Phillies chose to non-tender him following the 2018 season due to his rising price tag.

The Angels signed Bour to a free-agent deal, but he struggled in Anaheim, playing in only 52 games with the Halos in 2019. This marked Bour’s last stint in the majors, and apart from a 33-game stretch with the Giants’ Triple-A team in 2021, Bour spent his last three pro seasons mostly playing in foreign leagues. The first baseman saw time in Japan (with the Hanshin Tigers), South Korea (the LG Twins) and in Mexico (Diablos Rojos del México).

Bour is “looking forward to giving back to the game that has given me so much,” and his first steps in retirement will be to spend more time with his family and to finish his degree at George Mason University.