There was uncertainty in the Astros clubhouse. There was a World Series on the line. Michael Brantley then started talking.
Despite his inability to play due to shoulder surgery, a number of people in the organization urged that he be there for the team’s 2022 playoff run. After Houston fell down 2-1 in the series after a Game 3 defeat, Brantley rallied the squad. While he was unable to make an impact on the field, he proved invaluable off it. Reminding his teammates of their goals and how far they had come, Brantley spoke to them.
The Astros never dropped a game, and Brantley finally received the ring from the World Series that he had long sought.
As he concluded his career as a five-time All-Star, one of the most reliable hitters of the last ten years, and the epitome of a perfect professional, Brantley, 36, announced his retirement on Friday. Early praise for his superb left-handed swing and discipline in the strike zone helped Brantley grow from an unnamed youngster to one of baseball’s most admired players—a guy known for his exacting practices and guidance.
I’m declaring the conclusion of an incredible baseball adventure with much gratitude. In his statement of announcement, Brantley said, “It’s been a great honor to live out my dreams and wear a Major League uniform for the past 15 years.”
Following the Astros’ elimination of the Indians from the 2018 playoffs, as the energy in Cleveland’s clubhouse began to fade, seasoned players crowded inside Brantley’s corner locker, a double stall usually used by a team captain. Yan Gomes, Josh Tomlin, and Jason Kipnis were seated on leather seats nearby. Yonder Alonso took a seat close to Brantley’s setup’s base on the floor.
Everyone, even Brantley, was aware that some or most of them would not return. The group was disbanding. Everyone in the room sobbed during Brantley’s departure interview the next day with executives Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff, manager Terry Francona, and manager Terry Francona. During his ten years with the team, Brantley proved to be a dependable figure who, according to Francona, could get out of bed and get a few hits. He became into a powerful leader, so much so that Francisco Lindor said he taught him the fundamentals of becoming a major league player.
That October day in 2018, everyone in that workplace assumed Brantley would wear a different jersey the next year. Nobody was expecting it to be an Astros jersey.
Throughout the offseason, Houston gave a corner outfielder top priority, but it was aware that a hole may arise inside the clubhouse. With the club’s two most dependable senior leaders gone—Brian McCann leaving for Atlanta one season after Carlos Beltrán retired after the 2017 World Series victory.
It seemed imperative to find a player who shared the Astros’ offensive philosophy and was willing to guide those youngsters who were still developing.
In 394 games as an Astro, Brantley slashed.305/.365/.463, earning two selections to the All-Star team and a spot at the top of one of the most formidable lineups in baseball. One of the most spectacular defensive plays in team history was started by Brantley in Game 6 of the 2019 American League Championship Series. He dove to snag a sinking liner from Aaron Hicks and then doubled off Aaron Judge at first base to maintain a two-run advantage.
That display of heroism brought a grin and yell that Brantley seldom ever let the world see. He led in comparatively quiet, letting colleagues observe his intricate routines and provide guidance honed from experience that few others in the clubhouse had. Coworkers nicknamed Brantley “Uncle Mike” during his first spring training, and the nickname stuck throughout his career on T-shirts, advertising, and the team’s TV broadcast.
“There are people that have been here and aren’t here who have directly helped me in the most amazing way. As of right now, I believe Mike to be the person, George Springer said in 2019. “I always want to be successful. Furthermore, I’m not into things when they don’t work out for me or our team. I’m doing it because I want the squad to succeed. I feel like I’m failing the team when I make mistakes. Mike has given some rather detailed suggestions along the lines of “You didn’t let the guys down.” Proceed to engage in the game. There is still a ton more game to play. Make sure you stay true to yourself and avoid letting one pitch, play, or at-bat lead into the next.
It’s almost hard to measure the respect that Brantley instilled in the company. Three different free-agent contracts signed by him serve as evidence. Dusty Baker demanded that his 24-year-old son, Darren, learn hitting from Brantley and talked of him with a respect that he kept for a select few players. Springer and Kyle Tucker have acknowledged that Brantley had a part in their rise to the top of the sport.
Reliever Joe Smith, who played with Brantley in both Cleveland and Houston, described him as “professional in every way.” “My all-time favorite teammate. We spent ten seasons together. To be with that man for so long is just amazing.
Mickey, Brantley’s father, was an outfielder with the Mariners in the late 1980s and later became a big league instructor. Mickey taught him the trade. The two examined Brantley’s swing mechanics throughout the course of his career. Mickey would go to the stadium to watch his son hit during batting practice, even during Brantley’s latter seasons.
Because he had the same name as his father and a similar love of hitting, some people dubbed Brantley “Junior.” He was also known as “Dr. Smooth” by others in Cleveland because to his smooth delivery of pitches into gaps.
During his 15 years in the big leagues, Brantley never played for the club that picked him. This is due to the fact that in 2008, only a few months after Cleveland traded him to Milwaukee in exchange for four questionable youngsters, CC Sabathia led the Brewers to the postseason. The star player was Matt LaPorta, a strong first baseman who faded in the major leagues. Rob Bryson and Zach Jackson, two pitchers, never made much of an impact in Cleveland.
If Sabathia hadn’t led his new club to the National League Division Series, Cleveland would have had to settle with infielder Taylor Green, who finished with 154 plate appearances in big league baseball and solidified Mark Shapiro’s worst nightmare as the Indians front office manager.
Rather, the team acquired Brantley, who became a mainstay in the lineup for the majority of the next ten years. When he was at his peak, Brantley was a machine that hit doubles, walked as often as he struck out, and collected outfield assists while mastering the technique of bare-handing a ball off Progressive Field’s 19-foot-high wall, whirling around, and making a precise throw to second base.
2014 saw him blossom into an MVP finalist after he slashed.327/.385/.506 with a career-high 200 hits, 45 doubles, 23 stolen bases, and 20 home runs. Following Cleveland’s August 2015 dismissal of Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher, Brantley assumed a more prominent position. Because of this, it hurt much more when, the following year, he was forced to watch the team’s march to the World Series from the stands.
Brantley played in only 11 games in 2016 due to shoulder injury, so he had to watch his teammates’ playoff journey from a distance. In the 10th inning of Game 7 of the World Series, Michael Martinez, a defensive substitute in left field late in the game, recorded the last out. Martinez or anybody else would not have been playing left field if Brantley had been well.
August 2017 saw Brantley sustain an ankle ailment that kept him out of the game until the last weekend of play. He wasn’t fully recovered for the playoffs, and he didn’t start until Game 3 due to an ankle injury sustained by Edwin Encarnación.
In 2018, Brantley made it to a playoff chance in one piece, but in his last days with the team, the Astros easily defeated Cleveland.
For the past eight years, Brantley’s teams have made it to the postseason. Over his last two seasons, he was restricted to only 79 games due to a shoulder issue. Despite being unable to participate in the 2022 World Series, the guy renowned for his unwaveringly stoic manner managed to revive his struggling squad in between Games 3 and 4.
This week, catcher Martín Maldonado told The Athletic, “He’s a teammate that cared about others more than himself.” “We won the World Series in 2022 because of him.
In public, Brantley never strayed from that persona, purposefully using his vast repertoire of platitudes in interviews. In private, he became indispensable to the operations of both Cleveland and Houston’s emerging dynasty.
After a difficult rehabilitation replete with disappointments, Brantley did play a part in the Astros’ playoff success in 2023. After it ended just one victory short of a pennant, Brantley sent his teammates one more message inside the clubhouse where his legacy is inextricably linked with him: he intended to retire.
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