Outfielder Jason Heyward, one of the most accomplished defensive players of his era, announced his retirement on Friday after 16 MLB seasons. The 36-year-old played for the San Diego Padres in the 2025 MLB season but is best remembered for his 12 seasons with the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs, winning a World Series in 2016 with the latter.
While 2026 Opening Day was officially on Wednesday, just two teams played that day while 22 more took the field for the first time Thursday. That means the remaining six called Friday their Opening Day, and Heyward went unsigned ahead of all 30 teams taking the field. He made his announcement Friday on MLB Network.
“I look forward to being a potential mentor to any of the young players coming up, anybody that is in the game right now. I feel like the game’s in good hands in that sense, and I look forward to being a fan and seeing what other ways I can give back,” Heyward said. “Thank you to everybody that’s been there to support. ... Thank you for allowing me to live out my dream.”
Heyward wraps up his career as a .255 hitter with 186 home runs, 730 RBI, and 125 stolen bases. But the offensive numbers indicate only a small portion of what he brought to the table. Heyward was universally acclaimed for his defense, particularly in right field, and he won five Gold Glove awards during his career. In addition, Wilson Sporting Goods named Heyward MLB’s Defensive Player of the Year in the 2014 season.
You could say that Heyward was born to be a star athlete, considering his lineage. His father, Eugene, played college basketball at Dartmouth, while Jason’s great-uncle, Kenny Washington, won two national championships while playing for John Wooden and UCLA before being drafted by the NBA. Jason’s younger brother, Jacob, spent seven years in minor league baseball after being drafted by the Braves when Jason was on the Big League team.
After five years with the Braves, Heyward spent one season with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2015 where he had the best year of his career. He had career highs in batting average (.293), stolen bases (23) and WAR (7.0) while winning another Gold Glove. His wins above replacement were the fourth-most in the National League among position players, and Heyward had a career-best finish of 15th in MVP voting.
He then joined the rival Chicago Cubs in 2016, where he was part of the team that ended the franchise’s 108-year drought without a World Series championship. Heyward made a clubhouse speech during Game 7 of that World Series against the Cleveland Indians during a weather delay. The Cubs had just given up a lead in the eighth inning and were feeling dejected, but Heyward’s words to his teammates helped propel Chicago to an extra-inning victory.
That speech has become lore in The Windy City, and Heyward touched upon what he told his teammates to help them break the Cubs’ World Series curse.
“Just reminded them who we were, you know. Like, don’t forget that. Don’t forget that we won the most games in the regular season. Don’t forget that we came back from [down three games to one]. Don’t forget that we’ve defied every odd, from the curse to being on the road to dealing with whatever we had to deal with,“ Heyward said. ”Some of it was a little bit more explicit, of course, but I just had to remind them who they were. And we had the right group of people in the room. Shout out to everybody there. We got it done.”
After leaving Chicago in 2023, Heyward spent his final three MLB seasons with three different clubs. His last game came on May 23, 2025, when he was a late-inning defensive replacement for the Padres. His career ended exactly where it began as San Diego was playing on the road in Heyward’s hometown of Atlanta.
