Mercedes announces he's retiring from baseball on Instagram
The White Sox lost to the Twins at Guaranteed Rate Field.
Apparently, they've also lost Yermin Mercedes.
In an Instagram post Wednesday night after going 0-for-2 and exiting Class AAA Charlotte's game against Durham, Mercedes wrote: "it's over."
Earlier in the day, Mercedes took to the same social-media outlet and hinted at hanging it up:
"First of all I want to thank God for giving me life, to the fans that without them I was nothing, to my family for understanding me and always supporting, (agent) Daniel Szew for getting me ahead. And by the way ask forgiveness to all members of the radio, television and press, to all the teams I participated by not tolerating the decisions of them, to everyone who as a human being eh failed, I apologize an thus I walked away from baseball for a while."
The White Sox issued a statement during their 7-2 loss to Minnesota:
"(We) are aware of tonight's Instagram post by Yermin Mercedes, who is currently on the active roster of our Class AAA team in Charlotte, N.C. At this point in time, the White Sox have not received any official notification from Yermin concerning his official plans."
It's possible Mercedes just needs some time away from a roller coaster season. He was faring well at Charlotte, hitting .298 with 4 home runs and 10 RBI in 15 games.
"You go to Triple-A and you've had a taste of the big leagues, you can get emotional," Sox manager Tony La Russa said. "I don't know more than that. Probably will reach out to him. He knows I'm a supporter of his, so I'll reach out to him and see what's going on. It could he's just a little frustrated."
A surprise addition to the Sox's roster coming out of spring training, Mercedes set a major-league record by opening the season with 8 straight hits.
The rookie designated hitter batted .415 in April and started tailing off. After hitting .221 in May and .159 in June, Mercedes was optioned to Triple-A on July 2.
"He's a talented guy." La Russa said. "He earned a spot on the roster, then he earned all those at-bats. He ran into what happens often to rookies, they start making adjustments and (you have) to adjust back."
The Sox and Twins were tied at 1-1 in the third inning Wednesday before Minnesota broke the game open with 2 runs in the fifth and 3 in the sixth.
White Sox starter Dylan Cease pitched 5 innings and allowed 3 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks.
Adam Engel drove in the White Sox's first run with an infield single in the third and Andrew Vaughn added an RBI double in the eighth inning.