MLB: Top Ten Greatest Final Seasons
Kirby Puckett
One of unfortunately a few truly sad entrants on this list, the late Kirby Puckett was forced to retire just before the 1996 season due to vision loss in his right eye as a result of occlusion of a retinal blood vessel. At the time, he was hitting .344 in the Grapefruit League.
Thus, despite being only his 12th big league season, 1995 was also his last, and Puckett had a good one. He slashed .314/.379/.515 in 137 games for the Minnesota Twins, hitting 39 doubles, 23 home runs, and collecting 99 RBIs. An all-star for the 10th consecutive year, he posted a 130 OPS+ and 3.1 bWAR.
Puckett had just turned 36 two weeks before the vision loss, and given his 1995 performance, it’s reasonable to assume that he had a few productive years left in him. His career ended with 2,304 hits, making it likely he would have reached the vaunted 3,000 hits mark were it not for his unfortunate medical issues. He was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, elected in 2001, and passed away on March 6, 2006 after a massive hemorrhagic stroke.
Next: The original Hammerin’ Hank.