TIJUANA, Mexico — Standing out at shortstop sporting purple shorts and his same familiar broad grin, Andrelton Simmons was back where he belonged, looking like he’d never left.He fielded fungo grounders, the movements as natural to him as blinking his eyes. Honing that craft, for Simmons, was more a source of comfort than a necessary warmup.As he walked off the field, hours before his Dorados de Chihuahua were to play the Toros de Tijuana, he was approached for an interview. A chance to share his story, to fill in the blanks on a big league career that ended so abruptly that there has been little public understanding of the reason.“Are you going to ask me tough questions?” he asked, half-joking as he walked into the dugout, realizing he’d already agreed to the interview.“Probably a few,” he got in response, also half-joking.It was his scheduled day off, which he confirmed with a glance at the lineup card as he sat down to recount where he had been since he last stepped on a major league field in 2022. Facing injuries, Simmons, at age 32, disappeared from baseball in what should have been the later part of his prime. Why leave for good? And why now, at age 36, after years away from the game and from the position he manned in a way few others ever have, was he playing in Mexico?“Baseball, when you’re doing good, is fun,” Simmons said. “When you’re not, it’s a little stressful, you know? I needed a little break.”In Simmons’ 11 seasons, he’d accumulated 36.7 bWAR, an astounding number given that his career OPS was just .678. He was a below-average offensive player. Well below average, in fact. Hitters like him don’t get free agent contracts or starting jobs or baseball security of any kind.But his defense had the chance to put him on one of the sport’s most unique trajectories, one that, if he had kept up a similar pace, could have put him in the conversation for an Ozzie Smith-like Hall of Fame berth. Simply put, he was among the greatest defensive shortstops to ever play the game.His 28 defensive WAR ranks 13th all-time, despite having by far the fewest games played among the first 49 names on that list. His 201 defensive runs saved is the highest for a shortstop since the metric was created in 2003. Every number reveals the same undeniable greatness.Simmons opted out late in COVID-shortened 2020 season to seek help amid depression and thoughts of suicide, he told The Orange County Register at the time. He returned to play for the Twins in 2021.