Matt Beaty never arrived in Los Angeles with the sort of prospect pedigree that announces a future major leaguer. He left a World Series champion, and a coveted piece of a lopsided trade.Beaty, 33, retired in a post to his Instagram account on Monday. The sudden announcement comes almost two years after his last game in professional baseball, with the Arizona Diamondbacks' Double-A affiliate in September 2024."I believe it’s time to finally officially announce that I’m entering the next chapter of my life," Beaty wrote. "It’s been almost two years since my last at-bat in baseball. The time since then has been filled with questions and back-and-forth. Should I keep playing? Is there another opportunity out there? Or is it finally time to close this chapter?"In my experience, a decision like this isn’t easy. You spend your entire life devoting time, effort and sacrifice to a game. You make choices and give up opportunities because baseball doesn’t always allow you to experience life the way everyone else does. When something has been such a huge part of your life for so long, walking away is hard."Deep down, I think I knew my last game was my last game. I just held onto the hope that it wouldn’t be."The Dodgers selected Beaty in the 12th round of the 2015 draft, 372nd overall, out of Belmont University in Nashville. He was hardly a household name in prospect circles. Within the Dodgers’ deep farm system, Baseball America ranked him 21st among the organization’s prospects entering 2018 and 25th entering 2019. By the end of the 2019 season, Beaty had become a valuable utility player and left-handed hitting bat on a first-place team. Beaty had only 58 career plate appearances to his name when he hit a two-run home run in a 2-2 game on June 21, 2019 to walk off the Colorado Rockies. It was the first of three consecutive games that ended on walk-off hits by Dodgers rookies — and one of several clutch moments Beaty produced in Los Angeles.Beaty set career highs in plate appearances (268), home runs (nine), RBIs (46), doubles (19), slugging percentage (.458) and OPS (.775) as a rookie in 2019. After a somewhat disappointing regular season performance in the COVID-shortened 2020 regular season, Beaty was included on the Dodgers' National League Championship Series roster against the Atlanta Braves. He batted only three times in the series, but reached base all three times on a walk and two hit-by-pitches.In March 2022, the Dodgers traded Beaty to the San Diego Padres for pitcher River Ryan. Ryan's time in Los Angeles was diminished by injuries, but he was still valuable enough as a prospect to help them acquire Tarik Skubal ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline.After bouncing from San Diego to San Francisco and Kansas City from 2022-23, Beaty racked up a .247 career batting average, 18 home runs and 96 RBIs in 290 regular season games.Sign up for our free newsletter and follow us on X/Twitter and Facebook for the latest news.Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow