Former Giants fan-favorite infielder Joe Panik retires from MLB

Joe Panik, who joined Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt to form one of baseball’s best infields in the middle of the last decade, confirmed to NBC Sports Bay Area that his playing days are over. Panik said he’s loving spending time with his wife, Brittany, and his seventh-month old daughter Mikayla, the couple’s first child.

“I feel very blessed for the career I have had and what I was able to accomplish,” Panik said via text. “Was literally a dream come true.”

Panik noted how many great people he met during his decade in professional baseball and said he was “truly blessed for being able to be raised a Giant.” The news of his retirement was first reported by Jon Heyman of the New York Post.

The Giants surprised some in the industry when they took Panik 29th overall in the 2011 MLB Draft, but just three years later he was a key piece of their run to a third title. Panik came up in June of 2014 and hit .305 the rest of the year, finishing sixth in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting despite playing less than half the season. A former shortstop, Panik immediately gelled with Crawford and formed one of the best defensive duos in baseball. The two teamed up for one of the more memorable defensive plays in Giants history, with Panik’s glove-flip starting a huge double play in Game 7 of the 2014 World Series.

Panik hit .312 the next season with a .855 OPS and made an All-