German catcher Kai Gronauer, who is celebrating his 28th birthday in November, just concluded his seventh and last season of his minor league contract with the New York Mets organization, which he signed in the Spring of 2008. During that time he climbed the minor league levels, reaching Triple-A in 2013 and attending two Major League Spring Training camps with the Mets. But while his defense and game-calling skills are raved about, his bat was not good enough to make it to the big league level.
In an interview with a German podcast on Wednesday he sounded as if his career in professional baseball has come to an end. Missing the European Championship to spend time with his family, Gronauer looks ahead to his future, which also emphasizes a career off the playing field. In the interview he already confirmed that he has talked to his old club Solingen Alligators as well as the Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg.
Officially he also wanted to leave the door open to return to a different MLB organization, but didn’t say if there was any interest. In seven seasons with the Mets he batted .257/.323/.361 with 19 home runs, 114 runs scored and 130 RBI in 317 games between Rookie and Triple-A ball.