As Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers and catchers reported to Camelback Ranch for Spring Training on Friday, outfielder Andre Ethier was honored that evening down the road in Phoenix.
The longest-tenured Dodger, who has spent all 10 of his Major League seasons with the club, which includes two All-star campaigns, had his No. 14 jersey retired at Arizona State University.
Ethier graduated from St. Mary’s High School in Phoenix in 2000. He then spent some time at ASU before transferring to Chandler-Gilbert Community College, where he played for two years before transferring back to ASU in 2002.
Over his final two years with the Sun Devils, Ethier started 115 games and batted .371 with 14 home runs and 118 RBIs. He was named an All-American by CollegeBaseballInsider.com in 2003, and was a two-time First Team All-Pac-10 member.
The jersey retiring ceremony took place Friday evening at ASU’s facility in Phoenix before their opening game against Xavier and also honored Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, via the Sun Devils Twitter account:
Those #'s look good up there… pic.twitter.com/It3FH7MTNS
— Sun Devil Baseball (@ASU_Baseball) February 20, 2016
Ethier was drafted in the second round of the 2003 draft by the Oakland Athletics. He never reached the Majors with Oakland and was traded to the Dodgers in 2005.
In 10 seasons with the Dodgers, Ethier has batted .286/.359/.464 with 159 home runs and 682 RBIs. After a down year in 2014 where he found himself out of the everyday lineup for the first time, Ethier bounced back nicely in 2015, batting .294/.366/.486 with 14 home runs and 53 RBIs in 142 games.
While the Dodgers have reportedly attempted to trade Ethier on multiple occasions due to their copious amount of outfielders, the 33 year old has remained with the club and has two years remaining on the six-year contract he signed in 2011.
