Former Blue Jays outfielder we thought was retired...has officially retired

If you thought former Blue Jays outfielder Melky Cabrera was already retired from Major League Baseball, you would not be alone.

In some news that seems to have flown under our radar, the "Melk Man" has finally called it a career according to Antonio Puesán on Twitter.

Cabrera, 38, was a member of the Blue Jays in 2013 and 2014, the first team he suited up for after his infamous 2012 PED suspension that tarnished his name around the league.

He broke into the majors in 2005 at the age of 20, playing for the Yankees and representing a switch-hitting, versatile outfielder with speed and impeccable patience at the plate for the Yanks.

He stayed in the Bronx for the first five years of his big league career, hovering right around (but slightly below) league-average. After a year-long stint in Atlanta, he moved on to the Royals, where he suddenly experienced a huge power surge and looked like a star-caliber player.

In 2011 for Kansas City, Cabrera hit 18 home runs, drove in 87 and hit .305 with an OPS+ of 121. He was traded to the Giants and somehow got even better at the plate, riding a seemingly-out-of-nowhere bat all the way to his first All-Star Game, where he won the ASG MVP as well.

To top off his rise to prominence, Cabrera was promptly suspended 50 games in 2012 for unusually high levels of testosterone, which led to his admitting that he was taking PEDs.

The Giants wanted nothing to do with Cabrera, so they let him walk in free agency without giving him a second glance. That's where the Blue Jays stepped in and took a chance on him, signing him to a two-year, $16M contract.

After Cabrera found his name in the headlines once again, this time for his name being involved in the Biogenesis scandal, he missed the remainder of the 2013 season with a knee injury that ended up being the removal of a benign tumor from his lower spine.

2014 was the first and only full season for Cabrera in a Jays uniform and he returned to form, hitting 16 home runs with 73 RBI and a .301 average. His 128 OPS+ will ultimately go down as the second best of his 15-year career.

The Blue Jays extended a $15.3M qualifying offer to him in the 2014-2015 offseason, but Cabrera rejected it in favor of testing the open market. His big league story ends with two decent seasons for the White Sox followed by some so-so seasons as a bench bat for the Royals, Indians and Pirates.

Cabrera had one heck of a career that will be remembered as one littered with controversy. But when you look past the warts that he came with for any given club, he was one heck of a ball player who possessed one of the better batter's eyes of the past decade or so.

Controversy be damned, we wish Melky Cabrera the best in his retirement and hope his post-playing life is a good one.