When athletes retire from professional sports, they’re finally free to do whatever they want with their bodies. Sometimes they lose weight, sometimes they gain weight, sometimes they shed muscle.
Former New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs second baseman and left fielder Alfonso Soriano didn’t choose any of those options. Since his retirement in 2014, he’s gone from normal looking baseball player guy to totally jacked. Here’s some photo evidence from Sunday, when Soriano joined former MLB players Eric Sim and Ryan Klesko at Chase Field to hit bombs on the field.
Soriano is on the far right, and his muscles are so big that they look like they’re about to pop out of that athletic shirt he’s wearing. That is definitely not what he looked like during his playing days.
There’s a reason Soriano likely waited until retirement to get yoked: bulging muscles aren’t good for baseball. It’s a sport that relies on speed, quickness, and the fluidity and efficiency of motion. For baseball swings and pitching movements, massive shoulders and arms don’t necessarily help with fluidity and efficiency.
But Soriano isn’t a professional baseball player anymore. He’s a 47-year-old retired husband and father of six, and he can look however he wants. And his decision to build up that muscle means he’s always going to make heads turn, whether he’s on the field at Yankee Stadium or in the pick-up line at school.