Hanshin Tigers catcher Akihiro Yano said on Friday he will retire from baseball, citing problems with a lingering injury to his right elbow among other reasons for calling it a day.
"This is a job where you have to have your body and mind working at the fullest. I think I have come to a point in my career where I no longer can be a competitive player on the top team," said Yano.
The Tigers have been giving most of the playing time to former Seattle Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima this season.
Johjima signed a four-year, ¥2 billion contract with Hanshin this past offseason after opting out of the final two years of a three-year deal with Seattle.
Yano had surgery on his right elbow during the 2008 offseason and failed to recover in time for the start of the following season. In 2009, he only appeared in 30 games after breaking his right ankle toward the end of the year.
The 41-year-old Yano, who has been limited to just eight games this season, has been on a tuneup with the farm team since being taken off the active roster on June 8.
Yano was drafted in the second round by the Chunichi Dragons in 1991. He moved to Hanshin in 1998 and helped contribute to the team's CL titles in 2003 and 2005. He also played for the Japanese team at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
"I have had the pleasure of having a baseball career that I never could have imagined. It was a great career," he said.
Yano has a .274 lifetime batting average with 1,347 hits in 1,669 games over 20 years in baseball.