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Matt Szczur has retired from baseball.
The former outfielder and Lower Cape May alum announced the end of his five-year MLB career on Monday via Twitter.
Szczur was originally drafted out of high school in the 38th round of the 2007 MLB draft by the Los Angeles Dodgers, but decided to play at Villanova University instead of signing with the Dodgers.
At Villanova, Szczur played both baseball and football.
He sat out his freshman year of baseball due to a football-related injury.
Szczur batted .392 with 62 RBIs for Villanova during the next two seasons and was named both a First Team All-Big East selection and the Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Year for baseball as a junior.
Szczur was drafted out of college in the fifth round by the Chicago Cubs in 2010.
He made his Major League debut in 2014 with the Cubs.
He remained a significant bench piece for the franchise when they broke their 108-year World Series championship drought in 2016.
The next year, the Cubs traded him to the San Diego Padres in exchange for former pitching prospect Justin Hancock in a one-for-one deal.
Szczur would play for the Padres until 2018, when they designated him for assignment.
He never played in the majors after that, spending the last three years of his career in minor leagues with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis Cardinals organizations.
