Mike Greenwell, an outfielder who played 12 seasons with the Boston Red Sox and finished second in the 1988 American League MVP voting, died Thursday, his wife said. He was 62.
The Boston Globe reported in mid-August that Greenwell had medullary thyroid cancer. Tracy Greenwell told WINK, a radio station in Lee County, Florida, that her husband died in Boston.
“With a heavy heart, I lost my best friend today,” Tracy Greenwell wrote on social media. “It was Mike’s time to be an angel. At 10:30 a.m. in Boston’s General Hospital. We are forever grateful for the life he has given us.”
Lee County Manager Bruce Harner also announced Greenwell’s death on the county government’s social media account. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Greenwell to the county commission in 2022, and he was re-elected to the post in 2024.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Commissioner Mike Greenwell, a lifelong Lee County resident,” the post read. “He was a strong advocate for the people and businesses of Lee County and will be remembered for seeking meaningful solutions to the challenges his community faced. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and all who were touched by his leadership.”
“The Gator” was better known for his baseball exploits than his political career.
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Greenwell spent most of his childhood in Florida and played baseball and football at North Fort Myers High School.
Greenwell played his entire major league career for Boston, making two All-Star appearances, winning the 1988 Silver Slugger Award and finishing second in that year’s MVP voting to Oakland Athletics outfielder Jose Canseco. Greenwell was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2008.
He made his big league debut in 1985 and appeared in 31 games on the 1986 American League champions, who lost 4-3 to the New York Mets in a World Series filled with heartbreak for the Red Sox.
In 1987, Greenwell emerged as Boston’s full-time left fielder, taking over the position previously occupied by three MVPs — Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice — who would later become Hall of Famers.
Although he fell short of those luminaries, the left-handed-hitting Greenwell had a solid career, finishing with a lifetime batting average of .303, 130 home runs, 726 RBIs and 80 stolen bases.
“He was a great teammate and an even better person,” right-handed pitcher Bob Stanley said. “He had big shoes to fill in left field, and he did a damn good job. He played hard and never forgot where he came from — Fort Myers. Just a great guy. We’ll all miss him.”
His best season came in 1988, when he batted .325 with 22 homers, 119 RBIs and 16 stolen bases and hit for the cycle in a September game. Greenwell also delivered a then-AL record 23 game-winning RBIs, a statistic that is no longer recognized by Major League Baseball, and he drove in all of Boston’s runs in a late-season 9-6 victory over Seattle.
That put him in the MVP mix. When Canseco later acknowledged he was using steroids that season, Greenwell asked, “Where’s my MVP?”
Greenwell earned his nickname for a spring training incident in which he captured an alligator, taped its mouth shut and put it in a teammate’s locker in Florida.
He played an abbreviated final season in Japan, retiring suddenly after just seven games because of a fractured right foot he suffered on a foul ball.
After his playing career, Greenwell moved into auto racing. He began competing in late-model stock cars in 2000 and made two starts in NASCAR’s Truck Series in 2006. He retired in 2010.
“You always wanted to be around him — I truly enjoyed my time with him,” former Boston outfielder Dwight Evans said. “He was a gamer in every sense of the word, and he will be deeply missed.”
Greenwell and his wife had two sons, Bo and Garrett.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.