I’ve seen smiles and excitement from players who were eager to get a fresh start, but I’ve never seen a player so elated after joining a new team.

I can still remember the look on Brian Schneider’s face when he stood in the Phillies’ clubhouse after he signed as a free agent before the 2010 season.

And now, three years after he became a Phillie and 18 years after he skipped his high school graduation to report to the Gulf Coast League Expos, which kicked off his journey through professional baseball, Schneider told me Tuesday that he is retiring.

“It hasn’t been an easy decision, but there are a lot of factors,” Schneider told me. “You don’t want to retire, but you think of your family and I think more than anything it’s physically how you feel.

“I’d kind of like to leave on my own terms and not have my last impression of baseball be someone telling me I can’t play. But there is a lot going on in my life and I’m very fortunate to have a great family and start being a dad and being around more often and being a good husband.”

Schneider, a 1995 Northampton graduate who grew up 70 miles north of south Philadelphia, has just more than two weeks to prepare for what’s to come. Most teams’ pitchers and catchers report during the second week of February.

“I actually look forward to going to spring training workouts and games and hanging out on the field during batting practice and bringing my son on the field and getting to talk to a lot of friends I played with,” Schneider said. “I think that will help me make the transition.

“I’m not going to go cold turkey.”

Schneider was drafted by Montreal during his senior year of high school. He spent five years climbing the ranks before making his major league debut on May 26, 2000. He joined the Expos in San Diego and got his first big-league hit in the second game of his career (his fourth plate appearance), a two-out double in the sixth inning.

“The next inning, Tony Gwynn came up to bat and he said, ‘Congrats,’” Schneider recalled. “When he told me that, it was kind of surreal. It was just cool to have one of the best hitters of all time say that. It put a stamp on the day.”

For his career, Schneider finished as a .247 hitter with 67 home runs and 387 RBIs in 1,048 games with the Expos, Nationals, Mets and Phillies.

Although he made noise offensively in 2005 when he hit .268 with 10 home runs and 55 RBIs for Washington, it was the defense he played throughout his career that caught everyone’s attention.

In 2003 and 2004, he led all major-league catchers in caught stealing percentage (46.7 and 47.8 respectively). Then in 2005, he was third in that category at 38.7 percent. He finished his career with a .994 fielding percentage, 16th best all-time for catchers.

Pitchers have praised Schneider time and time again. For much of the 2011 and 2012 seasons, Schneider was Vance Worley’s and Kyle Kendrick’s personal catcher, and Kendrick admitted it will be an adjustment not having him back behind the plate in ’13.

“Brian was around a long time, called a lot of games. I trusted him,” Kendrick said. “I rarely shook him. He definitely has helped me with the way he’s worked with me. I enjoyed throwing with him and will miss him for sure.”

Schneider doesn’t have the career numbers to be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame. And having been a Phillie for only three years means he won’t go into the Phillies Wall of Fame, either. But former teammates praised him not only as a player, but as a person and teammate.

“If he went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts but caught Cole’s three-hit shutout, he’d be all smiles after the game because he helped Cole win a game and throw a shutout and he wouldn’t care about his strikeouts,” former teammate Mike Sweeney said. “That’s what makes him a great teammate. He puts the team first. It’s all about winning. Nothing is about himself.”

Schneider lives in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., with his wife, Jordan, and their four children.