When David Ortiz takes the stage to simply accept his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Sunday afternoon, there can be nothing left for him to perform.
This is his last feat.
He arrived in Boston in 2003 as a comparatively obscure first baseman who was launched from the Minnesota Twins. He lastly exited after a historic season in 2016, when he set nearly each MLB report for a 40-year-old hitter and ended his last season main the large leagues in OPS (1.021).
He was a 10-time All-Star, a Home Run Derby champion, an American League Championship Series MVP, a World Series MVP, a three-time World Series winner who helped break an 86-year drought, a seven-time Silver Slugger Award recipient, an eight-time winner of the Edgar Martinez Award offered to the perfect designated hitter, a seven-time finisher within the top-10 of A.L. MVP voting and retired as one among solely 4 gamers with at the very least 500 residence runs and 600 doubles (Hank Aaron, Albert Pujols and Barry Bonds are the others) whereas rating seventeenth in MLB historical past with 541 residence runs and twelfth with 632 doubles.
If you head over to Fenway Park, you simply would possibly drive over the David Ortiz Bridge or take a flip onto David Ortiz Drive. You can discover David Ortiz Way and the David Ortiz statue in Fort Myers.
His No. 34 is retired on the right-field facade at Fenway Park and now his face can be perpetually enshrined in Cooperstown as one of many best baseball gamers in historical past.
The Red Sox discovered a hidden gem in 2003 they usually held onto him for the following 14 years, paying him no matter it took to maintain him in Boston after which paying him once more in retirement to stay indefinitely as a entrance workplace advisor.
As lengthy as Ortiz is alive, it’s a certain guess that he’ll be related to the Red Sox in some capability.
There won’t ever be anyone like him to put on the uniform. And an extended wait till the following participant enters Cooperstown with a Red Sox cap.
Mookie Betts had an opportunity. An undersized second baseman who was an afterthought as a fifth-round decide in 2011, Betts sky-rocketed up the minor league ranks and captured an MVP award and World Series trophy earlier than turning 26. He needed to be paid for it and the Sox stated no, then shipped him off to Los Angeles for 3 gamers who’ve hardly made an affect in Boston.
Xander Bogaerts might’ve been the man. A scrawny teenager from Aruba, Bogaerts was a goalie on the soccer subject and a shortstop on the diamond. The Sox signed him as a 16-year-old for $400,000, watched him win a World Series title as a 20-year-old in 2013 and add one other in ‘18. He’s been the top-ranked offensive shortstop since then, however the Sox failed to increase him and Bogaerts is sort of sure to check free company this offseason.
Then there’s Rafael Devers, the baby-faced child from the Dominican Republic who earned a $1.5 million signing bonus whereas the world awaited his sure-fire assent to the highest of the baseball universe. It didn’t take lengthy, as Devers gained a World Series as a 21-year-old in ‘18 and presently ranks because the No. 9 hitter in baseball by OPS because the begin of 2019.
Will the Red Sox ever once more have a long-term face of the franchise like Ortiz? Someone who Sox possession ensures will end his profession in Boston and waltz into Cooperstown sporting a “B” on his cap?
The extra we watch for it, the additional away it appears.
Ortiz needed to be right here, certain, however the Sox paid him like they needed him right here, persistently elevating the bar for what designated hitters have been price (even it required a couple of public spats within the media to get the offers executed).
They signed Ortiz to a number of extensions, together with a four-year, $52-million extension in 2006, when then-general supervisor Theo Epstein informed reporters it was an “easy decision for us.”
Then in 2012, they averted arbitration by giving him a $13-million annual wage that made him the highest-paid DH of all time.
And in 2014, they signed him to a three-year extension, regardless of critics who thought it was a big gamble to commit greater than $15 million per season to a participant who can be 41 earlier than the contract expired.
Then-president Larry Lucchino informed reporters, “We want him to be a guy who… stayed with us for the rest of his career.”
How bizarre it might’ve been had the Red Sox sooner or later determined they’d be higher off letting Ortiz check free company and changing him with a youthful, cheaper different.
Today’s Red Sox are trending in that course.
They’ve solely retained gamers who would take sizable reductions in comparison with what they’d get in free company. The Sox stopped paying their very own guys at a charge according to top-tier gamers at comparable positions.
Of course, there’ll by no means be one other participant fairly like Ortiz. There gained’t be one other persona fairly like his.
And until one thing drastically modifications with the Red Sox’ outlook within the subsequent 18 months, they might be saying goodbye to extra worthy replacements who might’ve been the following Hall of Famers to spend nearly all of their careers in Boston, too.
Savor the second on Sunday. It’ll be a special occasion in Cooperstown. There gained’t be one other one prefer it.
Source: www.bostonherald.com