David Ortiz Reveals What He Was A Little Concerned About In His Final

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Nov 18, 2025, 4:13 AM

david ortiz reveals what he was a little concerned about in his final

Looking at David Ortiz in his final Major League Baseball season, one would have assumed he could have played a few more seasons. He had a year most MLB players would kill for. Although he was 40, the Boston Red Sox DH led the league in doubles, RBIs, and slugging percentage. Recently, the Hall of Fame hopeful admitted he simply ran out of gas but also spoke about something else that concerned him had he pushed his career along another year. After Ortiz spent 20 years in the big leagues and retired in 2016, he finds himself on the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time. Big Papi spent the last 14 years of his illustrious career with the Red Sox, where he became a fan favorite.

He also turned into a superstar. Boston signed Ortiz when the Minnesota Twins released him after the 2002 season. That year, he had his best season with 20 home runs and 75 RBIs. In his first year in Boston, Ortiz began a string of five straight seasons with 100-plus RBIs when he drove in 101 runs and smacked 31 home runs. Ortiz went on to collect 483 home runs in a Red Sox uniform, giving him 541 for his career. In Boston, he won three World Series titles and was a 10-time All-star.

He was known for his clutch postseason performances with the Red Sox. Ortiz has a strong shot of becoming a first-ballot Hall of Famer. According to Ryan Thibodaux, who is keeping tabs on the public ballots, Ortiz has 83.6% of the votes with 150 ballots on file. In order to get in, a player must receive 75% of the votes. Over five months after the Boston Red Sox shockingly sent All-Star slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants, you can count Hall of Famer David Ortiz among those still unsure if the Red... Boston dealt Devers, the face of the franchise and one of the sport’s premier hitters, to the Giants in mid-June for pitchers Kyle Harrison and Jordan Hicks, as well as minor-league pitcher Jose Bello...

The Red Sox later traded Tibbs, the No. 13 pick in 2024, to the Los Angeles Dodgers for veteran pitcher Dustin May. The Devers trade came over two years after signing an 11-year, $331 million contract extension that would have kept him in Boston through 2033. However, Devers notably refused to move to DH or first base following Alex Bregman’s arrival last spring, though the nine-year vet eventually gave in and spent his final weeks in Boston as a full-time... “Unfortunately, things didn’t work for the organization to be on the right track,” Ortiz told the “ITM Podcast” last week. And unfortunately, sometimes you have to make those moves.

I don’t argue that with the owners. They are the boss. They are the ones who ask you how much you want on your contract. They agreed [on extending Devers]. “But remember, you are an employee,” Ortiz continued. “You’re not a boss.

There are not two bosses. There’s just one. John Henry.” The Rafael Devers trade was the most explosive moment of the Boston Red Sox's 2025 season, and it could take many more years to digest. Devers was meant to be the Red Sox's face of the franchise when he signed a 10-year, $313.5 million extension before the 2023 campaign. Just two and a half years later, he was playing for the San Francisco Giants against the Red Sox, clubbing a home run off former teammate Brayan Bello.

A lot of people took the Devers trade hard, but Red Sox legend David Ortiz stands out among that group. Ortiz was vocal in the wake of the trade about his displeasure with the circumstances that led to the trade, particularly with how Devers handled things. If you like our content, choose Sports Illustrated as a preferred source on Google. Now that the dust has settled at the end of th season, Ortiz is still bothered by the fact that Devers isn't a Red Sox, but he wants it to be known that it's... David Ortiz knew better than to think the good times would roll forever. The Boston Red Sox legend reflected on the final season of his Major League Baseball career in an interview MLB.com's Ian Browne published Sunday and revealed the "confusing" aspect of that unforgettable campaign.

As Ortiz in 2016 was positing perhaps the greatest retirement tour in MLB history, some wondered whether he'd reverse his already-made decision to retire after the season. "I think everybody wants to do that, but I don't think anyone retires after putting up a season like that. It felt confusing," Ortiz told Browne. "When you look at a guy who is about to retire, you don't think he would retire with numbers like that. But I was done, man. I ran out of gas."

By the time Ortiz's tank reached E, he had more doubles (48), home runs (38) and RBIs (127) than any other player in history in a final season. His feats helped the Red Sox win the American League East and reach the playoffs, where they fell to the Cleveland Indians in the AL Division Series. No one can argue that the Boston Red Sox clubhouse has not been the same since David "Big Papi" Ortiz retired in 2016. When Ortiz cleaned out his locker for the last time, he took a giant piece of the team's heart. A lot of the fun seemed to walk out the door with Ortiz. He had become the soul and personality of the team.

There has never been nor will there ever be another Big Papi. David Americo Ortiz Arias was born on November 18, 1975, in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. On June 11, 2008, Ortiz became a citizen of the United States at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston. Ortiz spent nearly 20 years playing Major League Baseball, most of it as a designated hitter or at first base for the Boston Red Sox. He played his final game on October 2, 2016.

This is an accepted version of this page David Américo Ortiz Arias (born November 18, 1975), nicknamed "Big Papi", is a Dominican-American former professional baseball designated hitter who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball from 1997 to 2016, primarily for the... After playing parts of six seasons with the Minnesota Twins, Ortiz moved to the Red Sox, where he played a leading role in ending the team's 86-year World Series championship drought in 2004, as... In his first five seasons with the club, he averaged 41 home runs and 128 runs batted in (RBIs), leading the American League (AL) twice in the latter category and setting the team's single-season... Used almost exclusively as a DH during his 14 seasons with the Red Sox, he was a ten-time All-Star and a seven-time Silver Slugger winner, and became regarded as one of the greatest designated... He posted ten seasons each with 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, and batted .300 or better seven times.

After a drop in his offensive numbers from 2008 to 2012, he enjoyed a strong resurgence in his last four seasons, and had one of his best years in his final campaign, leading the... Upon his retirement, Ortiz ranked sixth in AL history with 541 home runs, fifth in doubles (632) and ninth in RBIs (1,768). Regarded as one of the greatest clutch hitters of all time,[2] he had 11 career walk-off home runs during the regular season and two during the 2004 postseason, the first of which clinched the... In 2022, Ortiz was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. David Américo Ortiz Arias was born on November 18, 1975, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, as the oldest of four children of Enrique (Leo) Ortiz and Ángela Rosa Arias. As a boy, he followed the careers of standout pitcher Ramón Martinez and his younger brother Pedro, attending games whenever he could and building a friendship with Pedro that would only grow over the...

David Ortiz’s name is synonymous with the Boston Red Sox of the 2000s and 2010s, but his path to becoming the player he was in Boston was not an easy one. Growing up in a difficult environment, Ortiz spent years struggling to overcome injuries, lack of consistency, and personal turmoil throughout stints in the minor leagues only to be released by the Twins years into... He persevered and became an icon in Boston. David Ortiz eventually cemented his place as one of baseball’s best hitters with a knack for delivering the clutch hit needed to propel his team to greatness. Hall of Fame level clutch.@davidortiz | @baseballhall pic.twitter.com/7tUMAETczP David Ortiz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on November 18, 1975, to parents Enrique Ortiz and Angela Rosa Arias.

David Ortiz Reveals What He Was A Little Concerned About In His Final

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