David Ortiz continues to hit, so the question continues to get asked.
The Boston Red Sox designated hitter announced last November he plans to retire after the 2016 season. But Ortiz is off to an incredible start in his final campaign, entering Friday ranked third in all of Major League Baseball with a 1.044 OPS.
His prowess at the plate has led to repeated inquiries: Is he really ready to call it quits? Ahead of Friday’s game against the Cleveland Indians, Ortiz again responded with a pretty clear-cut answer.
“Listen, the thing is that people need to understand, in my mind I’m 100 percent sure I’m going to retire,” Ortiz told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford. “There are so many reasons for me that I want to retire. That is what is my mind right now. I don’t want people to get the wrong idea.”
The 40-year-old appeared to leave the door open ever so slightly recently with some interesting comments. He told Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan he hopes a team doesn’t offer him a $25 million contract, then added, “Would you leave $25 million on the table?”
But Ortiz threw cold water on the notion he’d consider playing another year if such an offer was extended.
“That is not going on right now,” Ortiz told Bradford. “I’m not thinking about that right now.”
Ortiz’s insistence hasn’t stopped his teammates from trying to get him to stick around. After all, who wouldn’t want a guy who has a .312 batting average and leads the team with 10 home runs and 34 RBIs through 37 games to keep playing?
For now, though, it looks like Boston’s hopes of convincing Big Papi not to retire are little more than wishful thinking.
Thumbnail photo via Denny Medley/USA TODAY Sports Images
