David Ortiz Retiring After 2016 Season? [News & Rumors]

Boston Red Sox slugger David ‘Big Papi’ Ortiz will reportedly be calling it a career after the 2016 MLB season.

According to USA Today, Ortiz will announce this Wednesday his planned retirement which is ironically also his 40th birthday. Word about Ortiz’ planned retirement was first reported by Ken Rosenthal.

The former Hall of Famer will be a big loss to the Boston Red Sox’ cause in the history of the franchise, only a few have really played past their 40s.

To be precise, there are only 10 Red Sox players who played past that age with three of them playing as much as 100 games past 40. That list includes Carl Yastrzemski, Ted Williams and Bing Miller, all who play different positions.

Ortiz will be receiving a guaranteed salary of $11 million, something that was made official when he reached the 425 plate appearances that occurred last Aug. 9 against the Detroit Tigers.

To his credit, Ortiz has quite a decorated career. He is a nine-time All-Star and a six-time Silver Slugger awardee.

As far as his actual stats show, he has hit 503 home runs, 445 achieved in 13 seasons in Boston which are also the third most in franchise history. He is 27th on all-time home runs and is just one short of tying Hall of Famer Eddie Murray.

Last season, Ortiz had a .273 average, 108 RBIs and 37 home runs which are the most homers he has had since 2006.

With retirement seemingly imminent for Ortiz, could this motivate him to make one last push and snag a fourth and final championship ring to his list of crowning achievements?

Apparently that is the sights he has set before he hangs up his mitt for good. Such has been on his mind for some years now but with the 2016 season looming to be his last dance, there would be nothing more fitting than to win one more World Series before calling it a day.

Ortiz has been the heart and soul of the Red Sox and garnered the tag of being a (New York) Yankees’ killer back in 2004. He was the one that put an end to the alleged ‘Curse of the Bambino’ and was eventually christened the Babe Ruth version of the Red Sox.

Ortiz made his way into the majors back in 1997 joining the Minnesota Twins where he spent his first five years. After being released in 2002, the Boston Red Sox signed him as a free agent. He has since found a home and will seemingly end his career wearing the Red Sox uniform.