David Ortiz, the Boston Red Sox slugger who put up some of the best numbers since the prime of his career last season at the age of 39, will retire after the 2016 season, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reports.
Big Papi, who turns 40 on Wednesday, has a contract guaranteed for the season, so his return was essentially a given — but retirement hasn’t been far from his thoughts. In September, he spoke about the approaching end of his career with WEEI’s Rob Bradford.
“At some point it’s going to happen. When? I don’t know. But that’s everybody in general,” he said (via NESN). “As you get older, your body breaks down easier than when you were younger. I’m fortunate because I’m almost 40 and I’m doing things normally. You get to this stage, you have to go day by day. You can’t promise people anything three years from now.
“I’m old enough to understand things. But during the struggles, it takes a lot out of you. Life continues. Mentally, I love this game so being responsible is a good thing, but it’s a bad thing, too. I would tell this to people and they would be like, ‘What?’ They have no idea. When I struggle, I can’t sleep. Everything is not enjoyable because of that. When I say that to people they say, ‘You have a wonderful career. You’ve been playing this game forever.’ Yeah, but I play the game day by day. I don’t play the game based on what I did already. I play the game based on what I want to do.”
Ortiz hit 35 home runs last season for the sixth time in his major league career and topped 100 RBI for the ninth time.
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