With MLB teams expected to make their contract offers to free agent slugger Juan Soto starting this week, the Boston Red Sox remain in hot pursuit of the 26-year-old. But outside of the front office, no one may be more enthusiastic about the possibility of Boston acquiring the superstar than one retired Red Sox legend â a player who won three World Series rings with the BoSox.
David “Big Papi” Ortiz played his last game for the Red Sox on October 2, 2016, after 14 years with the club. Ortiz spent the first six years of his Major League career with the Minnesota Twins. But the Twins released him after the 2002 season, allowing him to then sign elsewhere. The Red Sox inked the then-obscure Ortiz to a free agent deal.
Soto Named Ortiz as One of his Favorite Players
Ortiz made an immediate impact, hitting 31 home runs and driving in 101 in the 2003 season, helping the Red Sox get to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, their deepest playoff run since they lost the 1986 World Series in seven games to the New York Mets.
Then in, in 2004, Ortiz blasted 41 home runs plus five more in the postseason as he led the Red Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years. His performance in that playoff run â which featured the Red Sox coming back from an 0-3 deficit to defeat the New York Yankees in the ALCS â made Ortiz, who adopted the nickname “Big Papi,” an instant Boston sports hero.
Now Ortiz, a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, is going public with his attempts to persuade Soto to sign with the Red Sox. Soto is also a Santo Domingo native â though he is 23 years younger than Ortiz. Soto has publicly said that Red Sox were his favorite MLB team when he was growing up in the Dominican Republic, due to to their numerous Dominican superstars. He named Ortiz specifically.
“Big Papi” Offers to Act as Coach to Soto on Red Sox
On the Red Sox podcast Baseball Isn’t Boring over the weekend, Ortiz was asked by host Rob Bradford to give his sales pitch, designed to persuade Soto to sign with Boston. In his answer, Ortiz offered to personally “coach” the young star.
âHe signs with this organization, which is an amazing organization â he can balance the clubhouse in a way that I did. Heâs gonna have Coach Papi in his corner,â Ortiz said on the podcast. “Youâre about to join a team that has a great history.”
âYouâre about to play for a team that a couple of your Dominican fellas made history on â some of the Dominican players he admired when he was a kid. It was Pedro (Martinez), Manny (Ramirez), myself and some others,” Ortiz said. “At the end of the day, he knows Iâm gonna be right there for anything or whatever needs to be done for him, his family. Iâm very close to his family. We had a really good relationship.”
With the MLB Winter Meetings set to get underway on Dec. 8, baseball insiders expect Soto’s decision on whether he will commit the next 10 or more seasons of his career to the Red Sox or to another club to become public within a few weeks.
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