David Ortiz Agrees to New Deal and Fires Back at Bobby Valentine

By Marc Jenkins
David Ortiz Agrees to New Deal, Fires Back at Bobby V
Bob DeChiara-US Presswire

On Monday afternoon the Boston Red Sox officially announced that they had come to terms with their long-standing designated hitter David Ortiz on a two-year, $25 million deal with incentives that could make the total value of the contract around $30 million.

Ortiz has been with Boston for 10 seasons now, has been the face of the franchise for nearly the entire duration and Red Sox won’t have to get used to not seeing that face at games or in their home team’s uniform. One face that they won’t miss in or around Boston is that of Bobby Valentine, who was fired immediately following the worst Red Sox season in quite some time and replaced by the Toronto Blue Jays former manager John Farrell.

Valentine’s name is mentioned in this piece because Ortiz finally had a comeback to Valentine’s comments regarding the eight-time All-Star. Valentine said he believed that Ortiz and several other players in the Red Sox clubhouse shut it down during the final stretch of the season and that was the reason why the club finished with such a poor record.

When asked about his former skipper’s remarks Ortiz said that he ignored a message from Valentine because he thought that he was dealing with “some mental issues”.

Ortiz also fired back with a series of comments including, “No. 1, never bite the hand that feeds you, because in the end that will come back to bite you,” Ortiz said. “I was one of those players that always showed support for him. In fact, I held a couple of player meetings.

“No. 2, the day that I returned from the DL, I told him that I was not sure what percentage health-wise I was in, but that I could not be out there without trying to help. When I told him that, I put my career on the side to help him and the team. Being in an incredible amount of pain, I went out there to support them.

“No. 3, after he went on national TV to say what he said, he sent me a text message trying to tell me that it was the media trying to change things. I did not respond to the message and I said to myself, this guy must have some mental issues or needs medicine or something? I said, I am dealing with someone crazy and I am not going to drive myself crazy, so it is better if I leave it alone.”

The soon to be 37-year old designated hitter has career numbers of .285 with 401 home runs and 1,326 runs batted-in and with a few more quality seasons and lack of injury could find himself in Cooperstown following his retirement from the game of baseball.

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