Ortiz says he’ll be ‘more involved’ with Devers
Sox legend plans to work closely with his slugging successor
David Ortiz arrived at Red Sox spring training on Friday and told reporters, including MLB’s Ian Browne, that he plans to be more involved with Rafael Devers going forward.
“I’m planning to get a little bit more involved with him, based on my experience, based on him being a Dominican fella,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz retired after the 2016 season, right before Devers made his midseason debut the following summer, but the Hall of Fame slugger used to watch a teenage Devers work at the Red Sox’ Dominican Academy, and has been singing his praises for many years.
The bridge between the two was Xander Bogaerts, who debuted as a 20-yearold in August 2013, and was one of several young stars Ortiz mentored.
In turn, Bogaerts became a big brother-like mentor and close friend to Devers, who debuted at the same age, and was also immediately thrust into a postseason run, albeit a much shorter one than in Bogaerts’ rookie year.
With Bogaerts on the Padres now and Devers signed to the longest, richest contract in franchise history, eyes are on the third baseman to lead.
But for a variety of reasons, he’s expressed hesitance about taking up the mantle.
Talk of leading the team makes him feel old, Devers explained at Winter Weekend, adding that he needs to show respect to more veteran players, as is customary. At 26 years old, he is on the younger end of a roster full of guys in the mid-tolate 30s. At the same time, being “Carita” (his nickname, which means Baby Face) only goes so far when he’s entering his seventh year in the majors.
Devers is keenly aware of the unique position he’s in now that he’s signed the extension, but says the money won’t change him. When spring training began, he said he still hasn’t really splurged on anything yet, leading Cora to joke that the young superstar is still cheap.
The contract changes things, though. Whether he spends his windfall or not, he’s the biggest investment the Red Sox have ever made, and you can bet there are strings attached. Ortiz understands
that, despite his biggest contract being the four-year, $52 million extension he signed in April 2006.
“You start adding things to his and sometimes players don’t feel comfortable dealing with it. In this case, it’s gotta be different because he’s the face of the organization, the face of the franchise,” Ortiz told Browne. “So at some point you need to start learning how to get there. And that’s why the organization is just making sure that happens.”
Bogaerts was the unofficial captain of the team, and though he could be vocal at times, he mostly led by example. Evoking his mentor at Winter Weekend, Devers said he, too, prefers to lead by example.
Ortiz, the team’s undisputed leader in later years and now a “special assistant,” is famously vocal. From his “This is our city” speech in April 2013, to the impassioned dugout address that rallied his teammates during that fall’s World Series, which former bench coach Torey Lovullo described as “yelling and screaming,” he’s not afraid to get loud and say how he feels.
The results, a trio of World Series trophies, not to mention his countless personal achievements, speak for themselves.
But when Ortiz joined the NESN booth during Saturday’s game and explained why the Red Sox have asked him to “get a little bit more involved” with Devers, he
made it clear that he’s not trying to turn the slugger into his clone.
“The one thing that people need to know about Raffy, he is shy! You know, he’s like a big kid,” Ortiz said. “He don’t have the personality that I have, and I’m never gonna ask him to have it. It is not fair to ask anyone to be exactly the same way.”
“He is the face of this franchise right now,” Ortiz said. “We are going to try to build this franchise around him.”
In January 2018, Ortiz came to Winter Weekend and announced that he saw something of himself in the young slugger.
Who better to help Devers speak and slug his way to greatness?