Thank goodness David Ortiz didn’t remain a White Sox rival
The Chicago White Sox have had the misfortune of playing against some stellar players within the American League Centra Division. A lot of them spent a significant amount of time with those clubs as they tortured the White Sox. Luckily, one of them was not David Ortiz.
Big Papi started his career as a free agent signing made by the Seattle Mariners in 1992. Before ever playing a game with them, he was traded to the Minnesota Twins where he would begin his MLB career.
Ortiz spent the first six years of his now Hall of Fame career with Minnesota. Luckily for White Sox fans, the Twins released him after that sixth year which turned out to be a tremendous mistake.
By the following season, he was picked up by the Boston Red Sox where he would go on to become a legend. He helped them break their very long World Series curse and then was a key contributor for another two titles after that.
The White Sox were so lucky that David Ortiz was sent out of the division.
Ortiz also made 10 all-star games, won 7 Silver Sluggers, has a Home Run Derby championship, an ALCS MVP, and a World Series MVP. Thank goodness he did this stuff with the Boston Red Sox and not with the Minnesota Twins.
Releasing him is clearly one of the worst mistakes a team has made in the history of Major League Baseball. Not having him as a White Sox division rival, as mentioned before, was a blessing because he was awesome.
In his career against the White Sox (14 years with Boston, 6 with Minnesota), he was awesome. Besides the AL East rivals in New York, Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and Toronto, he didn’t play against anybody more than the Chicago White Sox which is incredibly interesting.
In those 136 games played, he slashed .294/.383/.533 for an OPS of .916. He crushed 28 home runs and had 94 RBIs as well. Like most teams that he played against, he certainly had a good time playing against the team from the south side of Chicago.
When Ortiz was elected into the Hall of Fame on Tuesday night, it was a great moment for Major League Baseball. The voters did not get it right because there are some ridiculous snubs but that is a story for another day.
For now, we are just happy that Big Papi didn’t have this type of career with the Minnesota Twins. The White Sox lost to them enough as it was so having Ortiz on another team was truly a blessing.