Shortly after the Boston Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants, David Ortiz let his feelings on the matter be known.
“No one is indispensable on a team. The only way to become indispensable is by doing things the right way, all the way around,” Ortiz said in an interview with Yancen Pujols. “You need to be available. I think that marked the end of the relationship between the Red Sox and Devers.
“You have to be smart. A player’s worst enemy is his ego. And guess what teams do with your ego? They buy it.”
Things had deteriorated rapidly between the Red Sox and Devers, and to some degree, Ortiz is correct. If you’re unavailable and unwilling to do what a team needs, what value are you to them?
But Big Papi didn’t stop there.
On Friday afternoon, Ortiz took a subtle and hypocritical shot at Devers on his Instagram story.
“The thing is that to have some like this in boston you have to just not be a hitter you have to be the full package a all the way around player,” Ortiz wrote. “go sox.”
Ortiz appeared in 2,408 career games (1,953 with Boston), and he batted DH in 2,029 of them. There’s no possible way that slipped his mind before taking this potshot at Devers.
Perhaps more importantly, Devers took issue with the request to be a designated hitter. He wanted to play the field, albeit on his terms and at his position of choice. There was a level of selfishness to it, but it’s not as if Boston was without blame.
Either way, this is not the hill Ortiz should choose to die on. He’s the last person who should criticize another player about having to be more than just a hitter.
