Welcome to BP Boston’s new Roster Recap series! Over the next four months, we’ll be breaking down every player on Boston’s 40-man roster and many of their top prospects in order to provide a comprehensive overview of the Red Sox roster’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as what we can expect moving forward. There’s no better time than the offseason to review the best (there was some best!) and worst (there was a lot of worst!) of the past year in red and navy. You can see previous editions of Roster Recap here.
When you think about the Red Sox offense right now, it’s likely that your mind turns to the youth on the team. There’s good reason for this, as Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Blake Swihart, et al. are incredibly exciting and poised to be the faces of the franchise for years to come. However, the offense still goes through the oldest batter on the team, David Ortiz. Unlike Betts, who Bryan Grosnick wrote about on Tuesday, Ortiz is at the end of his career, and provides the pop in the lineup rather than the table-setting. Despite his age, he’s coming off yet another great season in one of the best careers in franchise history.
What Went Right in 2015
In short, just about everything went right for Ortiz last season. It was a vintage campaign for the potential future Hall of Famer. He came to the plate 614 times and hit an impressive .273/.360/.553, good for a .304 TAv, the 27th best mark of any player with at least 400 plate appearances. His power stroke especially stood out, as his 37 home runs were the 12th most in baseball. It was the ninth time he hit at least 35 dingers in his career.
On top of hitting like it was 2007 again, Ortiz was able to stay healthy for the entire season. While that doesn’t sound all that impressive for a DH who only participates for a couple minutes per game, we’re talking about a 39 year old whose stature is…on the larger side. Every season in which the Red Sox get at least 140 games out of him is a huge plus at this point.
Finally, Ortiz somehow continued to improve his approach at the plate, as his peripherals stayed the same and his plate discipline numbers improved. He walked in 12.5 percent of his plate appearances while he struck out just 15.5 percent of the time, tying for the 11th best K/BB ratio of all qualified batters. It’s an incredibly rare profile, as Ortiz was one of just six players with a double-digit walk rate, a strikeout rate below 20 percent and an ISO of at least .200. He’s able to accomplish this by showing off impeccable plate discipline, rarely chasing pitches out of the zone and making even less contact on these pitches.
Then, there was also this.
What Went Wrong in 2015
Not a whole lot went wrong for Ortiz this year, beyond the fact that he was forced to play first base because the National League refuses to join us in this millennium. The biggest complaint one could possibly have about his season is that his presumably magic ability to perform like this didn’t rub off on Hanley Ramirez and/or Pablo Sandoval. There’s also the fact that he didn’t steal 50 bases, but I think we can let that slide.
In seriousness, there’s very little to be upset about regarding Ortiz’s 2015, and anything negative would be nitpicking. With that being said, I’m about to nitpick for a little bit. For one thing, Ortiz got off to a relatively slow start. He hit just .231/.326/.435 in the first half compared to his .325/.401/.701 line in the second half. It all adds up to a phenomenal season, of course, but the Red Sox certainly could have used a stronger performance from him in the first half. If you flip those half-season splits, there’s a chance Boston could have stayed in contention during their rough first few months of the season.
Ortiz should be a dominant force in the middle of the Red Sox offense yet again in 2016. Just make sure you enjoy it because you never know if you’ll be able to watch it again.
On top of that, Ortiz struggled against lefties, at least relative to his career. His .703 OPS against southpaws isn’t terrible for a lefty-on-lefty matchup, but Ortiz generally doesn’t show splits this extreme, and if the trend continues he could turn into more of a platoon player as his career comes to an end. Of course, it’s worth noting that the flip side of this is the fact that he posted an OPS of 1.102 against righties, and there are many more of those than there are lefties.
Outlook for 2016
Looking forward to next season, there is very little reason to expect anything but the same from Ortiz. He’s been putting up these kind of numbers for the better part of the last decade, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. He still crushes fastballs, he’s not swinging through pitches and he’s staying on the field. The only difference between 2016 and any other season may be the fact that it could be his last. Ortiz will be entering his age-40 season, and there have been rumors of his retirement for what seems like years. He hasn’t said anything to this effect, but the risk is always there. Ortiz should be a dominant force in the middle of the Red Sox offense yet again in 2016. Just make sure you enjoy it because you never know if you’ll be able to watch it again.
Photo by Winslow Towson/USA Today Sports Images