Another Recycled Column

Shank takes a look at his 'favorite' Red Sox player, David Ortiz, and notices his low levels of production in 2015.

BALTIMORE — It’s almost always like this at the end. Not many baseball players retire at the top of their game. Sandy Koufax walked away at the age of 30 after winning 27 games in 1966, but he’s in a small club. More typically, there’s a gradual diminishment of skills, some reduction of regular appearances, and finally a moment when a guy gets politely nudged into retirement or released.

And so again we wonder if we are seeing the final days of David Ortiz.

Ortiz turns 40 in November. He is hitting .219 with 6 homers and 21 RBIs on June 9. He is batting .114 against lefthanders and has gone 17 games (66 at-bats) without hitting a home run, hitting .169 over those 17 games.

Shank's been writing the 'is it over for Big Papi?' column for at least three years now; eventually he'll be right.