Sox HOFer outlines club's offseason priorities

Hall of Famer David Ortiz is spending this weekend hosting his annual golf tournament in Marco Island, Fla., where he continues to raise money for children who need open heart surgery.

But Big Papi -- ever the baseball fan -- is also keeping his eyes and ears on the Hot Stove season, particularly as it pertains to the Boston Red Sox, the team he played 14 seasons with.

Before the Red Sox go out and get any big new additions, Ortiz would like to see them secure two players in Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers who have been core pieces of the team for years.

Bogaerts, Ortiz’s former teammate, is a free agent. Devers, the left-handed masher who reminds Ortiz of himself, has one year left on his contract.

“Of course, the whole talk is about Bogey and Rafael, which I think those two guys are the base of this organization,” Ortiz said in a Zoom call with MLB.com on Friday. “You’re definitely going to want to build around them.”

During Ortiz’s playing days, he remembers how badly Jon Lester wanted to stay with the Red Sox. But negotiations stalled and Lester wound up getting traded to Oakland at the 2014 Trade Deadline and signed with the Cubs in 2016.

Not keeping Lester is something the Red Sox still regret. Ortiz hopes the team he still works for doesn’t suffer a similar fate with Bogaerts. He notes how this would be particularly painful coming off of a last-place finish.

“I think we are in a tough spot as an organization right now because having the year we just had, you definitely don’t want to let go of your franchise guy,” said Ortiz. “Plus, at the same time, you have some other organizations who need guys like Bogaerts. You’re definitely going to have to come through and line yourself up with what it costs.”

One of the reasons the Red Sox were able to go from last place in 2012 to first place and a World Series championship the next season is because they signed Ortiz to an extension that offseason.

Ortiz played on another last-place team in 2015, only to have the Sox rally for an American League East title in his final MLB season the following year.

Because he has seen it up close, Ortiz isn’t ruling out another dramatic turnaround in 2023.

“It’s funny how that works because the Red Sox, we are really good at it because you go from a tough year like this one and then all of a sudden you go to the playoffs the following season,” Ortiz said. “This organization knows really well how to get it done. We know what we need. We know where to go. I’m expecting that next year. I’m expecting the team to go to the playoffs next year and have a better season than what just happened this year because of the fanbase. The fanbase is strong. They deserve to have a better team.”

Aside from re-signing Bogaerts and extending Devers, Ortiz looks at pitching as the other key to how the 2023 season will play out in Boston.

“The pitching, for sure, we need some help,” said Ortiz. “I think, they need time because we have young guns who are trying to figure things out. Good arms. We definitely need to have a healthy Chris Sale coming in. He’s the leader of the pitching staff, as we know.

“If we can go out and get a couple of these bullpen guys or free-agent pitchers, good pitching is always good to hire because if you have good pitching, you’re definitely going to stop good offense, especially in that division.

“I think next year, our pitching is going to be better, more experienced. The guys are going to have a better idea. We called some guys up who have good arms. They were just trying to figure things out. Remember, [the AL East] is not an easy division. It might be the toughest division in baseball. We’ll see. I know that the front office is trying to get things done, especially with the Bogey and Rafael situation. That’s their priority right now. Let’s see.”