The Twins release 1B David Ortiz

On December 16, 2002 — The Twins release 1B David Ortiz. The unheralded player will soon be picked up by the Red Sox, for whom he will develop as one of the most accomplished sluggers in the game and be inducted into the Hall of fame in 2022.

“This is not exactly an easy thing to do,” Twins General Manager Terry Ryan said on the last day of baseball’s winter meetings. “I like David personally. I liked some of the things he does with the bat. And everyone likes him.” Ortiz, however, is a subpar defensive first baseman, which virtually limited him to the DH role. His clubhouse presence and humor made him popular with teammates, but the Twins needed to improve their DH production and .252 team average against lefthanded pitchers. Matthew LeCroy and Michael Cuddyer — both righthanded power hitters — and switch hitter Bobby Kielty are likely to get most of the playing time at DH. “He’s one of our favorites in the clubhouse,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said of Ortiz, “but we are trying to move forward here. We’ve been talking about facing lefty pitching, and this works out for our organization a little better.” In an interview earlier this month, Ortiz said he had been told by scouts from other teams he could be in a different uniform next season. “I know at the end of the season that they decided they wanted to give a chance to LeCroy,” said Ortiz, currently playing first base for Escogido of the Dominican winter league. “… If I end up with a team where I can play first base, that would be even better. Because all of my injuries, they started coming to me when I started DH-ing. I never got hurt when I played in the field every day.” The Twins shopped Ortiz in the second half of last season and resumed their efforts following the general managers’ meetings last month. Ryan said he got close to dealing Ortiz on a couple of occasions, but those scenarios did not pan out. Ortiz is arbitration-eligible for the first time, and the evolving financial structure in baseball also came into play. Teams have until Friday to offer contracts to their unsigned players. Ortiz made $950,000 last season and was expected to get close to $2 million next season through arbitration. That’s a little rich for a club whose payroll already is headed over $50 million. “There were some people who had some interest in David,” Ryan said. “And people were also waiting to see if we were not going to tender [a contract to] him.” Instead of non-tendering him, the club decided to drop Ortiz and pick up a middle infielder in the Rule V draft. “We ended up trading Ortiz for Morban,” Ryan said.

@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF90YWdzIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiTGVhcm4gTW9yZSBhYm91dCB0aGUgdGVhbXMsIHBsYXllcnMsIGJhbGwgcGFya3MgYW5kIGV2ZW50cyB0aGF0IGhhcHBlbmVkIG9uIHRoaXMgZGF0ZSBpbiBoaXN0b3J5IC0gLSAtIC0gLSAtIC0gIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIiLCJsaW5rX3RvX3Rlcm1fcGFnZSI6Im9uIiwic2VwYXJhdG9yIjoiIHwgIiwiY2F0ZWdvcnlfdHlwZSI6InBvc3RfdGFnIn19@

Play by Play, Box Scores, News Paper Reports and other links

Other Resources & Links