Ortiz OK With Red Sox Asking Hanley To Slim Down
BOSTON (CBS) -- In hopes of having him make the switch to first base, the Boston Red Sox have asked Hanley Ramirez to slim down a bit this offseason.
That's a request that might fluster some players, but one another Red Sox slugger completely understands. It wasn't long ago that David Ortiz dropped a few pounds in the offseason, and the 40-year-old says he's still playing because of it.
"When it comes down to losing weight, there is nothing wrong with that. I can tell you from my own experience," Ortiz said Thursday after paying a visit to patients at Mass General Children's Hospital. "When I started to take better care of myself, my career got longer. Hanley is still young and that's good advice, that's the only way I can explain it.
"They can see further than what we do as a player," Ortiz said of the Sox' brass. "Sometimes, as a player, we think they're asking for too much. But at the end of the day they know what they're asking for."
Ramirez was listed at 225 pounds heading into last season -- his first of a four-year, $88-million deal he signed with Boston -- but appeared to have packed on a few more pounds by the end of the campaign (reportedly around 250 pounds). New Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski recently said he'd like Ramirez to be around 230 pounds for the 2016 season.
Ramirez played in just 105 games for Boston last season, hitting .249 with a .291 OBP, 19 home runs and 59 RBIs.