David Ortiz urging Red Sox to keep Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers

BOSTON -- David Ortiz is not part of the Red Sox front office. He'll be a Hall of Famer in a few weeks, but right now, he's just a fan.

And like a lot of Red Sox fans, he is begging the team to make sure Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers stay in Boston for the foreseeable future.

"As a fan, and that's who I am right now, I don't play the game anymore, but I know what to expect from those guys," Ortiz said Thursday on a Zoom call with reporters ahead of his July 24 induction into Cooperstown. "I know exactly what I'm going to get from the two of them. They are the best players that can represent the Red Sox better than anyone else as of right now. We need to lock them in."

Bogaerts can opt out of the final three years of his contract after this season, while Devers is under team control through next season. The Boston brass gave Bogaerts a low-ball offer ahead of the season, which did not sit well with the shortstop. They also offered Devers a long-term deal, but the two sides are far apart on the third baseman's salary -- as they are with Bogaerts.

Ortiz said Thursday that both players have shown the ability to not only play well in Boston, but thrive under the spotlight. That makes life easier for everyone else in the lineup and in the clubhouse.

"When you have a guy like [Devers] or Bogaerts in your lineup, that means you're going to take pressure away from everybody else," he said. "They know how to handle it. They know how it is to play in Boston. Trust me, playing in Boston is not for every type of player. I played there for so long, it's a distraction for a lot of players. They don't know how to handle it."

Ortiz has seen a handful of star free agents struggle in Boston after signing big-money deals with the Red Sox. (From Edgar Renteria to Carl Crawford to Pablo Sandoval, just to name a few.) So when the team has homegrown talent that has proven they can handle all that goes with playing in Boston, there's no excuse to let them get away.

"I played with a lot of superstars and they've been great somewhere else and when they got to Boston, they struggled because they couldn't put up with what is going on out there," said Ortiz. "These two guys, they grew up there. You know what to expect from them. You know what they're going to give you.

"That's why sometimes I don't understand why organizations sometimes walk away from that. They prefer to explore other options. I would go with what I know. I'd keep it simple," added Ortiz.

We'll see in the near future if the Boston front office feels the same way.