Peter Abraham On T&R: Idea Ortiz Didn't Want To Play Sunday 'Is Just Silly'
BOSTON (CBS) -- Conspiracy theories poured from Fenway Park on Sunday after David Ortiz was sent home by team doctors, unable to play in the finale of Boston's three-game series with the New York Yankees.
Many speculated that the Red Sox DH decided to take a sick day when manager John Farrell asked him to play first base, something Ortiz recently said he isn't a big fan of doing. The Boston Globe's Peter Abraham joined 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Tuesday to discuss the new "controversy" surrounding the team, saying the whole situation is laughable.
"It's one of those 'only in Boston' ridiculous things. When that comment he made about not wanting to play first was followed up by saying, 'because my boy Mike Napoli plays first,' David was basically trying to support a teammate who was struggling," said Abraham. "That's the kind of thing you would say; you don't want to come out and say you'll play a position someone else plays. If you cut off the quote, yeah, it looks like he doesn't want to play first base.
"There's no doubt about it, he doesn't want to play first base. He's 39-years-old," he added. "He has two bad Achilles tendons, a bad knee, and every time he plays first in a national league games it hurts him for a couple of games. The idea of him playing first base or not, whether he wants to, is unrealistic. He physically can't do it."
But that doesn't mean Ortiz would pull a Ferris Bueller to get out of in-field duties, especially against Boston's biggest rival. Abraham calls such accusations against the slugger silly.
"The idea he would come in on Sunday before a game against the Yankees, a team he loves to play against, and invent some illness so he wouldn't play is ridiculous. The two times Farrell benched him in the spring, he was ripped. The idea he doesn't want to play is just silly."
Abraham also touches on Monday night's Home Rune Derby, and what the Boston rotation could look like out of the All-Star break: