BOSTONDavid Ortiz said over the weekend he was planning to meet with team doctors on Tuesday, hoping to get out of the boot that hes work to protect his right Achilles tendon that has kept him out of all but one game since July 16. As of Tuesday afternoon, he had not yet met with the doctors, but was not wearing the boot in the Red Sox clubhouse.
I will see the doctor later today and were going to decide where were going to be at, he said. Im supposed to come out of my boot today and see what the next step is going to be like. But yeah, it's been a while since I played, and definitely its not something Im used to and you would like to be part of. But it is what it is.
Like I said before, I came back, I wasnt ready, I went back on the DL. So right now what were thinking about is whats the point, if Im not ready to go, to force it?
He knows hes not ready to get back in the lineup right now.
Like I said, if you are ready to play, you got to play. If you aint, you aint. Im not, he said. And thats why probably I wont be able to go back and play this year. But if Im ready, I go for it. Its not on me. Its not like I want to or I dont want to. Im here. They pay me to play, to put up a show. So if Im good to go, Im good to go.
This hasnt been the year he had been hoping for, personally, or for the Sox.
Down year. A down year, he said. Every time youre not up there in the standings and at least go to the playoffs, its a down year. Not when you got to the playoffs, andyou dont win the world series, then you can sit down and analyze, 'OK I got to fix this and fix that and that will take me to where I want to be.' But youre not even making it to the playoffs, theres a lot of things that you got to figure out.
Boston Red Sox
And even though the Red Sox are in last place in the American League East and the Yankees are in first, there is still meaning to these games.
Well, I think still these are games that people love to watch, he said. And even us not being able to look like were going to the playoffs, its just the kind of games that guys always want to try to do something.
But, playing the spoiler is an unfamiliar role for the Sox.
Yeah it is, Ortiz said. But like I always say, it is what it is.