Ortiz is back: Why I love Big Papi

David Ortiz can’t run, he rarely plays the field and I can’t remember that last time I saw him turn a 3-6-3 double play. And yet I find him one of the most exciting, fascinating players in baseball.

First off, there’s the build, Babe Ruth reincarnated, with the slightly bulging midsection (although he appears to have slimmed down some this year) atop the skinny legs. There’s the swing, which isn’t a fluid stroke of beauty like a Ken Griffey Jr., but is instead an approach that just seems mean, with his elbows hanging over the plate, the slight waggle of the bat, and a vicious, almost one-handed uppercut, the left hand often flying off the bat with all of his 230 pounds (or so) attacking the baseball with brute force. There’s the nickname, which just fits. There’s the sort of mythology that surrounds him, Reggie-like, cultivated during his heroics during the 2004 playoffs. There’s the joy and energy mixed with a little cockiness and sometimes — as we’ve seen this week — a little surliness.

There are few players I enjoy watching hit like Big Papi. Which is one reason this season has been so much fun: Ortiz is raking again like he did during his 2003-2007 heyday, when he averaged 42 home runs and 128 RBIs per season while hitting .302. He went 0-for-4 on Friday, but is still hitting a robust .320/.391/.601 with 15 home runs.

The big reason for his turnaround? He’s putting the ball in play. He’s on pace for just 67 strikeouts, where last year he struck out 145 times. As manager Terry Francona has said, Ortiz has rediscovered the strike zone. I don’t know if that’s exactly what’s going on. Ortiz’s swing breakdowns — percentage of pitches swung at, percentage of pitches swung at outside the strike zone and so on — are actually in line with his recent career rates. Basically, one thing is different: Papi is simply not swinging and missing so much. Maybe he’s actually cut down on the swing. Maybe he’s become a little less mean … and more productive as a result.

Of course, the cynics out there will joke about other reasons.

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The Minnesota Twins nearly ruined David Ortiz, almost wrecking our chance to enjoy everything that was to come. In 1996, playing in the Midwest League for Seattle under the name David Arias, Ortiz hit .322 with 18 home runs, outstanding numbers for a 20-year-old. Looking for pennant-race help, the Mariners traded him to the Twins for Dave Hollins. A year later, Ortiz had changed his name and was in the major leagues.

Installed as the team’s first baseman in 1998, Ortiz was hitting .306 with four home runs on May 9, when a wrist injury sidelined him until July. His power sapped a bit by the injury, he finished the year at .277/.371/.446, decent numbers for a 22-year-old.

Under Tom Kelly and then Ron Gardenhire, the Twins came to prefer good defenders who put the ball in play. In 1999, apparently unhappy with his defense and approach at the plate, the Twins let Ortiz rot all year in Triple-A. Keep in mind that the Twins were terrible at this time. In retrospect, it was amazing that an organization buried a 23-year-old hitter who clearly had shown the ability to be a big-time hitter. Even though Ortiz had produced the team’s third-best OPS in 1998, they futzed around with Doug Mientkiewicz and Ron Coomer at first base and Marty Cordova at DH. Mientkiewicz hit .229 — but Kelly loved his glove. They lost 97 games. Meanwhile, Ortiz hit .315 with 30 home runs at Salt Lake, slugging .590.

In 2000, Ortiz was again given a chance to play, albeit platooning at DH with Butch Huskey. Butch Huskey. Coomer played first base. Ortiz hit .282 with 10 home runs, 36 doubles and 57 walks, producing a line of .282/.364/.446. Not great, but it was the third-best OPS on a team that lost 93 games. At the time, the Twins were in a drought in which they went from 1988 until Justin Morneau in 2006 without anybody hitting 30 home runs.

In a 2006 article by Joe Christensen in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Ortiz talked about his trials with the Twins:

“You take a hard swing, and the manager [Kelly] was screaming at you from the dugout, ‘Hey! Hey!’ Then you finish the season with 10 homers. They ask you what happened — why you don’t hit for power? Well, ‘You were screaming at me when I was swinging out of my ass.’ So that’s what I do now, swing out of my ass.”

Ortiz often repeats the story of his first at-bat with the Red Sox.

“I had a man on second, nobody out, and I came with the Punch and Judy … trying to move the runner over. Actually I did it, and when I got back to the dugout, the manager [Grady Little] told me, ‘Hey, big boy: You’re not here to move runners over. You’re here to bring them in.’”

In 2001, Ortiz suffered another wrist injury and hit just .234, although with 18 home runs in 303 at-bats. In ’02, he hit .272/.339/.500, with 20 home runs in 412 at-bats. Not wanting to go to arbitration, The Twins released him. A guy with a .500 slugging percentage had trouble finding a job. The Red Sox signed him to a one-year deal for $1.25 million.

As Ortiz blossomed in Fenway and then his name later surfaced in a 2009 New York Times report that alleged him of testing positive for PEDs during the 2003 survey testing (Ortiz did not appear in the Mitchell report), many attributed his monster seasons to PEDs, and not to a hitter who had been unleashed and developed more patience at the plate, allowing him to wait on pitches to drive.

True, his career high in home runs with the Twins had been 20. But those were in partial seasons. His 18-homer season translates to 34 over 575 at-bats. His 20-homer season to 28, with 45 doubles. He had plenty of power. And then he became a better hitter as well.

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American League pitchers don’t fear Ortiz like they once did. He received his first intentional walk of the season on Friday night. In 2006, he was intentionally walked 23 times. He’s 35 years old. He had such a bad start in 2009 — when he was hitting .189 with one home run on June 5 — many were calling for his release. Red Sox fans who had hugged and cried after his game-winning hits in the 2004 ALCS, who bought his jerseys and named babies after him, were suddenly booing him. On June 6, he hit a home run in Texas off Kris Benson. That got him going and he’d finish with 28 home runs. He had a good 2010, hitting 32 home runs, making the All-Star team, raising his average from .238 to .270. The Red Sox picked up his player option for 2011. Some thought it was a mistake.

And now he’s a force again. He’s looking like the mythical Big Papi.

And pitchers … they should be afraid.