End of the line: David Ortiz

On the eve of the start of a new season, some players won't be back for 2018, hanging up their DMBL cleats for good.
David Ortiz ended his illustrious 14-year DMBL career with a championship run in Hoboken, the fourth ring of his career and second in five years with the Cutters.

Ahead of the 2017 season, Big Papi announced that it would be his final season. Ortiz ended his career ranked among the greatest hitters in the DMBL's 27-year history, one of only 12 players with 400 home runs and in the top 20 of most batting categories:

• 483 home runs -- 6th, behind Manny Ramirez (498)
• 1,370 RBI -- 10th, behind Miguel Cabrera (1,468, still active)
• 1,990 hits -- 19th, behind Mike Piazza (2,025)
• 447 doubles -- 11th, behind Vlad Guerrero (460)
• 1,155 walks -- 8th, behind Bobby Abreu (1,158)
• 1,544 strikeouts -- 17th, behind Carlos Delgado (1,571)
• 2,156 games played -- 7th, behind Albert Pujols (2,208) and ahead of Ramirez (2,155)
• 1,243 runs scored -- 11th, behind Carlos Beltran (1,314, still active)

Ortiz had an inauspicious start to his DMBL career, bouncing around as a free-agent fill-in with a handful at-bats for Arkansas, Hoboken and Carolina over 2001 and 2002 and didn't get serious playing time until he was picked by Vancouver in the 11th round of the 2003 draft.

Ortiz spent 7 seasons in Vancouver, highlighted by the 2008 title run in which he claimed playoff MVP honors, and culminated a three-year stretch where he launched almost 150 homers. That regular season was probably the apex of his career, slugging 51 HRs, with 156 RBI and 56 doubles while batting .343/485/.714.

He was left unprotected by the Iron First after the 2009 season, at the age of 34, and New Jersey Buddah (now Hopatcong Floating Fish) took him as a reclamation project in the 9th round of the 2010 draft. He spent a moderately successful season in NJ, in limited action, just 112 at-bats but 7 HR. That offseason, the Buddah shipped Ortiz to Las Vegas in exchange for SP Dallas Braden and C Ryan Hanigan.

Working in the offseason as a pit boss, Ortiz rejuvenated his career in Las Vegas, putting up 29 HRs and 77 RBI in 2011. But he didn't spend a lot of time in Vegas either. The Rat Pack made a blockbuster trade with Hoboken that would shape the two franchises for the next several years. Ortiz was sent to Hoboken along with a 5th and 12th round pick in 2012 in exchange for SP Shelby Miller, SS Hanley Ramirez and a 5th round pick in 2013.

While Ortiz would help Hoboken make the playoffs in 2012 and win the DMBL title in 2013. The Cutters nearly repeated in 2014 but ran into a San Francisco team (which took over for Las Vegas) that was powered by a monster regular season by Hanley Ramirez, the Mitchell Award winner that year.

Ortiz didn't quite return to his Vancouver production but then again, those were astronomical, but he wasn't too far off. The Dominican slugged 37 HRs and 116 RBI in the 2013 title run for Hoboken and played 6 seasons for the Cutters, second only to his 7-year tenure with the Iron Fist. He very nearly won his second playoff MVP award this past season, if not for the dominance of Clayton Kershaw.

Of his 483 career home runs, Ortiz hit 239 in a Vancouver uniform (49.4 percent) and 208 for Hoboken (43 percent).

Ortiz leaves the game with four DMBL championships on his resume: 2008 with Vancouver, 2011 with Las Vegas, and 2013 and 2017 with Hoboken.