David Ortiz is a Hall of Famer

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Chances are, you’ve already decided whether or not you think David Ortiz is a Hall of Famer. There are folks who believe Ortiz shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame because he was on a list where he tested positive for something. Many think that something is steroids, although there is not any concrete proof Ortiz took PEDs. There is the camp that thinks that designated hitters shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame because they don’t field. By that same logic, relief pitchers shouldn’t be enshrined in Cooperstown because they don’t start.

Even if you take out all of Ortiz’s postseason heroics, there’s still an incredibly strong case for Ortiz’s future enshrinement in Cooperstown. Plainly, Ortiz is among the greatest designated hitters ever. In his time primarily as a designated hitter, Ortiz has more fWAR than any DH ever. Edgar Martinez’s time as a DH from 1995-2004 registers in at second with 44.3 fWAR, although Ortiz has more 700 game jump on the Seattle Mariners legend.

As past Hall of Fame inductees have shown, significance in baseball history can play a major role in a player’s candidacy. Bill Mazeroski is primarily in the Hall of Fame because of one home run; Mazeroski’s peak WAR falls significantly short of that of an average Hall of Fame second baseman. So adding in Ortiz’s significant historical moments, you have a player who was an integral part of why the Red Sox broke the Curse of the Bambino in 2004 and a player who hit a game-tying grand slam that sent Torii Hunter flying over a wall and a policeman cheering in excitement, among many other memorable moments. The fact of the matter is that you can’t write a book about greatest players in this current era without a big section about Big Papi. That, in actuality, should be the ultimate measure of historical longevity, of greatness.