During Friday night’s Blue Jays-Red Sox game at Fenway Park, David Ortiz gave Red Sox Nation a surprise gift during the final April of his career – he stole a base in the seventh inning, his first since 2013.
I love how someone at MLB has a sense of humor and gave Oritz’s steal the Statcast treatment. Hilarious.
For his career, Ortiz has stolen 16 bases while being caught nine times, good for a 64% success rate. He also has more triples (18) than steals over his 20 years in the majors.
The only player in major league history with fewer stolen bases than Ortiz and more plate appearances is Paul Konerko, who stole nine bags and recorded 9,505 plate appearances in his career Ortiz. Ortiz will pass Konerko in plate appearances over the weekend, as he has 9,501. Nine active players have at least 4,000 career plate appearances and fewer than 15 stolen bases, including Ortiz’s current Red Sox teammate Pablo Sandoval. Sandoval has swiped 11 bags in his career while being caught 12 times.
Somehow, J.J. Hardy of the Orioles is also inept on the basepaths, despite being a middle infielder – he has just eight steals over his career, and has been caught eight times. Current Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski makes Ortiz’s 64% success rate look downright elite, however – he’s stolen 14 bases and been caught 23 times over his career, a pithy 37.8% success rate.
Ortiz didn’t steal any bases in 2012, 2014, or 2015, but somehow stole a career-high *four* (without being caught!) in 2013. He’s stolen more than one base in a season once, back in 2007 when Ortiz swiped three bags.
Coincidentally, the Red Sox won the World Series in both 2007 and 2013. So if Ortiz steals another bag this year…maybe he’ll be going out with another ring.
