Red Sox: Who gets their number retired next?
Now that Wade Boggs is set to have his number retired at Fenway Park, which Boston Red Sox legend will be next to receive the honor?
Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
The Boston Red Sox rectified a long overdue tragedy by announcing this week that Wade Boggs will have his number retired at Fenway Park next May.
Boggs was inducted into Cooperstown a decade ago, but the Red Sox didn’t feel compelled to immediately honor him the way they did for recent inductees Jim Rice and Pedro Martinez. Why was that?
Perhaps it’s due to rules established by the previous ownership regime, which dictated that a player must have spent at least 10 years with the franchise, be a member of the baseball Hall of Fame and have finished their career as a member of the Red Sox. Under that criteria it would very difficult to find deserving candidates.
Luckily John Henry‘s ownership group has exploited some loopholes in those rules. Carlton Fisk didn’t finish his career in a Red Sox uniform, but the team hired him as a consultant after his playing days were over. Pedro also didn’t end his career here and his stint in Boston lasted only 8 years, but he’s currently working in the organization as a consultant.
Boggs is a different story. Not only did he not finish his career in Boston, but he left to join the rival New York Yankees, leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of many Red Sox fans. Since his playing days concluded after the 1999 season, Boggs has not worked with the Red Sox organization in any capacity, so there is no loophole to explain why the franchise is deviating from the asinine rules that have governed this process for years.
Retiring No. 26 paves the way for other Red Sox legends that don’t meet the typical criteria to have their numbers honored. With that in mind, let’s explore some options of who may be the next former Red Sox player to have their number retired after Boggs.
Next: Luis Tiant
Luis Tiant – No. 23
While he only spent eight years in Boston and didn’t finish his career here, Luis Tiant will mostly be remembered for his days in a Red Sox uniform.
Tiant won 122 games during his Red Sox career, fifth most in franchise history, while posting a 3.49 ERA. He finished in the top-6 in Cy Young voting three times during his time in Boston, including the 1972 season in which he led the league with a sparkling 1.91 ERA. Tiant somehow finished only 6th in the voting that year, despite finishing 8th in MVP voting.
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One of the more remarkable feats of Tiant’s career was his ability to carry a heavy workload. During one four year stretch with the Red Sox, Tiant threw at least 260 innings in each season, including one in ’74 in which he tossed an almost unfathomable 311.1 innings. His 1774.2 innings with the Red Sox are the fourth most in team history. Tiant threw 187 complete games in his career, 113 of which came during his time with the Red Sox.
The case for retiring Tiant’s number can be made primarily based on what he accomplished as part of the 1975 team that made it to the World Series. Tiant was 3-0 with a 2.64 ERA in the postseason that year, hurling a complete game in three of his four starts. The Red Sox may have ultimately fallen short to Cincinnati in the World Series, but not before Tiant stamped his legacy with his outstanding performance.
Next: Dwight Evans
Dwight Evans – No. 24
His career technically ended in Baltimore, but we can forgive “Dewey” Evans for that considering he spent the first 19 seasons of his 20 year career in Boston.
Evans was a steady contributor at the plate, producing a career slash line of .272/.370/.470. He once led the league with a .402 OBP in 1982, while finishing first in OPS twice (.937 in ’81, .920 in ’84). His power didn’t develop until his mid-20’s, by which point he became a consistent source of 20+ homers. He even led the league in ’81, despite hitting a mere 22 that seems fairly average by today’s standards.
As productive as Evans was with his bat, it was his glove that really made him shine. The 8-time Gold Glove award winner played right field as well as anyone ever has at Fenway Park. One of the more memorable examples of what Evans could do defensively will always be the time he robbed Joe Morgan of a home run in the 1975 World Series, then fired the ball back into the infield to double-up Ken Griffey.
Evans may seem a bit overshadowed after playing so many years sharing an outfield with more accomplished hitters like Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Rice, but that doesn’t diminish his own accomplishments.
The 2,505 games that Evans played in a Red Sox uniform are the second most in franchise history. When you spend that much time playing in Boston at the high level that Dewey did, you deserve to have your number hang in the outfield forever.
Next: Manny Ramirez
Manny Ramirez – No. 24
Well this could get interesting if the Red Sox ever do decide to retire Ramirez’s number, especially if Dewey’s has already been hung up. Why’s that? Well, both Evans and Ramirez wore the No. 24. Can they retire the same number twice? Or once for both players? Would it be a duel ceremony? See, it’s not easy figuring this stuff out.
First we need to figure out if Ramirez is worthy of having his number retired. He spent only seven and a half years in Boston and ended with a messy divorce when the Red Sox shipped him to the Los Angeles Dodgers following some very public disputes with teammates and team personnel. There are some that wouldn’t want to see Ramirez honored due his unacceptable actions when he was on his way out the door.
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But then we remember the good times, for which there were many. Just look at his resume! Ramirez made the All-Star team in all eight seasons that he spent in Boston, while earning six Silver Slugger awards and finishing in the top-10 in MVP voting five times. During his time with the Red Sox he slashed a line of .312/.411/.588, while smashing 274 of his 555 career home runs. If we count only what he produced while in Boston, he’s 6th in franchise history in home runs and 7th in RBI.
Ramirez was also part of two championships here in Boston and was the World Series MVP in 2004 when the Red Sox reversed the curse to capture their first title in 86 years.
The always aloof Ramirez may be remembered as much for his “Manny being Manny” moments as he is for his production, but there’s no doubting that his stay here was memorable. Ramirez is arguably the best right-handed hitter of his generation, which certainly gives him the credentials to have his number retired. The only question is if they Red Sox held a ceremony in his honor, would Manny remember to show up on the right day?
Next: Roger Clemens
Roger Clemens – No. 21
This one may be the most controversial selection on this list. The Rocket always had a prickly personality and didn’t win himself any more fans in Boston after he left the Red Sox. Factor in that his connection to the PED scandal has thus far kept him out of Cooperstown and you can see why the team would be hesitant to retire his number
They shouldn’t be. Clemens is tied for first in franchise history with 192 wins and produced a 76.8 WAR during his time in Boston, which leads the all-time Red Sox leaders for pitchers by a mile. He collected three Cy Young awards in Boston and won an MVP in 1986. He had seven straight seasons in which he pitched well over 200 innings, including five where he topped 250 innings.
Among his impressive accomplishments is a 20 strikeout performance in a dominant outing against the Seattle Mariners in 1986 to set a major league record. He would later tie his own record in 1996 against the Detroit Tigers. To this day Clemens is still the only pitcher to have done that twice.
The Texas native became one of the team’s most hated rivals when he joined the Yankees, but we can’t really fault him for that considering it was then-general manager Dan Duquette that let Clemens get away after the 1996 season, deeming him to be in the “twilight of his career.” Back-to-back Cy Young awards that Clemens won with the Toronto Blue Jays immediately after he moved on proved that assessment wrong, while he would have many more productive years in a career that spanned 24 seasons. While he accomplished a great deal after leaving Boston, that doesn’t erase what he did in the 13 years here with the Red Sox.
Clemens may not be everyone’s favorite person, but he is certainly the most productive pitcher this franchise has ever seen. The Red Sox buried the hatchet by inducting Clemens into the franchise Hall of Fame in 2014. The next step needs to be retiring No. 21.
Next: David Ortiz
David Ortiz – No. 34
With Ortiz set to retire after the 2016 season, the Red Sox must already be planning ahead for when they will retire his No. 34. Not to mention inducting him into the franchise Hall of Fame. He may even get a statue outside Fenway Park. That’s how much he has meant to this team.
Big Papi has a .288/.385/.566 slash line in his Red Sox career. In 2015 he became the latest member of the 500 home run club, 445 of which have come since he arrived in Boston. Only Ted Williams and Yaz have hit more homers in a Red Sox uniform.
Ortiz also has 17 career postseason home runs, which ranks 7th in league history. He also ranks 5th with 60 postseason RBI. He has been a part of three championship teams in Boston and was named MVP of the 2013 World Series. Throughout his epic career Ortiz has developed a well earned reputation for being one of the most clutch playoff hitters of this era.
The Hall of Fame seems to have a bias against players that primarily served as a designated hitter, with the exclusion of Edgar Martinez serving as the primary example of why Ortiz may struggle to get the call to Cooperstown. Martinez didn’t have Ortiz’s postseason accolades or championship rings, but Ortiz also has the dark cloud of PEDs hanging over him – despite that nobody knows what substance he allegedly took in 2003 to get his name included in the infamous Mitchell Report and he’s passed every drug test ever since. These are reasons why some voters may leave his name off their ballot when he becomes eligible, but they take nothing away from what Ortiz has meant to the Red Sox.
This merely provides another example of why the franchise needs to steer away from those old rules that stipulate criteria that players must meet in order to have their number retired by the team.
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Boggs being honored is a sign that this ownership group may be ready to make some exceptions to those rules, which gives these five legends a fighting chance.