Red Sox: David Ortiz blames Yankees for leaked 2003 PED test

Here’s something else that we know – Ortiz may fit the profile of a hulking slugger, but he’s always been a big dude. This isn’t someone who suddenly packed on a ton of muscle over a short period and his head didn’t inflate to twice the size. We have physical evidence that Barry Bonds transformed his body significantly over the course of his career in unnatural ways. That’s not the case for Big Papi.

Scouts saw his raw power when he was a young prospect, so there’s no point we can trace back to when Ortiz suddenly started to show he could hit home runs. He was always strong, but earlier in his career he simply wasn’t a very good hitter. After he came to Boston, Ortiz fixed some holes in his swing and learned a better approach at the plate from the Red Sox coaching staff. These adjustments aren’t something that any PED is going to improve.

Ortiz will continue to defend his legacy as long as there are critics who want to assume every player from that era is guilty until proven innocent. The truth is that we may never know who used what and when.

Next: Red Sox players unhappy with Farrell

Tarnishing the name of one of the greatest hitters in Red Sox history based on nothing more than circumstantial evidence is absurd. Almost as absurd as blaming the Yankees for it.