Sharks’ Little Papi Drafted By Red Sox In 19th Round Of 2024 MLB Draft
Ortiz. What baseball fanatic doesn’t recognize that name?
David Ortiz, better known as Big Papi, is a baseball Hall of Famer who helped the Boston Red Sox end their 86-year World Series title drought in 2004.
The jolly Dominican secured two more championships in 2007 and 2013. Today, the 48-year-old serves as a Major League Baseball studio analyst for FOX Sports.
Now Big Papi’s son is striving to pave his own path.
Last Tuesday, D’Angelo Ortiz, who spent the last two seasons at Miami Dade College, was drafted in the 19th round of the MLB Draft by the Boston Red Sox.
“It’s a blessing,” the younger Ortiz said. “This is a huge accomplishment for me and I’m able to recognize that, but I’m also able to recognize that this is just the beginning and it’s time to get to work.”
D’Angelo, affectionately known as Little Papi, grew up going to Fenway Park to watch his dad play for the Red Sox.
“When you grow up in that baseball environment, you don’t want to do anything else but baseball,” the 20-year-old said.
But being the son of a baseball legend can also have its drawbacks. It’s hard living up to the Ortiz name; some have opined on social media that Little Papi was only drafted as a favor to his dad.
“I respect that people have an opinion, don’t mean I gotta care,” D’Angelo said. “I have a lot of blessings in my life, so I don’t really look at anything negative because there’s a lot to look at that’s positive.”
For the past two years, D’Angelo, who originally failed to make the baseball team at MDC after an individual tryout, has made a name for himself as a third baseman for the Sharks.
As a freshman, he was third on the team with 38 RBI and had a .328 batting average. This season, the 6-foot-1 inch sophomore was the Sharks’ top hitter, boasting a .377 average. He also added 35 RBI and a homerun in 175 at-bats.
This summer, D’Angelo batted .311 with seven RBI in 11 games for the Brockton Rox, a collegiate summer baseball team in Massachusetts.
“[D’Angelo] is one of the most hardworking kids that I’ve had in my six years at Miami Dade [College],” said Sharks assistant catching coach Rudy Árias, who played in the Major Leagues for 18 years. “If I need [a hit with] two outs and two strikes and the winning run at third base, the guy I want hitting would be D’Angelo Ortiz.”
In other news, left-hander Herick Hernandez, who had a breakout year at MDC as a sophomore during the 2022-23 baseball season after posting a 8-3 record with a 2.86 earned run average, was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in the fourth round.
The former Hialeah Senior High School outfielder was originally drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the19th round in 2023, but decided to return to college. He was 3-7 with 95 strikeouts in 70.1 innings at the University of Miami this season.
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