David Ortiz, at this point in 2015

There has been a little chatter on the BoSox listserve about David Ortiz standing in the way of the Red Sox developing players for the future.

So, David Ortiz leads the club in RBIs, driving in a dozen more (65) than the next-closest batters (Bogaerts and H. Ramirez, tied with 53 each).

He leads the clubs in home runs (related to RBIs, of course), with 23, four ahead of the next-closest (aforementioned Ramirez).

He's fourth on the team in on-base percentage, in large part because he's feared enough that he's leading the team in bases on balls.

He leads the team in slugging.  He leads the team in OPS.

He's tied for the league lead in fielding (I write that with a bit of a smile, but he has handled 33 chances without an error).

Neither he nor Jean Machi nor Alexi Ogando have any losses as a pitcher this season. (OK, you can discount that one.)

He's clearly one of the top three fan favorites, and he's got a deep and solid historical connection to the team -- the only player on the team with three Red Sox World Championship rings.

Ortiz is not among the problems with offense on the 2015 Red Sox. 

Is keeping your most powerful offensive force a bad thing?  If he weren't producing sufficiently, he wouldn't be given the plate appearances and no option would kick in; that's the point of the option being structured the way it is.  He's not sent up to bat as an historical relic. He's sent up there because he's producing.

He's got a fair shot, if he doesn't cool off, at another 30-homer, 100-RBI season.

Yes, Hanley Ramirez would be better at DH than playing left field, but that's not David Ortiz's fault.