Yankees win AL East? Retired slugger David Ortiz thinks so

In news that is sure to anger more than a few New-Englanders, retired Red Sox slugger, David Ortiz has picked the Yankees to win the American League East in 2018.

Once a player retires and takes a new career as a television analyst, their former allegiances to whom they played for are supposed to fade into the distance. However, if you’ve watched Alex Rodriguez provide stellar color commentary first for Fox, and now ESPN (once again replacing Aaron Boone), it seems his passion for the Yankees pinstripes has only grown stronger.

Then there is long-time Red Sox designated hitter, David Ortiz. Having retired at the end of the 2016 season, Ortiz lent his jovial personality to Fox’s Postseason coverage last October.

Upon watching Ortiz mix it up with A-Rod and Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, I was surprised Ortiz mostly shied away from being a total homer — taking a page out of Pedro Martinez’s book, who can be seen on MLB Tonight doing a stellar job of breaking down the game.

Ortiz recently spoke to Nicole Yang of Boston.com, giving his insight on the upcoming season.

During the interview, Ortiz praised the Red Sox’s acquisition of free agent slugger J.D. Martinez. Yet, even after winning back-to-back AL East titles, Big Papi admitted the Yankees are the ones to beat in 2018.

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“They pretty much stacked the lineup with more power,” he said. “I don’t think anyone else in the division can compete with that.”

Ortiz went on to highlight the difficulty most teams will have in shutting down the dynamic duo of reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton and reigning AL Rookie of the Year Aaron Judge. The two towers of power combined to blast 111 home runs in 2017 while driving in a small army (246 RBI).

The one thing that had me shaking my head was when Ortiz said his former club were underdogs.

“I think the Red Sox are the one team that, as an underdog, is going to be out there exceeding expectations more than usual,” he said.

I’m not sure how a club with the highest payroll in all of baseball at almost $236 million can be considered as such — especially when they employ one of, if not the best pitchers in the entire game in Chris Sale.

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Whether or not Ortiz’s comments about the Yankees’ chances of winning the highly-competitive AL East are genuine, or rather a tool to motivate his former ‘mates, remains to be seen.

Either way, we’ll see for ourselves on April 10, when the two sides square off for the first of 19 contests.