“I’d like to play but I’m not hitting, yet,” said Delgado, adding that he is five pounds under his playing weight.
“I just started running last week in San Juan. It’s tough to ask teams to come look at me. The first question they’ll ask is: ‘When can we see you hit?’ I don’t have an answer yet. Hopefully, it won’t be much longer.”
Of course, Delgado’s most recent comeback attempt didn’t last very long. He signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox last August and appeared in just five games with Triple-A Pawtucket before his left hip began to bother him. The 38-year-old slugger eventually underwent surgery in September.
Delgado is currently sitting on 473 career home runs and still hopes to become the first Puerto Rican to reach the 500-home run plateau. It’s hard to blame the guy for trying, but the odds are squarely against him at this point. He doesn’t have the durability to play first base on a regular basis anymore and there are already a wealth of DH options available in free agency. Barring something completely unexpected, he looks like a guy destined for the Hall of Very Good.