Red Sox DH/warrior-poet David Ortiz is retiring, of course, after authoring one of the great final seasons in baseball history. He's also very likely going to wind up as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

But, you know, just in case the Red Sox on Thursday announced this regarding Big Papi, among other moves ...

Ortiz has a $17.2 million option on his contract for 2017, so the Red Sox picked that up. Consider that nothing more than a parting gesture of respect, but, hey, why not leave that door every so slightly ajar? Developing! OK, probably not developing all that much.

Elsewhere, the Sox as you can see picked up their $13.5 million option on Clay Buchholz, so the 32-year-old right-hander will be a part of the Boston staff next season.