NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Though David Ortiz playfully hinted on Instagram Tuesday night that Boston's acquisition of Chris Sale could change his mind about retirement, the Red Sox don't expect Big Papi to come back.
And even if Ortiz did have a stunning reversal of plans, he wouldn't be permitted to play until June.
Because Ortiz submitted his retirement papers, he is mandated to stay on the voluntary retirement list for the first 60 days of the regular season.
Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who has a solid relationship with Ortiz, hasn't heard from him since Sale was acquired.
"No, I don't reach out to him because I know David well enough and I do know that if he really had sincere interest that he would call," Dombrowski said. "But I also know that he has to stay on the voluntary retired list for 60 days. So there's rules that are involved in that and I think he was just joking about something like that.
"He's a great athlete. Great hitter. He's still interested in keeping himself in shape. But I would not reach out to him, and I wouldn't want to keep bothering him."
In the Instagram post, Ortiz wrote, "My god my boy Sale to Btown? You guys got me thinking?" There were several smiley face emoticons on the post.

Because it was Big Papi, the post got some attention.
"It's amazing the number of people that reached out to me last night on that," Dombrowski said.