He's trying to delay his retirement. He's banking on the short memory of the voters, and he may be right.
I was blessed enough in my lifetime to have seen MLB from the 60's. One of the players that I got to see play was Yaz. I remember the year he received a contract in excess of 100K and didn't hustle very hard down the first base line. He took a lot of heat for that at the time.
David Ortiz is a known juicer, doesn't play on the field, trots around the bases more often than not, and makes the same amount IN ONE GAME as Yaz did that ENTIRE SEASON. And yet, Big Poppy gets treated like a god.
Balcoball Fever. Catch it!