The news that Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz will announce that 2016 will be his final season is surprising in just one aspect: The dude can still mash. Even though he turns 40 on Wednesday, he remains one of the game’s elite sluggers, hitting 37 home runs in 2015 -- his most since 2006 -- and ranking seventh in the American League in OPS. He seemed like one of those guys who would simply play forever, defying age, turning on fastballs and smacking doubles off the Green Monster until his legs finally give out.

But everyone has to eventually walk away from the game, and Ortiz apparently wants to go out before his abilities erode. Maybe he wants the Derek Jeter treatment next season in ballparks across America. I’m not sure that will happen, however. While few players are as beloved as Ortiz in his hometown of Boston, fans elsewhere don’t view him with the same respect as Jeter, owing to ongoing suspicions about Ortiz’s PED use. Ortiz reportedly tested positive in 2003 -- the first year of survey testing, when players weren’t subject to punishment -- and non-Red Sox fans have doubted his late-career resurgence after a couple of down years in 2008 and 2009.

There’s no denying this, however: Ortiz is one of the game’s most iconic figures of the last 15 years. There’s the Ruthian build, the gap-toothed smile, the clap of the hands, the quick stroke through the strike zone, the extended follow-through with his swing, and the slow trots around the bases after hitting a home run. Sure, he argued too much with umpires and sometimes he echoed some false notes with stuff he said, but he always seemed to enjoy playing the game. When he was at the plate, you wanted to watch.

Most of all, of course, there are the postseason exploits: The dramatic game-winning hits in extra innings in the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees -- the walk-off home run in the 12th inning in Game 4 and the two-out walk-off single in the 14th inning in Game 5 -- as the Red Sox mounted their remarkable comeback and erased the curse. He added another World Series title in 2007 and had the monster World Series in 2013 when he hit .688 and drew eight walks in six games to win MVP honors as the Red Sox won another title. Sabermetricians says clutch hitting doesn’t exist. Tell that to Red Sox fans.

Maybe the most impressive aspect of Ortiz’s career is that he did reinvent himself as a hitter after 2010. In 2009, he struck out 134 times; in 2010, 145 times. As strikeouts rose across the sport, Ortiz started striking out less. That’s how he’s been able to remain so good and feared at the plate (he led the AL in intentional walks in 2015). His strikeout rate has dropped from 23.9 percent in 2010 to less than 16 percent each of the past five seasons. That led to .300 seasons from 2011 to '13 as he became a little more aggressive early in counts and more willing to take base hits instead of just trying to hit home runs.

We can discuss his Hall of Fame case in more detail at another time. Christina Kahrl wrote about his case back when he slugged his 500th career home run. Ortiz has 503 now and is ranked 30th on the all-time list. Still, his eventual Hall of Fame debate will be intense. How much weight will that PED test carry with voters? Will the fact that he has primarily been a designated hitter be a strike against him? His career WAR of 50.4 is low for a Hall of Famer and Baseball-Reference ranks him as one of the 10 best positions players in the AL just three times, 2005 to 2007.

But he is one of the famous players of his generation. He came up big in the postseason. And he made sure we enjoyed those home run trots.