Retired baseball legend David Ortiz was able to leave the hospital after he was shot last month at a bar in his native Dominican Republic, his former team, the Boston Red Sox, said Saturday.
Ortiz, 43, was released on Friday and will reportedly undergo rehabilitation at home, which will be monitored by a his personal doctor and some nurses. The Red Sox said they expect an update on his condition some time next week.
A 20-year veteran of Major League Baseball, a career he spent at first base or as the designated hitter with the Minnesota Twins and the Boston Red Sox, Ortiz — or "Big Papi" as he was known by fans — retired from the league in 2016.
While visiting the Dominican Republic on June 9, which he does several times a year, Ortiz was shot at the Dial Bar and Lounge where he had gone to with friends. He underwent a third surgery earlier this month for complications after being shot.
Dominican authorities said they believe that Ortiz happened to get caught in the gunfire when the shooter targeted Sixto David Fernández, who happened to share the table with Ortiz.
Authorities shared that New Jersey native Rolfi Ferreira-Cruz, 25, one of 14 suspects arrested in connection to the attack, was the alleged gunman hired to take out Fernández.
Earlier this month the Dominican Republic's attorney general, Jean Alain Rodríguez Sánchez, said they believe Victor Hugo Gómez Vasquez, an alleged member of Mexico's Del Golfo drug cartel, orchestrated the alleged hit on Fernández.
The two are cousins, but Vasquez allegedly orchestrated the murder-for-hire plot because Fernández turned him in to Dominican drug investigators in 2011.
Vasquez was arrested last month in Santo Domingo.