Ortiz: 'I don't want one year' by Jared Carrabis
David Ortiz wants a multi-year extension


(ESPNBoston.com) -- David Ortiz insisted he has not talked about his contract with the Red Sox, but on Monday, Boston's All-Star DH sounded like a man certain of his future. Never mind the option the Red Sox hold on his 2011 contract. Ortiz wants an extension.

What’s that line by George Thorogood? One drink ain't enough, Jack, you better make it three.

Let me be the first to say that this “hot topic” is making headlines about a year and a half too soon. The 4-year, $52 million contract that David Ortiz signed back in April of 2006, which paid Boston’s lefty slugger $12.5 million annually, includes a $12.5 million option for the 2011 season.

The chances of the Red Sox extending Ortiz this winter, which would void his option for 2011, are very unlikely.

The going rate for designated hitters isn’t what it was when Ortiz inked his current four-year deal. This past winter, World Series MVP Hideki Matsui signed a one-year deal with the Angels that paid him $6 million for this season.

"I don't want one year. Why should I return for one year and go through the same [stuff] I'm going through now, just because it's my last year? No. I like to be left alone when I'm playing baseball,” Ortiz said after Monday night’s Home Run Derby.

By the sounds of it Ortiz would rather forgo the $12.5 million that he would make if the Red Sox picked up his option next year, and settle for security, and more than likely, a pay cut.

Aside from Ortiz, Vladimir Guerrero is as good as it gets among designated hitters in the American League. Signing a one-year deal worth $6.5 million this past off-season with an option for $9 million, the right-handed slugger has earned his money. Guerrero has batted his way to a .319 average with 20 homers and 75 RBI, earning him a starting spot on this year’s All Star team.

There’s been some chatter that the $12.5 million option that the Red Sox hold to bring Ortiz back in 2011 is too high. I disagree. Once you cross over the threshold of $9 million or so, what’s another $3.5 million? We’re talking nickels and dimes here, over insulting a man who nearly single-handedly won the 2004 World Series, and had a huge hand in Boston’s 2007 World Series title. Not to mention the fact that he has become the face of this franchise, and an ambassador for the game of baseball.

If I’m Theo Epstein, I’ve seen the proof that Ortiz is not yet ready to call it a career, and I’d set his value at around $9 million, while considering the extra $3.5 million as a bonus for all that he has done. It’s evident that the four-year deal is the last big contract he’ll sign in his major league career. Pick up the option, and let him finish out his contract the way both sides had intended when it was drawn up.

"It's not in the back of my mind,'' Ortiz said. "Things are going to happen at one point. I'm not really worried about that. I'm not a guy who thinks about contracts; I can get a contract regardless, based on my production. I guess that's the reason I don't worry about it.

As the ESPNBoston article notes, the Red Sox will have to play their cards right, as both Adrian Gonzalez and Prince Fielder are eligible for free agency after the 2011 season. It would be ill-advised for the Red Sox to extend Ortiz beyond 2011, who will turn 36 after the 2011 season, as the chances that both Fielder and Gonzalez could become available via trade or free agency.

Ortiz knows that Red Sox fans would want him here in Boston for the rest of eternity as long as he was producing, but sooner or later, you have to come to the realization that the end of the Big Papi era in Boston will one day come. When it comes, it will be a sad day here in Red Sox Nation, but with all hopes of Ortiz, that day won’t be soon.

"They know straight-up that I want to stay here [in Boston],'' he said. "Now, I'm going to leave that up to them.''

-Jared Carrabis

How would you handle the David Ortiz contract situation?
	Decline his option for next year and let him walk.
	Decline his option for next year and sign him for less.
	Extend him this winter for two more years.
	Extend him this winter for three more years.
	Exercise his option for next year and decide his future based on his numbers in 2011.
pollcode.com free polls

Published on July 13, 2010

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