After taking his city on his back last season, David Ortiz assembled one of the best statistical campaigns of his career. Just a few months after that campaign ended with Ortiz' hitting .684 in the World Series and winning the title of series MVP, he has asked the team to extend his current contract an additional year.
Yet as we are now more than a few weeks removed from the start of this debacle that has since spilled into a spot where it is a major talking point down in spring training, it really is getting old. To give some background, David Ortiz was first signed to the Red Sox back in January of 2003. It would be 8 years in which the Red Sox spent upwards of 80 million dollars before the subject of Papi's contract ever came up again.
But unfortunately for the Red Sox front office, something changed prior to that 2012 season in which that 8 year span of complacency ran out. Ortiz had since blossomed into a role as one of the best designated hitters in the game and had cemented a spot for himself within the middle portion of the Red Sox batting order. On a nearly annual basis, Ortiz had come up all aces at just the right time for his team as all and all, the 15 postseason home runs hit in his first 8 years with Boston tell the whole story.
He was granted free agency for the first time as a Red Sox following the 2011 season.
While it took less than a month for the Red Sox to recognize that resign their star DH, Ortiz was sort of like a little kid, learning that with a little well placed whining he could goose a few extra years and an extra million dollars here or there out of this team that had nurtured him to his current spot as a hall of fame caliber DH.
They added 2 million dollars to his 2012 salary but only inked 1 year of that contract. That meant that 1 year later, even after seeing his season ended prematurely due to a bizarre achilles injury, Ortiz was whining again and this time, the Red Sox gave in not to his desire for more money but this time to his desire for more years. Ortiz signed a 2 year 29 million dollar contract where the second year was labeled as a club option to either retain or drop him. Once again Ortiz seemed satisfied with the deal and yet, as we go into that 2nd year of the deal once again he is vocal.
While the Red Sox not invoking the club option is not something that has ever been considered, Ortiz who will turn 39 shortly after this season has good reason to begin to worry about his future as a ball player. Even in baseball where players generally have the capabilities to play a bit longer than they would in other sports, 39 years is pretty old. Additionally, if you look at this Red Sox roster, they are not a team devoid of power. Mike Napoli crushed 28 home runs last year and fell just 8 RBI's short of 100. Johnny Gomes led the league in pinch hit home runs and at 6-1, 230 pounds he is certainly a man who could develop into a prime power threat. Ortiz knows that if he suddenly hits say 15 home runs and bats in 60 scores, he will not be getting resigned and will likely be forced into retirement.
Why retirement you may say. Well the fact of the matter is that 40 years after it was first instated, the value of the DH has decreased. In this day and age, the position is used more as a half day off for players than an actual weapon in a batting order. Though we have been spoiled since 2003 when Papi came to town, it is not unusual for a DH to bat sub .200 and hit single digit home runs. For reasons like these, much of the American League has grew wary of designated hitters regardless of the history they bring with them. For reasons like these, Boston may be the only destination for David Ortiz if he wants to stay in the big leagues for any period of time past 2014.
But judging by Ortiz's words this week, he either does not recognize that or simply does not care.
Arrogant? Yeah a little, but it gets worse.
“I don’€™t even know why they’€™re [expletive] about me talking about contracts,” he said. “Guys putting up my numbers, they’€™re making 25 million, 30 million. I’€™m not asking for that. I’€™m asking for half of it. And they’€™re still [expletive] about it? [expletive] them. I’€™m tired of hearing them talk [expletive] about me when I talk about my contract. Hey, every time I talk about my contract, I earn it, [expletive]. So don’€™t be giving me that [expletive].”
Instead of the "this is our [expletive] city" speech which in its own right drew some criticism, David Ortiz has said just said "F you"to his fans and that is something that will draw criticism across the board.
But back to the general topic of this all, the request for more cash.
Why is he asking for more? Well, we do not really know.
What we do know is that it takes a lot of forgiveness coupled with probably a bit of undeserved tolerance on the part of the Red Sox to grind their way through this on what has become a near annual basis.
It seems mean, unfitting that this is how David Ortiz decided to follow up his MVP performance last October. But more so it makes some of what Big Papi has said in his time with Boston seem as if it has been fake. Last April when Ortiz took the city on his back, his support, his words seemed like more than just those of a journey man without much connection to the team and the city that paid and cheered for him. We knew...we thought that this was a man who loved Boston through and through and yet when he says things like he has this past week, his cursing at Boston not for Boston has begun to feel like betrayal.
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