David Ortiz Considers Yankees: Would Red Sox Nation Stamp Him as a Traitor?

Since September 1, 2011, Red Sox fans have been witness to a putrid September in which the Sox blew a nine-game Wild Card lead and missed out on the postseason on the regular season's final night. 

They have watched as beloved manager Terry Francona left either on his own accord or with some subtle urging by upper management. 

The boy wonder general manager who led the Red Sox to two World Series titles is now running the Chicago Cubs. Optimism is surging on the south side of Chicago and waning on Lansdowne Street. 

What else could go wrong? 

How about David Ortiz in pinstripes? 

That's right—David Ortiz, the beloved slugger plucked off the scrap heap by Theo Epstein before the 2003 season. The man who is called "Big Papi," playing for the New York Yankees.

How could that happen?

David Ortiz is a Boston legend. Whether he stays or goes, his numbers won't ever be in the Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski category, but his walk-off hits, his persona and his presence won't ever be forgotten in Boston.

David Ortiz is coming off a season similar to that of many members of the Boston Red Sox offense. That means his overall numbers were very good, but his September numbers were very bad.

How bad? Well, September featured monthly lows for Ortiz in the following categories: OPS, home runs, runs batted in and runs scored.

Still, it was a very good season for David Ortiz—even with his September swoon he led all designated hitters in slugging percentage, on-base percentage and home runs. He was third in runs batted in as well as third in batting average.

Now, his team and the team he once knew is no more. He is a free agent, and with the Sox seemingly willing to jettison as much of the 2011 team as they possibly can, Ortiz is likely thinking his time in Boston is up.

Designated hitters don't hit the open market in the same way that other free agents do. They are very limited.

With no designated hitter in the National League, there are only fourteen potential American League destinations, and those get whittled down as soon as one factors in the teams that already have designated hitters under contract.

Ortiz will want to go to a place where he can hit, so he'd probably avoid pitcher-friendly parks such as Seattle, Detroit and Minnesota. He also will want to be in a competitive environment, so that would probably eliminate Oakland, Baltimore and Kansas City as well.

Then there's the money issue. The Red Sox may end up making Ortiz an offer. He is unlikely to receive that much money from most other teams.

After all, there just aren't that many big money teams out there. Chicago has money, but they also have Adam Dunn locked up and locked in at DH. The Los Angeles Angels are out there, and then there's the New York Yankees. 

Yep—Yankee Stadium, with its short right-field porch, is annual playoff games, its nightly sellouts and its star-studded lineup. It's got to be a tempting scenario for Ortiz to imagine being slotted into a lineup among the likes of Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez.

Maybe he could hit a walk-off homer and lead the Yanks to ring No, 28?

Maybe he could—and maybe Red Sox fans everywhere just threw up.

If Ortiz were to jump to the Yankees—something that does seem unlikely when one looks at the Yankee roster—I don't think Red Sox fans would blame him. Not anymore. Not after the collapse, and Tito, and now Theo.

No, if Ortiz ends up in pinstripes, I think fans will ultimately place the blame on the Red Sox ownership. After all, they have nearly as much control over this happening or not happening as Ortiz does.

Sure, Ortiz made some statements yesterday that alluded to potential interest in New York. When asked by ESPN's Colleen Dominguez about considering New York as a free agent destination, he responded: "That's something I gotta think about. I've been here on the Red Sox a long time, and I've seen how everything goes down between these two ballclubs." 

Let's be clear—Ortiz knows how the free-agent game is played. The Yankees' presence in the Ortiz bidding would only add money to the final deal. That being said, if Ortiz were really to make the jump to the Yankees, it would be possibly a worse blow for Sox fans than losing Theo or Tito.

After all, neither of those two men actually beat the Yankees. Ortiz did, and did so in spectacular fashion.

He was the MVP of the greatest postseason series in Red Sox history—the epic seven-game 2004 ALCS in which the Red Sox made an improbable comeback from down 0-3 and within one strike of elimination to a seven-game series win and eventual World Series ring. 

The Red Sox simply can't allow this to happen. There are a lot of things that Red Sox upper management seems to want to change within the organization, but allowing David Ortiz to jump to the Yankees wouldn't make David Ortiz a traitor—it would make Sox management treasonous.