Boston Red Sox: Ortiz Accepts Arbitration Offer over Two Year Offer

As of right now, David Ortiz has two offers on the table.

The first offer came in the form of arbitration care of the Red Sox, estimated to be $14M for one year of service.

The other offer comes from—wait for it—The Boston Red Sox, in the form of a two-year $12M low-ball deal.

If what Peter Abraham has reported is true, the fact that the Red Sox offered Ortiz arbitration has literally killed the market for him.  No other team is willing to give up the necessary draft pick to take on Ortiz.

While I agree that Ortiz's skills have diminished and personally would rather see a more versatile DH in Boston, I find it hard to believe that no other teams have a deep interest in signing the slugger—especially any American League team that loses out on the Prince Fielder Sweepstakes.

Back in September, I wrote a blog comparing Fielder to Ortiz and their stats from 2006 through September 24th.  This is how the two stacked up, with Fielder's numbers on the left and Ortiz' numbers on the right:

Games Played: 993 to 844

At Bats: 3512 to 3082

Runs Scored: 566 to 551

Hits: 988 to 877

Doubles: 198 to 221

Triples: 9 to 7

Home Runs: 227 to 201

Run Batted In: 649 to 640

Base on Balls: 561 to 530

Stolen Bases: 15 to 6

Batting Average: .281 to .284

Strike Outs: 777 to 651

Slugging Percentage: . 537 to .554

On Base Percentage: .388 to .388

On Base + Slugging Percentage: .925 to .942

The two are eerily similar, with Ortiz being the obvious silver medal in the race. In that same vein of thought—the numbers are outstanding for a team like Seattle or Toronto if they can't convince Prince to come to their team.

Maybe it is just me, having watched Ortiz perform as well as he has here all of these years; seeing no other team interested in him is a shame.  Sure, the Sox will work out a revised two year deal to bring him back here now, but the man deserved a larger market than what he has received.

*And in the time it took me to finish revising this article, the BoSox have extended Papi another offer, one I am sure he shall accept.

7:38pm UPDATE: ORTIZ HAS ACCEPTED THE RED SOX ARBITRATION OFFER

He has decided to not accept the 2-year offer at $18M and take one year at $14M.