How Did Ortiz Get To Boston?
Many call the Red Sox’ signing of Ortiz as one of the greatest bargains in the modern free agent era, but how did it truly happen? Many have reported it was over financial issues. Some have reported that Ortiz wanted out of Minnesota. Others have stated that Boston pursued Ortiz heavily for an open DH slot in their lineup. What’s true?
First, Ortiz was beloved in Minnesota by the fan base. He was one of few true power hitters on the Twins, and the Twins were coming off a 2002 AL Central Division title, beginning a solid decade of play that certainly could have used a big bat in the middle of the lineup. So were the Twins cheap, and did Ortiz want out?
From all accounts, Ortiz loved Minnesota as much as the fans loved him. He also was completely shocked to find that he was let go after the 2002 season, when he had a very solid season with 20 home runs and 32 doubles in only 466 plate appearances. So Ortiz wasn’t the issue.
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The Twins finances weren’t really the issue either. As notoriously cheap as Carl Pohlad may be known to have been, the team was so young that there were not many guys who were expensive. Yes, Ortiz was eligible for arbitration, but his likely $3-4M maximum arbitration award (likely around $2.5M expected) would have fit in the budget just fine. The real issue was a roster crunch.
Michael Cuddyer had shown himself worthy of a promotion to the big league level full-time, and the team had a platoon in right field already, so they were attempting to shuffle pieces. The other end of things was that the Twins felt that in their ballpark, right-handed power was more valuable than left-handed power, and Ortiz’s platoon mate at DH, Matt LeCroy was a righty power guy that the team saw becoming a masher in the Metrodome.
The Twins released Ortiz on December 16th. To say he was pursued hard by the Red Sox would be incorrect. The Twins had designated Ortiz for assignment, and any team in the league could have had David Ortiz had they been willing to go to arbitration with him once they acquired him from Minnesota. However, no team was willing to give anything to the Twins for Ortiz, so he continued playing in the Dominican Winter League while waiting for an offer.
He was signed on January 22nd, and at that point, he signed for half of what his expected arbitration award would have been. Ortiz was really an unknown commodity on the market, and really the Red Sox didn’t even know what they had, as we’ll see in the next slide…
Next: Ortiz Becomes A Star