Boston, MA (Sports Network) - The Boston Red Sox and designated hitter David
Ortiz have avoided salary arbitration and agreed to a one-year contract.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but the Boston Globe reported the deal to
be worth $14.575 million. The two sides were set for an arbitration hearing on
Monday, with the Sox offering $12.65 million and Ortiz requesting $16.5
million.
Ortiz has played for the Red Sox since 2003 and was an integral part of their
two World Series championship teams in 2004 and '07. Nowhere near the feared
hitter he once was, Ortiz still batted .309, hit 29 homers and drove in 96
runs last season.
It was the eighth time that he reached the 25-homer plateau in a Boston
uniform, surpassing Jim Rice for second-most in franchise history. Only Ted
Williams has more with 14.
Ortiz is fifth all-time in Red Sox annals with 320 homers and sixth in RBI
with 1,028.
A seven-time All-Star, Ortiz spent his first six seasons with the Twins and is
a career .283 hitter with 378 homers, 1,266 runs batted in and a .544 slugging
percentage in 1,742 big league games.
The Sports Network