All this stats and hype are great however he is BB old and is comming off a hitters real bad injury.
If they upgrade the overall team to a playoff contender then get serious. He should not be the no1 priority but a fill if all comes together.

No other team is going to pay him 14M. Get real and stop the {Papi talk like he is the way to the playoffs.

One year max. How many 38 year old sluggers, who are an absolute liability in the field, are real contributers? **** excluding the roiding Jeter****
 He can walk if he wants a penny for a second year.

This is easy.  Give this guy a two-year deal and he`ll be done midway through the first.  He’s old and breaking down right before our very eyes.

 He keeps belching something about “respect,” yet when it comes to contract talks, I’ll bet he’s the one trying to rip the Sox off. Respect, huh? One year and a club option, regardless of what the Boston sports media slugs say. Ortiz could sign for two at $24M and sit around with his feet up.

This sounds like a PR release from Ortiz’s agent.

He is getting older and breaking down – aren’t the Red Sox bidding against themselves here?  Let him test the market – this is the same old Red Sox way of overpaying for older players as a way of thanking them for past service – and it needs to stop. Offer him 2 years for a total of $10M – if he says no, sayonara.

2 years all performance based

Let him walk.  By the time the Red Sox have a contending team again, he’ll be done(if he isn;t already) anyway.  He’s a juicer who hasn’t been caught(except for that pesky list) YET.  Suppose they sign him and he gets a 50 game suspension?  Aloso, no matter what he gets, he’s going to whine about it.  Enough is enough.

I hate seeing Ortiz disrespected in these comments. This was a fair analysis of Ortiz’ value, and Ortiz has meant a lot to the Sox. We should never forget, and always thank him for it.

That said, I think the key to rebuilding is to let go of players that help you win short term if it builds a winning system. The post-Punto Sox have a lot of glaring holes. If trading Gonzalez made sense, then letting Ortiz walk for a trade pick also makes sense. Here’s my argument:

1) No free agent from a team with a worse record than the Sox had this season is likely to receive a qualifying offer (or, at least, to be picked up if they reject it.) Therefore, the Sox will receive the best possible draft pick (although the Pirates do get an extra first round pick because of Appel.)

2) The MLB draft has become a radically deflationary environment with the new slotting system. The $2 million or so compensation the Sox would get if Ortiz signs elsewhere is worth much more than it may sound, simply because other teams will have trouble matching it in this or in future seasons. It may be worth not just the pick itself, but two or more overslot high schoolers.

3) Ortiz’ achilles injury could well be a chronic issue that will hurt not only his base running but his swing. If so, not only would this be the last chance to receive compensation for him, but the parts of Boston media culture that get off on insulting former heroes will treat Ortiz like they treated Youk and Beckett this year, and Ortiz in 2008-10. (Funny how some of the same people who insisted he was washed up then want him signed now….) Frankly, I’m so sick of these pundits complaining I’d almost rather the Sox were entirely a team of scrappy overachievers.

4) As much as I’ll hate to see Ortiz play for another team, I have to admit I’m enjoying seeing Marco Scutaro’s post season with the Giants. Scutaro’s a classy guy who deserves to be part of a title run. If Ortiz is still healthy, he deserves to be the winning piece of a championship team, not the only great batter in a lineup.

4b) As Alex pointed out, chances are if he stays here he’ll just be pitched around. It’s true this will increase his on-base percentage, but at what cost?  We know from Toronto Farrell favors an aggressive approach to base running. Ortiz will either try to be part of this, at risk of re-injury, or he’ll block the base paths. What he won’t get is enough of a chance to drive in runs through extra base hits to have a satisfying season.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Pedroia and Ellsbury will return to previous form, Ciriaco will learn discipline, Lester and Buckholtz will learn consistency, Salty/Lavarnway will discover how to hit and catch well at the same time and Lackey will rebound from his personal problems and his surgery. Maybe the Sox will hit the Beltre lottery again when they pick up undervalued players and sign them to short-term contracts. All of this is very possible. If so, Ortiz would be a very important asset, and a playoff run next season isn’t out of the question.

I can’t help but feel, though, that the disciplined thing to do is to take the draft pick.

People are clueless, the guy is a masher, period. Sign him for two years, pencil him in and let him hit.

Once again Alex, you prove to be the cream of the crop of Boston sportswriters with such thoughful and well argued analysis. 

David Ortiz plays PERFECT defense FOR HIS POSITION  —-  Justin Verlander Doc holiday and Cliff Lee suck at offense and do not deserve the money they make

Look up Vlad Guerrero’s split in 2010 with Texas, MVP numbers first half, average second half, by 2012 he could not get a major league job.  Sox have to be very careful with offering more than one year contract.  No one else will pay him the kind of $$$ he is looking for.  They will end up like the Yankees and bidding against themselves with A-Rod.

Alex, your projections are flawed in a major way. They are based on the previous 5 years with a healthy, contract hungry, motivated David Ortiz. The discussion of what Ortiz has done in the past is irrelevant, that comparison no longer works based on his health now. What would his numbers be with a injured achillies.

So many people want to overlook the obvious , Ortiz now has a chronic injury that will not go away and will seriously affect his production moving forward in 2013. The notion that they owe him something for past production is just incredibly foolish. If you start to make business decisions based on emotion, you will be doomed to fail. Seems strange that no one wants to say that this is exactly the type of injury that results from P.E.D use.

Just the fact that they willing to entertain the idea of signing a 37 year old, slow,aging,one dimensional, achillies injured DH is proof that nothing has changed at Fenway Park. The prudent business decision to do is to let him leave, wish him good bye and good luck. However, Henry is a man ruled by public relations, he is terrified to risk having the fan base, in particular, the casual or pink hat fans angry at him. He views Ortiz as a popular player and thinks the fans want him here as long as possible.

What he doesn’t want to acknowledge is that by signing him he will hold back the recovery of the team for several years to come. By signing him ,then they are counting on his production, production that will not happen because he will be fighting the achillies injury. There is not one single intelligent baseball reason to sign him.

If they let him go to free agency, and they should, they would see that there is no one, and I mean absolutely no one who is going to sign him. Nothing has changed, the Red Sox have the hardcore fan, but are ruled by the fear that the casual fan won’t pay attenion if their favorite player isn’t there. What they are missing is that the casual fan will really pay attenion if they win, which will be additional years away if they resign Ortiz.

Nothing has been said about his progress or lack of with this injury, make us aware.

The red sox need pitching!!!!!!!!

how can he be a juicer, he doesn’t play for Joe Torre