Ortiz was about to be compared to players who were unlike him.
Boston Red Sox's David Ortiz signed for $14.575 million Monday, a one-year deal that avoids what would have been an interesting arbitration showdown with the team.With the arbitration panel poised to convene, the Boston Red Sox and David Ortiz did the sensible thing and split their differences down the middle.
They agreed to a one-year, $14.575 million deal, a compromise between the club's offer of $12.65 million and the slugger's bid for $16.5 million.
It's good for both sides this dispute did not go to arbitration. It's a victory for Ben Cherington and his owners, who kept alive the club's streak of avoiding arbitration since 2002.
It's a victory for Ortiz. An aging star who does not play the field should be able to live on $14.575 million.
Left unanswered was this philosophical question: should one team have to pay the price for the foolhardiness of another?
That was very possible if the panel had chosen to base Ortiz' value on that of Adam Dunn, another notorious DH who signed with the White Sox in 2011.
Had this case gone to court, in the baseball sense, Ortiz' agent would have argued that if Dunn was worth $56 million over four years to the White Sox, and Victor Martinez was worth $50 million for four to the Tigers, Big Papi was certainly entitled to his price and not the team's.
The arbitration panel must choose one side's bid or the other's. It cannot negotiate a compromise or split the difference.
The problem is that Dunn, in particular, is on track to become one of the biggest free-agent busts in the history of baseball. His .159 average with 11 home runs was breathtakingly bad.
His .064 average against left-handers looked like a misprint. His 177 strikeouts n 415 at-bats were astonishing.
Dunn has always struck out a lot. His .243 career average tells us he has been an all-or-nothing guy for awhile - much more so than Ortiz, who hit .309 with 29 home runs and 96 RBIs last year.
The White Sox have reason to claim they could not have imagined the total collapse of Dunn, who is four years younger than Ortiz. The fact remains they wasted big money on him, which comes into play if his contract helps set the price for Ortiz.
If Dunn can make $14 million to hit 11 homers with 42 RBIs and a .159 average, should Ortiz not be worth $16.5 million to hit .29/96/.309? How can the Red Sox expect to pay less for Ortiz than what Dunn is making?
That would have been part of Ortiz' argument. The Red Sox could have countered that it wasn't their fault the White Sox thought Dunn was worth that much in the first place.
If you are on the three-man arbitration panel, which side would you take? Neither Ortiz nor the Red Sox wanted to roll those dice.
Martinez is a different case. He hit .330 with103 RBIs, but with only 12 home runs.
Dunn can play first base. Martinez is out for the season with an injury, a twist of fate the arbitration panel certainly could not hold against Ortiz.
When healthy, Martinez can catch or play first, though the nature of the Tigers lineup turned him into a DH last year.
Ortiz plays first only when he absolutely must during interleague play. His type of DH, the big slugger who keeps his glove in cold storage, is being phased out as teams look for flexibility (with both lineups and salary) but using position players in the DH spot.
Along with Ortiz' advancing age, that may explain why there was some interest in him as a free agent, but hardly a stampede to pay a future Hall of Fame candidate at the price he wanted.
The Red Sox reportedly thought they had a good chance to win the case. That would have saved about $2 million from what they finally agreed to pay.
They also knew that arbitration outcomes are never certain. Losing the case would have cost them nearly $4 million over their bid, more than wiping out the precious money they saved by trading Marco Scutaro ($6 million) and signing Cody Ross ($3 million).
A caller to WEEI raised an interesting question Monday. Had the case gone to arbitration, the Red Sox could have argued that whatever their offensive value, Dunn and Martinez offer defensive options that Ortiz does not.
The caller's rhetorical question was this: what if Papi's agent had said that it was the club's choosing to sign Adrian Gonzalez for first base? Ortiz would be a position player if he were allowed or expected to be, this reasoning would go, so don't punish him because the club won't let him.
It's all moot now. Interestingly, the much more fiscally conservative nature of the Red Sox may have pushed them to settle with Ortiz, even at a higher price than they offered..
Part of being fiscally conservative, after all, is going with the known and not taking risk. Putting Big Papi's contract in the hands of an outside panel constitutes risk, calculated or otherwise - and even if the Red Sox felt they would probably win.
The deal is done, both sides seem satisfied and Ortiz is one step closer to retiring in a Red Sox uniform. All good.
Had the case gone to a process that relies on comparing players of the same position, would Papi have won? If so, would such a ruling have forced the Red Sox to pay extra money for a mistake the White Sox made with Adam Dunn?
We'll never know. Maybe that's just as well.