Follow Us:

[Sportsguy9695]

David Ortiz has agreed to a deal with the Boston Red Sox, avoiding an arbitration hearing scheduled for later Monday.The sides settled for $14.575 million, the midpoint between what Ortiz had asked for and what the Red Sox offered. The Red Sox offered $12.65 million (a slight raise from his $12.5 million salary in 2011) and Ortiz had asked for $16.5 million.Ortiz became a free agent after the season then passed up a chance to go elsewhere when he accepted Boston's arbitration offer on Dec. 7."I feel happy since I avoided going to arbitration," he said on Monday, hours before the hearing had been scheduled to start in St. Petersburg, Fla. "People are used to see me with the Red Sox uniform and when you have so much time in one organization, and you're identified with it, the best thing is to stay, even if it is for 1 or 2 million less."The Red Sox have not gone to an arbitration hearing in 10 years and have no unsigned players eligible for arbitration."It just one of those things that when we all had everyone in the room together it just made sense that we would get to the midpoint and get it done," Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington said, according to the Boston Globe.

Source: ESPN