David Ortiz Says He’s Not Afraid of Future, Even If He Has to Leave Boston

David Ortiz is in the full throes of a contract push.

The Red Sox have an option to bring Ortiz back for $12.5 million in 2011. The current market for designated hitters, even those who hit 30 home runs, seems to warrant a lesser figure. But nights like Wednesday cannot hurt Ortiz's cause to have the option picked up, or at least for him to make a splash in free agency if and when it comes to that.

The 34-year-old slugger smacked a three-run homer and had an RBI single in Boston's 6-1 win over Baltimore. The effort bumped his team lead in home runs to 31 and left him four RBIs of reaching 100 for the first time since 2007.

All this after another exceptionally slow start, his third in as many years, left Ortiz with his own share of doubters. Except himself, of course.

"I know what I'm capable of," he said Wednesday when asked about overcoming the spring sluggishness. "I work out every day to get better at my game. Sometimes things don't go the way you expect, but not for too long. … I know how to pull myself together."

Manager Terry Francona stuck with Ortiz through the early struggles in the hopes that he would see nights like the one he saw Wednesday.

"It's well-documented, his slow start started after his third at-bat to some people," Francona said. "He has now just kind of swung his way into one of the top hitters in the league again."

After the effort Wednesday, which saw him drive in four runs for the fourth time this season, Ortiz was hitting .277 with 30 homers and 92 RBIs since May 1. It just might be enough for him to have earned that option, although he contends that the ball is in the other court.

Ortiz hinted that if he had to test the free-agent waters, he would be prepared to do so.

"I haven't been thinking about it. I'm not the one who makes the decision," Ortiz said before being asked if he would consider playing anywhere else. "I don't feel like going anywhere but if I have to, I've got no choice."

One item the club could take to the bargaining table in an effort to negotiate a pay cut is Ortiz's continued struggles against left-handers (.206, two home runs in 2010). His OPS in such situations has plummeted this year, continuing a trend that has some labeling Ortiz as a platoon hitter going forward.

Consider his decline in OPS vs. left-handers since his salad days in the middle part of the decade:

2006: .988
2007: .852
2008: .741
2009: .716
2010: .567

Definitively on the back side of his career, it might seem as if the struggles would be physical. Ortiz said it is all upstairs.

"It's all up in my head," he said of the issues vs. southpaws. "I gotta get it out of my head. I've been trying to put too much pressure on myself against lefties, trying to do too much, and it doesn't work like that."

Ortiz said he has been working with hitting coach Dave Magadan on a better approach in such scenarios. It might be a matter of getting back to the basics, Ortiz said.

In his mind, that does not mean he has regressed as a hitter, nor does the third straight slow start. At least not enough to scare off the front office.

"I knew I was going to hit regardless," he said. "Because that's what I know how to do."

Whether he does so for the Red Sox next year remains to be seen, but it's clear Ortiz made a good argument.