This is David Ortiz role playing in his therapist’s office. In this exercise, David plays himself while the phone plays the part of the Red Sox front office. Ortiz has not been shy about wanting a contract extension, but has nothing to show for it so far. So is Papi worth another year, like he wants?

According to a USA Today article, David Ortiz’s contract is now a priority for the Boston Red Sox.

Although the Sox now seem motivated, Ortiz already aired some dirty laundry, bashed some haters, and defended himself through the media. According to that USA Today article, the deal is going to be one year for just $15 million per-year.

JUST

I say ‘just‘ because I am a Cardinals’ fan. I have a tough time understanding why David Ortiz doesn’t have whatever he wants after the 2013 World Series. He hit .688 during the six-game series, scored 7 runs and failed to reach base just six times during the whole series. It is easy to see how valuable he is with these traditional stats, but another stat shows his value even more clearly.

WPA is win probability added. Every play in a baseball game affects whether or not your team will win. WPA adds together how much your plays increased the probability of your team winning the game, providing a mathematical value of how well the player played. Using this stat, some crude estimates from ticket sales and a little bit of math, I think I found out the minimum that the Red Sox should pay David Ortiz for his one year contract extension.

The Facts

1. David Ortiz had a WPA of .943 for the 2013 World Series. You need four wins to win the series, for Ortiz added 23.6 percent of the 4 wins needed to take home the trophy.

2. The Boston Red Sox sold 115,228 World Series tickets at an average of $750. They sold $86,421,000 worth of tickets over the three games they hosted in Boston.

3. Player bonuses for the World Series winning Red Sox were worth $90 thousand more than the Cardinals’ player bonuses. Therefore, the Red Sox players gained $2.25 million more than the Cardinals.

4. World Series memorabilia is expensive. You can buy a jacket for $180, a hoodie for $64, a T-shirt for $24, a hat for $33, or a cell phone stand for $50 (seriously, this exists). Now this may not seem like a Ortiz related revenue source, but check out the David Ortiz only page. I don’t know how much swag they have sold, but Ortiz certainly helped in the sale.

So, if you add up the money and multiply by the percentage you are left with the result.

($86.42 milion+$2.25 million) X .236 = $20.92 million.

Whelp, there you have it. Get out the check book Ben Cherington.

Obviously, that is not how money works, it also isn’t how contracts (players should be payed for projected performance during the life of a contract), but it also doesn’t factor in what Ortiz means to the organization or the city.

When Boston came under attack, David Ortiz was the foul-mouthed spokesman for a resilient city. When they needed to bust out in the ALCS, David Ortiz slammed the Sox back into the series. And yet, when he want to get paid, he had to take to the media.

Ortiz is the face, heart and soul of the Red Sox and should be paid as such, which I believe should be more than $15 million-per-year.