DENVER -- He is doing things very few players his age have ever done. Another home run and a couple of RBIs, and David Ortiz has a chance to be one of seven players 37 or older to bat .300, hit 30 home runs and drive in 100 or more runs.

"Can you imagine this ballclub without me in the lineup?'' Ortiz said here Tuesday afternoon. "Tell me about it. Would we be here now? That wasn't going to happen.''

Without David Ortiz's production, the Red Sox likely wouldn't have a division title to celebrate. Michael Ivins/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images

It ain't bragging, they say, if it's true, and Ortiz was responding to a question about the discussion last winter about the merits of signing an aging player with a bad Achilles to a multiyear contract. There were plenty of folks, you might recall, who were opposed to the idea.

There might have been a couple in the Boston Red Sox front office.

"The problem is,'' Ortiz said, "that most of the people that always have had their doubts about me, they never sat down and analyzed my numbers. As long as I've been here, I mean without injuries, I've been one of the most consistent players who ever played here for the Red Sox.

"Just look at my numbers. Those people can just ...''

Ortiz finished that thought with language too ripe for public consumption.

In the end, the Sox gave Ortiz a two-year deal for $26 million with the stipulation that his 2014 salary increase by $4 million, from $11 million to $15 million, if he spent 20 days or fewer on the disabled list because of the Achilles. Ortiz opened the season on the DL and spent 15 days there. He did not return.

"Whoever made that move made a smart move,'' Ortiz said. "It's a poker game they like to play with every player. There was nobody in free agency they could have brought in. What were we going to do, give $125 million to [Josh] Hamilton just to go through what he's gone through?

"Once we get caught up again in the heat of the season, all you're going to see is the guy who got it done before, trying to get it done again.''

And in Boston, for the past 11 seasons, that has meant David Ortiz.

But even Ortiz, in the midst of another great season, can't go on forever. How much longer?

"I don't know,'' he said, "but not too long.