FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Red Sox slugger David Ortiz invoked the name of another New England sports icon when asked how much longer he expects to play.
“People asked the same question of Tom Brady last year,’’ he said, referring to the Patriots quarterback. “Now what? I bet you want him to be your quarterback once again. All the trash people were talking about him, this and that bro, I was listening to that in the Dominican. We barely watch football over there. But I watched the Super Bowl. I was like, ‘Man, they’re not going to learn in Boston.’
We are like wine. Remember that.”
Ortiz, who turns 40 in November, is nearly two years older than Brady, who turns 38 in August. He hit 35 home runs last season, his most in any season since hitting 35 in 2007, and now stands 34 shy of the 500 home run career milestone.
“I know I don’t have the skills that I used to have, but the ones I still have I put in play and I try to ride with it," Ortiz said. “That’s been working for me."
Ortiz will be paid $16 million this season, the highest salary of his career, and has a vesting option for 2016 if he reaches 425 plate appearances. He has a similar vesting option for the 2017 season. On Tuesday, Sox GM Ben Cherington said Ortiz can be a Sox player for as long as he wants to be.
Ortiz said he can’t be sure how long that will be.
“I signed a contract last year that basically tells me as long as you do what you do and keep helping us out, you’re going to play," Ortiz said. “I think it’s fair. If I’m not having fun the way I do in the season, if I don’t keep doing what I do ... I need to have that anger. I need to have that cockiness when I’m playing. I need to be who I am. I need to play the game at the highest level. A lot of things come with that. If that goes away, it’s time to go away, you know what I’m saying.
“That’s why I have no date, no time, I don’t have no years, because we are here today but you don’t know what can happen toward the end of the season, you know what I’m saying? I’m just going to keep on playing, try to win championships. Whenever that goes away, I think it’s time to go."