FORT MYERS, Fla. — The salary arbitration process is a fascinating one in no small part because it occurs behind closed doors. As such, most opportunities to peak through its cracks offer unexpected and intriguing details.
Such was certainly the case with the potential arbitration hearing of David Ortiz. Though the landmark case was settled just hours before it was scheduled to take place, Ortiz offered an unexpected insight into the preparation involved in the hearing.
Obviously, both the Red Sox and Ortiz had prepared piles of statistical information and gone to great lengths to prepare their respective cases as to what the designated hitter’s salary should be in 2012.
But, unexpectedly, the preparation for the case also included important fashion decisions.
“They told me not to wear my earrings in front of the judge,” Ortiz recalled of the advice from his agents in anticipation of the case. “I was like, ‘Did I kill someone or something? What did I do that I’m not allowed to wear them in front of a judge?’ They were like, ‘You don’t want to have that much bling-bling coming in and this and that, start on the wrong foot.’ … I was like, ‘What? I sleep with my earrings on?’”
Yet while Ortiz was going to have to remove his perpetually present earrings, his agents did encourage him to keep another piece of jewelry on prominent display.
“I didn’t want the focus on the earrings,” explained Fernando Cuza, the agent for Ortiz at SFX. “I just wanted him to dress up like you would in a court of law, be respectful of the process. The only bling-bling I wanted him to wear was on his fingers.”
Obviously, the presence of a World Series ring or two on Ortiz’s fingers would have offered a subtle reminder of his value to the franchise. But, in the end, Ortiz never had to dress for the occasion of an arbitration hearing. Hours before the hearing, the Sox and Ortiz agreed to settle their difference at the midpoint of the team’s $12.65 million offer and Ortiz’s request for a $16.5 million mark, with Ortiz thus walking out of the Vinoy Hotel armed with a one-year, $14.575 million contract and with his earrings still present.
