David Ortiz says he'll consider playing for Yankees

DH David Ortiz is a free agent this offseason and, after a whirlwind two weeks in which he's watched his Red Sox collapse and miss the playoffs, his manager leave and news of the imminent departure of his general manager break, he might even consider putting on Yankees pinstripes.

"That's something I gotta think about," Ortiz said in an interview with ESPN's Colleen Dominguez. "I've been here on the Red Sox a long time, and I've seen how everything goes down between these two ball clubs.

"It's great (playing from the Yankees) from what I hear. It's a good situation to be involved in. Who doesn't want to be involved in a great situation where everything goes the right way?"

Ortiz, who has hit 320 homers and driven in 1,028 runs in nine seasons with the Red Sox, helped lead Boston to its first World Series title in 86 years in 2004 and another one in 2007. But playing so long for the Red Sox appears to have worn on him, and the final straw might have been the firing of manager Terry Francona (whom he supported) and the widely reported departure of GM Theo Epstein to the Cubs.

"There's too much drama (in Boston), man," Ortiz told Dominguez. "There's too much drama. I have been thinking about a lot of things. I don't know if I want to be part of this drama for next year.

"Too much drama. My head is spinning way too much to deal with everything that is going on. I have unplugged, you know, and I have just been dealing with my family."

Since the Red Sox blew a nine-game September lead to lose the American League wild card to the Rays on the last day of the season, there have been reports of Red Sox pitchers drinking beer this season during games in which they didn't pitch and a general lack of conditioning on the team.

"We had that when we won the World Series in 2004," Ortiz told Dominguez. "We had that when we won the World Series in 2007. Beer in the clubhouse, it's always been there. Video games, that's always been there; guys eating fried chicken, that's always been there."

The Boston Globe's Peter Abraham, who used to cover the Yankees for the Westchester (N.Y.) Journal-News, wonders if the Yankees would actually want Ortiz, who turns 36 next month. Ortiz, however, has at least opened up the possibility.

"They lost just like we did, they just went to the first round of the playoffs," Ortiz said of the Yankees. "I ain't heard nobody coming out killing everybody just because they lost."