"David Ortiz has never gone through the arbitration process, but he isn't shirking from the possibility of going to a hearing with the Red Sox if the sides can't agree on his 2012 salary by next month.

"I guess that's part of the game," Ortiz said last night from the Boston Baseball Writers' dinner at the Westin Copley. "I guess from the business standpoint that's how it goes, right?"

Ortiz ended his free agency in December by accepting the Sox' offer of arbitration, a decision that assured he will return for a 10th season with the club. But when the sides exchanged salary figures this week, there was a nearly $4 million gap."