Then-Ranger A-Rod Courted Ortiz

Did I miss this or was it not reported in the Boston media?

Ortiz pondered Rangers
By Kat O'Brien, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
July 12, 2006

This might pain Rangers fans, but designated hitter David Ortiz considered coming to Texas before signing with Boston in the 2002-03 off-season.

Ortiz was released by the Minnesota Twins on Dec. 16, 2002. ... Ortiz's good friend, then-Rangers shortstop Alex Rodriguez, spoke to Rangers owner Tom Hicks to try to persuade him to go after Ortiz.

"[Hicks] called me," Ortiz said. "He wanted me to go and play in Texas. I didn't get the offer I wanted at the time." Ortiz said he would have been interested in playing in Texas because his primary goal was "to go to a place where I could play every day."

But Ortiz, then 27, also thought he had earned a pay raise from the $950,000 he had earned in 2002, but, he said, "They offered me the same salary from the year before." ...

More than a month after being released, Ortiz signed a one-year, $1.25 million deal with the Red Sox."