Even if the Red Sox wanted to trade Ortiz, who would they trade him to? I'm pretty sure the vesting option goes with him, so it would have to be a contending AL team with money, other than the Yankees. That leaves the Angels, maybe the Jays.
Here's a little factoid someone posted on the Globe forum.
During the Epstein years the Sox had a guy named Craig Shipley who was heavily involved in the international scouting. Shipley signed Iglesias, Tazawa and Bogaerts.
One of the first things Ben did as GM was fire Shipley.
I don't think there was an automatic assumption. A strong hope, yes.
It's like the Lester situation. Most people figure we could have signed him for 6 years, 110-120 million before the 2014 season started. He had a good year and ended up with 155 million.
Overpaid on the salary in return for a cut on the years. If he had a good year he would've gotten 6 years in FA.
It was a bet, really. So far a losing one.