MILWAUKEE -- New Orioles general manager Dan Duquette calls the likes of David Ortiz "a luxury item."

Alex Anthopolous, the GM of the Blue Jays, suggested identifying a new designated hitter "is not a top priority."

As the general managers collected at the Pfister Hotel for their meetings, this was the tone thrown around by most of the potential landing spots for Ortiz. Despite the fact the almost-36-year-old is carrying perhaps the third-most potent bat into the free agent market (behind Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder), teams are content on filling other needs before finding a home for Ortiz.

All except one.

According to a major league source, the Red Sox have made an offer to Ortiz. While it isn't clear what the numbers are, the first go-round didn't seem to satisfy the slugger quite yet. Still, the takeaway is that the two sides are engaged, and for good reason -- unlike the rest of the GMs, the Sox' Ben Cherington isn't about to wait.

Cherington stated last week that his first priority when formulating a battle plan for the offseason (at least positionally) was to see if an Ortiz return was viable. That hasn't changed. All the GMs in the world can downplay the interest of the DH, but as the baseball world mills about at the GM meetings the only team that counts in the chase for Ortiz is the Red Sox.

First off, without debating the value of the DH position, the Sox understand the importance of Ortiz to their lineup. As WEEI.com stat man Gary Marbry points outs, The Sox went 42-15 in '11 when Ortiz collected an extra-base hit, with the slugger totaling a .348 average and 1.084 OPS in the 81 games the team won with him in the lineup. But the Red Sox also know they have to know what their lineup and payroll is going to be looking like heading into free agency.

And if the Sox and Ortiz can't find common ground? Well, that's when patience might be a necessity for the designated hitter.

Judging by the comments of the general managers, the team that currently is most likely to build its offseason plan around Ortiz is the Red Sox. And while that doesn't mean there won't be a market for the DH, it does lead one to believe that a Red Sox-free market will be more slower to develop than Ortiz might have preferred.

Take the Blue Jays, for instance. Right now they have a DH. His name is Edwin Encarnacion. He is 28 years old, and hit .272 with 17 home runs and a .787 OPS in 2011. He can play three positions and comes fairly cheap at $3.5 million for '12. But, when it comes to hitting, he is no David Ortiz, a fact Anthopolous isn't going to deny.

"Right now Edwin Encarnacion would be our DH. We're open-minded, but [finding another DH] is not a top priority," the GM said. "Edwin Encarnacion has played left field in winter ball, and he's obviously played some third and first. The defensive versatility he would bring would be great. As the club is currently constituted he would be getting the majority of his at-bats at DH. I wouldn't rule [exploring DH alternatives] out, but there are areas I would rather address first."

One of the reasons teams such as Toronto can take such a passive approach to pursuing a player like Ortiz is due to the flexibility they have in regard to filling the spot at a moment's notice. If a club heads into the season without a third baseman, for instance, finding a player who can play the position and be a viable threat in the batting order might lead to the kind of anxiety that necessitates an immediate move. The DH? The options can be found up and down most rosters. Not all good, but most of the time viable.

But what even the most patient general managers will admit is that there are some players you might prioritize to fill the DH role despite the possibility it would limit the club's defensive versatility. Middle-of-the-order hitters are hard to find, and as the offseason progresses, the idea of putting a hitter like Ortiz in their lineups might become more and more of a priority for a few general managers, especially when Plan A and Plan B fall by the wayside.

The last GM to target anything close to a full-time DH on the free agent market was the White Sox' Kenny Williams, who inked Adam Dunn to a four-year, $56 million deal in early December of last year. And while Williams insists the plan was to have Dunn be integrated into the field, freeing up some at-bats at the DH spot for other members of the White Sox, the lefty slugger was most certainly going to be playing a good majority of his games at designated hitter no matter the manager's belief in his glovework.

"He wasn't supposed to be just a DH. He was supposed to play here and there, maybe in left field a couple of times. But that's a different story," Williams said of Dunn, who played 39 games in the field in '11.

"I'm one of those [GMs who believes in using the DH for lineup flexibility], but there was a special guy out there and I think everybody agreed this was a little different. This was a game-changer. If I had my ideal situation it would be a rotating position used to give guys breaks. Even with Adam, he wasn't supposed to be a DH. He's got a glove. Go out there and use it."

When it comes to hitting, judging by what was produced in '11, it's hard to argue that Ortiz wouldn't fit into that "game-changer" classification presented by Williams. But now it's a matter of seeing how much the Red Sox, and potentially other clubs, view the world through the lens used by the White Sox GM last year.

"Boston won of a couple of World Series with him," Williams said. "It can work."