SportsPulse: The Boston-New York clash is as strong as ever after the Red Sox's signing of the slugging outfielder, as both teams are primed for a pennant run.
J.D. Martinez completed his journey from castoff outfielder to a slugger with a nine-figure contract. And the Boston Red Sox added one of the game’s premier power hitters to their already potent lineup.
Yet despite the mutual realization of these dreams, the Red Sox’s introduction of Martinez one week after his five-year, $110 million deal was agreed upon had a hint of an arranged marriage – one in which either party can dissolve the union before its term is complete.
The Red Sox did not sign Martinez so much as they waited him out, as they were the only serious bidders on Martinez despite the fact only one player – two-time MVP Mike Trout – has out-slugged Martinez since the 2014 season.
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Now, the man who hit 45 home runs with Detroit and Arizona last season will bat third or fourth in manager Alex Cora’s lineup, sandwiched around stars like Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi.
He arrives nearly two weeks after Boston opened its camp in Fort Myers, Fla., and one week after agreeing to the deal. Contractual language to protect the Red Sox against future foot injuries – Martinez spent time on the disabled list in 2017 with a right foot problem – held up the deal.
Agent Scott Boras told reporters in Fort Myers on Monday that Martinez can opt out after the second, third and fourth years; the Red Sox have protections in the fourth and fifth years.
With that last-minute bartering as the backdrop, Martinez, 30, slipped his familiar No. 28 over his shoulders.
“It’s been a long process and I’m happy to put it behind me and go play baseball,” Martinez said. “Winning is No. 1, and bringing a championship back to Boston is the ultimate goal. I’m happy to be a part of it.
“I’m expected to hopefully do a lot of damage.”
Dave Dombrowski, the Red Sox’s president of baseball operations, said Martinez flew to Boston last week and underwent a physical Thursday; the time since then was spent completing contractual language.
“It was basically to really protect all sides in doing that and come up with the right language, which isn’t always easily done,” he said. “There were a lot of people who worked on that to get that done on our side and Scott’s side.”
Said Boras of negotiations: “I’m not sure tough is the word. These negotiations are more of a cooperative venture. Dave and I have known each other a long time. We’ve gotten to know each other a lot better over the last five days.”
Martinez famously was among the first disciples of baseball’s launch-angle revolution, committing to significant changes in his swing as his career floundered with the Houston Astros. They released him in spring training 2014, and as Martinez noted Monday, his Astros teammates expressed their sympathies as he walked out the door.
Martinez was less concerned; he knew good things were coming.
Dombrowski, then the Tigers GM, snapped him up two days later and Martinez flourished, averaging 32 home runs and producing a .936 OPS over four seasons with the Tigers, who traded him to Arizona before last July’s trade deadline.
Martinez is probably the biggest victim of this winter’s cold free agent market created by a major league landscape where roughly a dozen teams are not actively aiming to contend; that he had just one suitor likely cost him tens of millions of dollars.
That sequence is over now, and Martinez will still be paid handsomely in the game’s most charged market.
“Football has Monday night; they say Fenway is like Monday Night Football every night,” says Martinez. “To play in front of fans this passionate and who love the game as much as I do is exciting.”
