The Red Sox Really Needed J.D. Martinez
Until signing J.D. Martinez (finally!), the Boston Red Sox were having a quiet offseason. They’d re-shuffled their coaching staff, brought back Mitch Moreland and Eduardo Nunez on short-term deals, and…that was pretty much it.
They focused most of their efforts on courting Martinez, who initially thumbed his nose at their five-year, nine-figure offer and was apparently less than pleased with how their negotiation saga was playing out. Boston’s inability to land a free agent for which few other teams were competing was both surprising and frustrating given Dave Dombrowski’s track record of acquiring his targets at any cost, especially since he and Martinez already had a pre-existing relationship from their time together in Detroit. Martinez remained unsigned at the start of spring training. The clock was ticking.
The Red Sox defended their refusal to budge with Martinez by saying they didn’t really need him, which was ostensibly true. They won 93 games and the AL East last year – same as the year before – and are returning most of their roster intact. That includes last year’s AL Cy Young runner-up (Chris Sale), a pair of former Cy Young winners (David Price and Rick Porcello), a fire-breathing closer (Craig Kimbrel), and one of the best outfields in baseball. Sounds like a pretty good team to me.
And while Martinez will inject some much-needed power into a lineup that ranked last in home runs and second-to-last in slugging percentage in the American League last year, Boston’s offense was probably going to be better regardless. The Red Sox ranked sixth in the AL in runs last year despite underperformance from most of the team’s regulars. Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley, Mookie Betts, and Hanley Ramirez hitting more like they did in 2016 – when Boston fielded the best offense in baseball – would help dramatically, as would growth from Andrew Benintendi and a full season from Rafael Devers.
The Red Sox are optimistic that will happen, and perhaps it will. But they couldn’t overlook the most glaring difference between the current edition and the 2016 squad: the absence of David Ortiz. When Ortiz retired, he took his 38 homers, 127 RBIs, and 1.021 OPS (in his final, age 40 season!!!) with him. Boston opted not to sign a big bat last winter to replace him, and the lineup suffered as a result. Coming off a monster campaign in which he belted 45 homers and led the majors in slugging (.690), Martinez could replace Ortiz’s missing offense and then some.
Dombrowski also likely realized that without Martinez, the Red Sox were no better than the fourth-best team in the American League. For all their recent regular season success, they’ve won just one playoff game since winning the World Series in 2013. The Astros, Indians, and Yankees were all clearly better last year, but signing Martinez helps close the gap. With him on board, Boston projects to score the third-most runs in baseball this year, albeit trailing AL rivals New York and Houston.
With their hitting, pitching, and defense, the Red Sox were already built to contend. But Martinez gives them the jolt they were missing last year, and that might be what puts them over the top in 2018.
-Tyler Maher
