Red Sox Reportedly Have Offered J.D. Martinez A Five-Year Deal

On January 3, USA Today's Bob Nightengale wrote: "Outfielder J.D. Martinez has a five-year deal from the Boston Red Sox." Neither the team nor agent Scott Boras have confirmed that report.

Nightengale adds, later in the article: "The Red Sox won't give Martinez a seven-year, $210 million contract, and aren't about to start bidding against themselves."

While Martinez is an elite slugger and turned 30 years old last August, the Red Sox (even if this particular report is not true) would rather not be paying top dollar for what would presumably be Martinez's declining years.

If Boston's 2017 outfield of Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley, and Mookie Betts stays intact (JBJ's name has come up in some trade rumours), Martinez, a regular right fielder since 2014, would be a designated hitter, who only sometimes played the field. Is his comfortable with that?

Travis Sawchik, Fangraphs:

Since 2015, Martinez ranks seventh in wRC+ (147). ...

As he noted in conversation with with FanGraphs this past March, Martinez transformed himself by avoiding "fucking ground balls", becoming one of the truly elite offensive forces in the game as a result.

While the slugging numbers are loud, his peripherals are also encouraging: last season he posted the highest walk percentage of his career (10.6%) and the lowest out-of-zone-swing rate (32.1%).

A commenter on that article points out that if you add another year and look at Martinez's 2014-17 performance, his wRC+ is the 5th-highest in the majors, behind only Mike Trout, Joey Votto, Giancarlo Stanton, and Bryce Harper.

Sawchik posted a very attractive graphic of Martinez's line drives and fly balls from the 2015-17 seasons overlayed on Fenway Park: