JD Martinez Reportedly Has A Five-Year Offer From The Boston Red Sox

This is such a “who gives a shit” story for this late in the offseason, but this has been the most boring, uneventful offseason that I can remember. So much so that I think I’ve written more blogs about dogs and dumb shit that’s happened in my hometown than I’ve written about free agent signings. Actually, I know that’s true because zero — literally zero — of the top ten free agents have signed yet. It’s fucking January.

You know who’s in that top ten, though? JD Martinez. As a matter of fact, he’s the number one free agent on the market, and he’s reportedly got a five-year offer from the team that he’s been linked to the most heavily, the Boston Red Sox.

All-Star first baseman Eric Hosmer has a seven-year offer from the San Diego Padres, which would make him the highest-paid player in franchise history. Outfielder J.D. Martinez has a five-year offer from the Boston Red Sox. Yet, neither have signed a contract.

If we’re operating under the idea that this report is true and Martinez does, in fact, have a five-year offer on the table from Boston, then good on Dave Dombrowski. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again — the Red Sox are smart for waiting this out and they’re also smart for not immediately jumping to Scott Boras’ asking price, which was reportedly seven years and $210 million.

There’s no need for the Red Sox to outbid themselves. The biggest threats to swoop in and sign Martinez away from Boston remains both the Giants and Dbacks, but Arizona still hasn’t freed up the money necessary to do that and the Giants have been bargain hunting for their offensive upgrade. Martinez isn’t going to come cheap, so that would still have the Red Sox as the most likely landing spot.

I’m not ready to categorize this as a “problem” just yet, especially after praising Dombrowski’s approach here, but if somebody comes in with a six or seven-year offer and either matches or exceeds the average annual value of Boston’s offer, then the Red Sox run the risk of losing out on Martinez. Stating the obvious, that would be very bad. We’ll cross that bridge if and when we get to it, but the Plan B to losing Martinez certainly won’t be nearly as sexy — like, not even close actually — and fans will probably lose their minds.

Here’s how I see this playing out — Scott Boras wants seven years and $210 million for his client, Martinez. That’s an average annual value of $30 million, a steep price for sure. The Red Sox made him a five-year offer, presumably for somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million. Boras wants seven years, the Red Sox want five.

I can see the Red Sox doing five years with a sixth-year option that would kick in based on a total number of plate appearances over years four and five of the deal. Call it 1,000 plate appearances, somewhere in there, in years four and five combined, and then, say, a $20 million option for year-six automatically vests for 2023 if Martinez accumulates 1,000-ish plate appearances in 2021 and 2022. Five years, $150 million guaranteed with the chance for the deal to become six years, $170 million. Boom, done.