The Red Sox remain the favorites to sign JD Martinez despite all the noise in the past week that Martinez and his camp are “fed up” with Boston.
There has been some chatter that the Yankees, of all teams, could swoop in and stick it to the Red Sox one more time by inking Martinez. But New York is not of the mindset in signing longterm deals for big bucks right now … unless it’s a slam dunk player like Giancarlo Stanton. Martinez is 30-years-old and is seeking a six-year deal.
The Yankees seemingly learned their lesson, as they have had buyers remorse with Jacoby Ellsbury for several years now. Ironically the Yankees would have to shed Ellsbury’s salary if they are to make a play for Martinez, and dumping Ellsbury on another team is easier said than done.
As for Martinez going back to the Diamondbacks, that is also highly unlikely. If this whole thing is about money (and it is), then Arizona just cannot compete with Boston. Martinez’s agent Scott Boras has met with Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick twice in the past month, but that appears to simply be posturing on Boras’ part.
From ArizonaSports.com:
“The market hasn’t come close to matching [the initial price rage of $200 million] but the Red Sox’ offer of more than $100 million over five years is well above what the D-Backs can offer, assuming they don’t make any significant deals to free up spending money.”
