What’s a Boston sports fan’s favorite thing to do? Set insanely high expectations the moment a newly acquired player steps foot in the city of Boston, that is! I pray that this doesn’t happen with the Sox’s brand new power bat. I haven’t seen much of it yet, but I’m sure it’s well on its way as spring training games become more regular.
First year skipper Alex Cora, when asked about Martinez’s production and what he’s capable of, he simply replied with “Manny. David.” As in, you know, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, only two of the greatest hitters not only in Red Sox history, but also baseball history. Not great. Not to mention, that’s about a two-week-old quote now, so Cora wasted no time engineering the JD Martinez hype train. Not what you like to hear when a player’s contract literally had to be renegotiated because of severe enough injury possibility.
Yes, there’s a lot of hype surrounding a brand new, shiny player, and rightfully so. Even the manager is amped. He should be. Albeit, let us remain open-minded and reasonable here. Martinez hit 45 dongs last year and that probably won’t happen again, and that’s okay. As for the hitting side of things, all this guy needs to do is produce. 30/100 is absolutely fine by me, and my God would that push the Red Sox over the edge.
As we know, Boston collectively hit damn near a negative amount of home runs last season. I don’t think I was even alive the last time this team was dead last in the American League in home runs hit. Thus, the lineup of last year needs a bounceback year. Betts needs to do better, Bogaerts needs to do better, Hanley needs to do better. Everyone needs to be somewhat better than they were last year. That alone could win the Sox a few more games in October. Add a guy like Martinez into the mix? Now you’re talking. I’m certainly no athlete, but I’d assume that knowing in advance of a season that you need to produce more and be a better overall player would put some stress on your shoulders. Martinez simply being in the lineup every day can take a lot of that stress off those guys, who are all still young, making it that much more important.
In all honesty? I think that Martinez has what it takes to motivate Hanley this year. On and off the field. Hanley needs a home run-hitting buddy alongside him who can share the DH spot with him and allow him to focus on the little things more. Martinez can be just that. Hanley is going to play some first base in 2018 and will have to put some effort into that, and I have faith that he will. Hanley simply needs someone who has been around the block a few times and to push him to focus when necessary.
Where Martinez will hit in the lineup is another question that’s been on a lot of people’s minds. Cora has basically already said that Betts will lead off, Benintendi will hit second and Hanley will take the three spot, leaving Martinez as the cleanup hitter. Which I LOVE. I suppose some would say that your purest hitter should hit third, and I don’t believe that’s Hanley, given his inconsistency, but hitting JD third would be a terrible idea. Third hitters, more often than not, are at the plate with nobody on and two out and have probably half the opportunities that a cleanup hitter does in regards to baserunners and/or runners in scoring position. The numbers say that the fourth spot gets the most opportunities compared to the rest of the lineup.
Martinez is going to need to produce and also to stay healthy. As I mentioned before, there are supposedly injury clauses in his deal because of past problems. He’s had issues in the past that could certainly pop up at any time, and I’m just glad that Dombrowski and the team played it safe the way they did, whether the general public liked it or not. Martinez and his coaches will have to make sure his time between playing the corner outfield positions and being DH is properly distributed and that he’s not playing too much outfield or what have you. Playing the outfield, especially the Fenway corners, isn’t exactly easy on the body. The last thing this team needs is their $110 million power bat to slam his knee into the wall and blow it out for the season right from the top. He wants to play the outfield and obviously the team has that in their plans, but if there’s anything I’m concerned about, it’s that. I’d much rather him DH everyday but that won’t happen, himself and most importantly the team just need to play things safely for once.
As far as the whole pressure thing goes, I think Martinez will be fine. He promised that he won’t succumb to whatever the fans or the media throws at him, and I trust that. No, David Price and the rest of the clubhouse will not influence him to say or do certain things towards media members despite what some may like to believe. I highly doubt he will turn into “one of those guys” and turn into someone like Price when the going gets tough and he falls into a slump or something. He’s better than that and much more positive than that and I think it could show a guy like Price that it isn’t always necessary to take things out on others. This is at least what I like to tell myself.
At the end of the day, the expectations on this guy shouldn’t be too excessive. He is a complete hitter and can absolutely help this team in a major way in both the regular and postseason. He’s got a fairly short window to work with, both him and the rest of the team. Martinez can opt out in every year after his second season and a bulk of primary, core Red Sox players will be free agents in either the next year or two. There’s lots of pressure but at the same time, there should be lots of hope. Who knows what will happen as the months pass by, baseball is probably the most unpredictable sport for a number of reasons. That’s all the more to at least give the Red Sox a chance this year, folks. Watching Martinez smash bombs over every right field wall in the American League will be a blast in and of itself.
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