If there’s any one thing that all Red Sox fans can (hopefully) agree on, it’s that their team desperately needs a power bat.
I’ve said it one million times and I’ll say it once again: the Red Sox, as an organization, downplayed the loss of David Ortiz’s presence in the middle of the lineup. His absence was deeply felt in 2017 as the Red Sox ranked dead last in the American League in home runs with a measly 168, and their team leader in ding dongs was Mookie Betts with a whopping twenty-four. They ranked 14th in the AL with a .404 slugging percentage and dropped from first place in runs scored in 2016 to sixth place in 2017. Not one soul in this current Boston lineup scared the opposition or made Red Sox fans excited when they stepped into the batter’s box. For an organization that’s left their mark in baseball history using the long ball for as long as I can remember, that needs to change and it needs to change quickly.
This will be the third straight year that the Red Sox go into the offseason seeking yet another high-end player to make them better. They’ve got what they need in the pitching department for just about the most part. Now it’s time to snag a bat. The two most logical options? J.D. Martinez and Giancarlo Stanton. Both have multiple pros and cons, but both possess exactly what the Red Sox need in their lineup: pop. Let’s make the case for two of the best hitters of 2017 and two of the better hitters in the league right now.
Giancarlo Stanton. Even his name alone gets you going. The 27-year-old, yes, 27-year-old, is coming off a career year, to put it lightly, after leading the league in home runs this past season with 59. He had a .281 batting average, 1.007 OPS and drove in 132 runs with a .631 slugging percentage in 2017. Not to mention, Stanton put up those numbers in arguably one of the most pitcher-friendly parks in baseball. Stanton hypothetically hit 35 percent of Boston’s home runs last season. He was, essentially, built for Fenway.
Big Dick Stanton has been a right fielder for the entirety of his major league career, so this is obviously where things get tricky as it goes for the Red Sox in this situation. It’d be kind of silly to ask Mookie Betts to change positions after becoming one of the best right fielders in the game after only a couple of seasons over in that corner both offensively and defensively. If, and I mean if, Stanton is willing to slide over to left field, in a perfect world, you keep Betts in right and push Benintendi back to his natural position in center (I low-key despise playing the ‘who would get traded’ game so I’m going to attempt to avoid that here).
This, of course, would place Jackie Bradley on the bench and/or as a defensive replacement-esque player. Now, Bradley does happen to be the same age as Stanton at 27 and is one of the best defensive center fielders in the game. Ideally, if Miami does trade Stanton to Boston, Bradley is apart of the deal. It would make total sense for Bradley to be shipped off to Miami in exchange for Stanton, but I’m not saying that’d be the case, guaranteed. I’m mostly trying to avoid the Trade Benintendi talk which breaks my heart into one billion tiny pieces just thinking about it.
As for Stanton’s absolutely gigantic contract, it’s impossible to avoid. His 13-year, $325 million deal signed back in 2014 almost certainly gives many headaches just by looking at it. It’s a bit difficult to simplify; a contract even remotely close to that magnitude really can’t be broken down. But let’s take a stab at it.
Look, the Red Sox are filthy rich. And I mean filthy rich. That certainly helps in this situation when Stanton is owed a whopping $295 million (AT LEAST) over the next ten years. He has a 2020 opt-out but it’s pretty unlikely that that will be used by the looks of things.
Stanton’s contract breaks down fairly nicely year-by-year as his yearly salary gradually increases as he gets older, looking something like this:
2018: $25 million 2019: $26 million 2020: $26 million 2021: $29 million
2022: $29 million 2023: $32 million 2024: $32 million 2025: $32 million
2026: $29 million 2027: $25 million 2028: $25 million team option + $10 million buyout
To me, an individual player’s yearly making is what’s the most important. Stanton’s annual salary is $25 million, which, in all honesty, isn’t that bad. It’s actually quite reasonable. For example, we know that David Price’s annual salary is $31 million. Hanley Ramirez’s is $22 million. The problem is, is that for the salary to remain reasonable, Stanton will have to remain healthy, which he’s had trouble with in his career. The Red Sox know better than anyone what it’s like to bring a promising, big-name player into the mix, pay them big bucks and within a couple years, the player turns into a disappointment (talkin’ Pablo Sandoval, folks). Luckily, this isn’t our money being spent so we don’t personally have to deal with making these types of decisions, which I am eternally grateful for.
At the end of the day, Boston is an ideal place for Stanton to play. The Red Sox will give him his money, which he wants. The Red Sox will also give him a chance to win, not to mention a chance to lead an entire team to postseason victory, which we know he wants, and desperately.
Thankfully, the case for J.D. Martinez is much simpler compared to Stanton’s as Martinez is currently a free agent. Martinez avoided becoming a qualified free agent as he was traded midseason (to be given a qualifying offer, the player has to have been on the team’s opening day roster along with never having received a qualifying offer before).
The 30-year-old right fielder propelled the Diamondbacks to the postseason in 2017, putting up MVP-type numbers in his short stint with Arizona as the seasons changed. If Martinez had played the entire season with Arizona, he surely would have at least been considered an MVP finalist. It’s dumb that he wasn’t even in the conversation solely because he was traded, but that’s another story for another day, of course. Martinez put up .302/.366/.741 in just 62 games in Arizona with a staggering 29 home runs, 65 RBI and 13 doubles. As we talked about before and already know, the Red Sox need power in the middle of their lineup. Martinez gives you just that as we’ve seen. Without Martinez, I don’t think the D-Backs make the playoffs. With age and talent on his side, he’s sure to give Boston exactly what they need in a trying time.
If the Red Sox were to sign Martinez this winter, we would, again, slide Benintendi back over to center field, keep Mookie in right, either deal Bradley or place him on the bench and let Martinez play left. Now, Martinez does struggle when it comes to defense, but his bat is so great that most teams can afford to overlook his glove woes. Of course, the Red Sox could again opt to make him their DH, but that adds another element to this already tricky situation that I simply don’t want to delve into. I believe the Red Sox are intent on sticking with Hanley Ramirez anyway, so there’s really no need to empty that can of worms.
We cannot, as a people, overlook the fact that Martinez became a Scott Boras client last week, which will inevitably make things difficult for any team interested in the player, unfortunately. Realistically speaking, Martinez will probably seek a contract to the likes of 6 years, $140-$150 million, which isn’t great nor terrible. At the end of the day, what the Red Sox want to do will happen.
In a perfect world, Martinez will end up in Boston. He’s a polished hitter and clubhouse presence, has power to all fields, is a guaranteed 40-home-runs-a-year guy and will still maintain a .300 average despite most modern day power bats. He’s perfect for Fenway and has already played under Dombrowski before. Lots of teams will be interested and are already interested in this specific player, so the Red Sox will have to finalize this particular offseason blueprint and soon if they want things to go smoothly over the winter.
Dombrowski already stated that the Red Sox have no plans to stay under the luxury tax threshold this coming season unlike in 2017, so whatever the Red Sox want to do as an organization will pretty much happen if they play their cards right. If they choose to lure in J.D. Martinez, they’re going to lure in J.D. Martinez. If they choose to pull out the big guns for Giancarlo Stanton and pull off a deal with Miami, they’re going to pull out the big guns for Giancarlo Stanton and pull off a deal with Miami. All Boston has to do is be assertive early and often and the dominos will fall their way if they do that.
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