TORONTO — Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom must decide whether to extend qualifying offers to Michael Wacha, Nathan Eovaldi and J.D. Martinez who all are eligible for free agency this coming offseason.
The qualifying offer is expected to be worth approximately $19 million for 2023. It seems quite possible Martinez would accept it if the Red Sox were to offer him one. After all, he opted in for $19.375 million in 2022, right around where the qualifying offer will be in ‘23.
Does the 35-year-old Martinez think the Red Sox will extend him one and would he be interested?
“I don’t know. It’s something you’ve got to ask Chaim,” Martinez said. “I haven’t really thought about it, honestly. When it comes to that, it comes to that. We’ll see where we’re at. We’ll see what happens.”
Martinez entered Saturday tied with Bo Bichette for the American League lead in doubles (43). But he also has belted just 14 homers and his .778 OPS (entering Saturday) is 89 below the OPS he posted last year.
A qualifying offer looked very realistic during the first half when Martinez was named an AL All-Star and slashed .302/.368/.481/.849 in 81 games. But his numbers have dropped significantly in the second half, lessening the likelihood the Red Sox will offer it to him. He has slashed just .223/.293/.371/.664 in 54 games during the second half.
Martinez should have a healthy market in free agency despite the dip in production. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement introduced the DH in the National League this year, creating a lot more openings for Martinez.
“Free agency is an exciting, stressful time,” Martinez said. “So we’ll see what happens, really.”
He obviously hopes free agency is simpler than it was before the 2018 season when it took until late February (after spring training began) for him to finally sign.
“That’s when everything got really weird with the whole free agency market and everything,” Martinez said.
Martinez recently told The Boston Globe he wants to play “another two years at least.” Why two years? David Ortiz was a productive DH at 40 years old.
“Maybe I play that long (like Ortiz). I don’t think I can ,” Martinez said.
Why not?
“I don’t know,” Martinez said, pausing for a bit. “I just feel like two more years.”
Has he been thinking about two more years for a while now?
“It’s not a number. I just threw it out there,” Martinez said. “It’s not like I really thought about this and said, ‘I want to play another two years.’ I just feel like I’ll be 37 ...”
Martinez has multiple interests beyond baseball. He’s an avid fisherman who owns a boat and will be plenty busy once he retires. He knows he’ll be fine when that day finally comes.
“It comes a time in life where you just — I’ve been playing baseball since I was 4,” Martinez said. “Yeah. That’s 31 years. Every summer, every month since I was a kid. Not even just summer. Baseball is full-time in Florida. It’s full-time down there. I don’t know. It takes a lot. People don’t understand that it’s very time-consuming.”
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October 02, 2022 at 04:18AM
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Might Red Sox extend J.D. Martinez a qualifying offer? DH talks ‘exciting, stressful’ free agency - MassLive.com
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