Victor Martinez is coming off perhaps the finest season of his career at age 35, but age won’t stop the designated hitter from pursuing a four-year contract on the open market, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Martinez implied earlier in the month to Anthony Castrovince that he’d like to play another four years, though not specifically all on one contract.
Martinez will decline a qualifying offer from the Tigers and seek a contract that covers the same term that his previous four-year, $50MM contract with Detroit. However, it can be reasonably assumed, in my estimation, that the guarantee on a new four-year deal would exceed that total. The Tigers would love to have Martinez back, Heyman writes, but a four-year deal could be a sticking point for the team.
Martinez ranked sixth on the final in-season edition of MLBTR’s Free Agent Power Rankings and will undoubtedly be looked upon favorably in MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agent Rankings following the conclusion of the World Series. The veteran DH (and occasional first baseman/catcher) put up an excellent .335/.409/.565 batting line with 32 homers this season, leading the American Legaue in OBP and leading all of Major League Baseball in OPS (.974).
Nonetheless, a four-year deal for Martinez would run through his age-39 season, which obviously carries a tremendous amount of risk for any party interested in signing him. A four-year deal at an average annual value he and his representatives deem acceptable could approach or even exceed the $60MM mark — a steep price to pay for a slugger of that age, even coming off such a strong season.
Then again, the free agent market lacks power bats, so Martinez will have no shortage of interest. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that a team in need of a bat that feels it can contend in 2015-16 ponies up that kind of cash, even if the final years of the deal can be reasonably expected to return diminished results.
I can seek a 4 year deal too, doesn’t mean I’m gonna get it. 3/56 is my guess
I see more like 4/60 for him, at least it’s a lower AAV.
No way he gets it. He’s 35. One great season doesn’t erase the age concern that comes with him.
Its not “one great season” though is it?
Hes been an elite hitter pretty much all his career and is even getting better with age.
He’ll have plenty of suitors and deservedly so, one of the best pure hitters in baseball for years and still is today, leading the league in OPS at 35 shows his hand/eye co-ordination is as strong as ever.
Tigers will get a draft pick for him.
He’ll probably get 3 with a vesting option of some sort. I don’t think he’ll get 4 guaranteed unless a team gets really desperate. I’d look out for the Mariners here.
3 years for V-Mart sounds pretty desperate, enough.
I could honestly see him get it, albeit for a somewhat lower AAV. For 4 years, I could see a total of 60-65 million on the deal. However a 3 year deal seems just as likely, probably for a total between the 52-56 million mark (I’m thinking more so towards the 52 mark).
Look for the White Sox to be players for Martinez. Dunne and Konerko are gone and they have some money to spend and a strong need for a bat.
No thanks, the Sox need to go young. Hahn has already said so, bringing in VMart would go against what the Sox have been doing for the last year and a half of bringing in young core pieces.
No, Hahn knows the White Sox are a solid bat away from being a decent team.
He also knows that he has to field a competitive team to get fans to the park. They couldn’t sell out two years ago when they were in the pennant race with the Tigers and were taking on the Tigers at home.
The Sox will make a play for Martinez.
Not surprised that hes going for 4 years, he’s stated before that he doesnt wanna play past 40. Id love to see VMart remain a Tiger, but Id almost rather see the Tigers use the money on the bullpen, outfield and getting Torii Hunter back to play DH at least for next year.
I’d say 35-year-old Victor Martinez can secure a 4/60 deal if Curtis Granderson could at 33 coming off of a injury-destroyed season.
Granderson can at least fake playing the field, something V-Mart can’t do.
I was all in favor of the Indians spending the money and pursuing Victor, but if he’s deadset on a 4 year deal? Even irrational fans who think their GMs are made of money have got to see how bad of an idea that is…
The big news from the Tigers front today was that Miggy was playing with a stress fracture… a shock to doctors that he could tolerate the pain. You cannot count on him to be 100% in 2015…. beyond that, it would be better to not have a permanent DH, so he can DH 1/3rd or more of the time.
It may be better to let VMART walk and use the money to get Panda or Headley who can play the field… and put Castellanos in the OF to hide his poor defense.
I was about to say Castellanos wasn’t that bad….and then I reconsidered upon looking at his stats. He has been awful. Wow.
For a rookie in his first full season, Castellanos did OK and will have a steep improvement curve.
He’s going to have to hit for power and move off third to succeed. His defense is atrocious and his plate discipline not much better.
Even at age 39-40, V Mart will eat up 25-30% of a SP 100 pitch count. The fact that Miggy is a question mark for early 2015 is exactly why Detroit needs to sign the best pure hitter in baseball. For 2015 V Mart will do fine filling in for Miggy at first 1/3rd of the time.
25-30 percent of a pitcher’s 100 pitches? Never has, Never will, no one does.
As a disgruntled DT fan I take umbrage with the Castellani’s analysis. If you take the 2 years Might played 3b, the prior players at that position were horrendous. They may have been better defensively, but were terrible at the plate. Brandon Inge wasted 5 years at that position and barely batted high enough to exit from the freeway level (e.g below .200). I’d rather have Nick batting over .250, than Inge.
Dombrowski – pay the man.
Still an elite hitter and no reason he still wont be in 2 or 3 years, yes the 4th might be a decline but you’ll get enough in the first 2 or 3 to make it balance out.
4 years at $60m, maybe $65-$70m if it takes that.
Victor wants to stay, we desperately need him to say, especially with setback concerning Miggy just coming out.
Get it done.