Tigers GM Al Avila said today that the organization has interest in pursuing an extension with outfielder J.D. Martinez, as Chris Iott of MLive.com reports. He declined to discuss whether and to what extent the sides had already discussed that possibility.
“I don’t really want to get into our conversations with the players or their agents at this point,” said the newly-minted Detroit GM. “Usually we don’t make those comments. I can tell you we would have interest in something like that.”
Martinez, 28, is entering his second season of arbitration eligibility after earning $3MM last year. He’ll be looking for a big increase on that payout after a stellar campaign. MLBTR’s arbitration projections, via Matt Swartz, expect Martinez to receive nearly a $5MM raise this winter.
From his perspective, Martinez tells Iott, he has interest in a longer-term arrangement. But he said he’d let his representatives at RMG Baseball handle any contractual matters. “I would love to play in Detroit the rest of my career,” said Martinez. “But I leave the business part to my agent.”
That increasing earning power certainly has Martinez set up for a significant new contract. There aren’t many recent comps from power-hitting corner outfielders, but Adam Jones (six years, $85.5MM) and Alex Gordon (four years, $50MM) previously signed fairly large extensions when they were in the 4+ service class.
With 61 total home runs and a composite .304/.350/.543 batting line over the last two seasons, Martinez has out-produced all of this winter’s top free agents since he began his breakout. If he keeps that up, he’ll be in line for a massive free agent payday, and any extension would need to reflect that. All said, it seems that the initial interest is there to make a deal plausible, but both sides have plenty of ground to cover if something is to get done.
Wonder why Houston gave up on JD?
Because he wasn’t very good for them and they had better options on the roster.
It has been pretty well documented. He had struggled through multiple chances, was removed from the 40-man, and then overhauled his swing. Houston did have an opportunity to keep him after he began showing improvement in winter ball, but released him in late March of 2014. JD ended up signing with the Tigers and the rest was history.
This piece is from that winter, and seems rather prescient in retrospect: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/rule-5-dark-horse-j-d-martinez/
Thanks for the history.
JD is a beast. Really hope we can extend him longer.
Wondering what it would take to extend JD. I would love to get him for five more years, he could move over to DH if needed. 5/55 seems reasonable, and as a Tigers fan I would hope we would pull the trigger
Sounds light to me. If he gets close to 8 next year, he could be set up for something like 14 the following year. So 55 over 5 would be selling the FA years at something like 11 mil annually.
Consider that guys who actually have lesser overall offensive output over the last two years – Upton, Cespedes, Davis – will be earning low-20-million-dollar AAVs for upwards of 6 seasons on their FA deals, and you can see why they probably won’t be too anxious to give away those seasons at that price. Freddie Freeman’s extension, to take one example, values his FA years in the 20-22 mil range.
Never know, but I think it would have to be a good bit higher than that. He’s too close to the open market for a really cut rate. Bautista isn’t a bad place to look (should’ve put him in the post). He was a 5+ player, but signed for 5/65 after just one year of huge production. That’s an old number given the salary inflation we’ve seen since.
Thanks Jeff, that makes a lot of sense. If it does end up coming closer to the 18-22 mill annual range, still think the Tigers will/should pull the trigger?