Latest on J.D. Martinez, Red Sox

SUNDAY, 4:29pm: There is indeed a Martinez press conference scheduled for Monday, Drellich tweets. It’s “very fair” to say a deal is near, Boras told Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe (Twitter link).

4:14pm: There could be a press conference announcing the Martinez signing as early as Monday, per both Jared Carrabis of Barstool Sports and Ian Browne of MLB.com. The Red Sox and Boras “had a productive weekend adjusting contract language,” according to Browne.

10:50am: The two sides “have continued to work though contract language,” tweets Heyman, who notes that there’s a “high probability” they’ll complete the agreement.

SATURDAY, 1:28pm: Both sides are being cautious, but the Red Sox and Martinez’ camp still expect to finalize the deal, Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports reassures. He adds that the delay mainly stems from “a desire to make sure the exact language of the contract is right in light of these potential red flags.”

10:01am: The Red Sox and slugger J.D. Martinez recently agreed to terms on a five-year, $110MM pact, but an official announcement has yet to come from the team, even though a press conference was expected as far back as Thursday. Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston shed some light on the situation today, reporting that the two sides are sorting through a “medical matter” following Martinez’ physical.

There’s a belief that the matter will not have any effect on the outfielder’s ability to take the field in the immediate future. At this time, there’s no further clarity as to what the issue is, but Drellich writes that “a better understanding between the parties” could come at some point today. There are apparently some additional medical experts involved, including a few consultants referred by agent Scott Boras.

It doesn’t seem as though the contract itself is in any real jeopardy. The process of ironing out the issue is reportedly “thorough and cooperative”. Yesterday, in a more speculative piece on the subject, Drellich suggested that a collapse of the contract at this point would be a “wildly unexpected scenario”. It’s entirely possible that the agreement will proceed untouched or be revised in only a slight way. Nevertheless, whatever snag the two camps have hit regarding Martinez’ physical only serves to delay the slugger’s spring training debut.

There are more questions than answers surrounding the situation at the moment, but we’ll be sure to provide updates as they come.