Among the top free agents on the market his offseason, one could argue that no player has had his market impacted more by the presence of two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani than veteran slugger J.D. Martinez. After all, the Dodgers declined to extend Martinez a qualifying offer last month despite interest in a reunion due to the complications that would arise if the club landed both Martinez and Ohtani. With Ohtani now signed in LA on a record-shattering $700MM deal, its hard to imagine the Dodgers-Martinez reunion both sides appeared to have interest in coming together. To that end, Jon Heyman of the New York Post provided an update regarding Martinez’s market, suggesting that the Angels, Mariners, Mets and Diamondbacks could be among the teams in play for his services now that he’s unlikely to return to Chavez Ravine. Among that group, only Arizona had previously been connected to the veteran slugger this winter.
The Angels certainly make plenty of sense as a suitor for Martinez now that they know Ohtani won’t be returning to Anaheim in 2024. After all, the club has made it clear they have no plans to launch a rebuild this offseason as the club dismissed speculation that Ohtani’s impending departure could lead to a trade of Mike Trout this offseason. With Ohtani moving on in 2024 and a 2023 record of just 73-89, the club has a lot of work to do if it hopes to compete for a playoff spot next season.
Of course, improved health from the likes of Trout, Logan O’Hoppe and Anthony Rendon could represent internal avenues toward improvement, but it’s hard to imagine the Angels competing without an external offensive addition to help mitigate the loss of Ohtani. Martinez, who slashed .271/.321/.572 with 33 home runs and a 135 wRC+ last season, was outclassed only by Ohtani and Marcell Ozuna among regulars at DH last season and would go a long way toward filling the offensive hole left by Ohtani.
As for the Mariners, the addition of Martinez would surely benefit a lineup that has lost Teoscar Hernandez, Jarred Kelenic, Eugenio Suarez, and Mike Ford this offseason without a clear everyday replacement for any of those bats. What’s more, the club has shed plenty of payroll this offseason and has previously been connected to fellow righty slugger Jorge Soler this offseason. Martinez, 36, posted a stronger offensive season than the 31-year-old Soler in 2023 and could potentially be a more impactful addition to Seattle’s lineup next season.
With that being said, the Mariners have made clear their desire to improve their lineup’s contact skills headed into 2024, and Soler’s 25.7% strikeout rate figures to be much more palatable than Martinez’s 31.4% mark last season. What’s more, while MLBTR projected Soler for a $45MM guarantee that clocks in higher than Martinez’s $40MM figure on our annual Top 50 MLB free agents list, it’s worth noting that Soler’s relative youth could allow him to secure a longer contract than Martinez, which would tamp down the average annual value of the deal and potentially allow the Mariners to more room in their budget for further offensive additions.
The Mets are perhaps the most curious fit for Martinez among the listed teams. While the club received a mediocre 100 wRC+ from their DH slot (the 12th-worst figure in the majors) last season and subsequently parted ways with Daniel Vogelbach at the non-tender deadline last month, it’s worth noting that the club has plenty of young bats such as Mark Vientos and Brett Baty who could command playing time next season and that adding a 36-year-old DH to a club that’s more focused on the future than 2024 may not be the best use of the club’s resources. On the other hand, the only Mets regulars to post above-average seasons by measure of wRC+ last season who will remain with the club in 2024 are Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, and Brandon Nimmo. Adding the bat of Martinez to the middle of the club’s lineup next season would add some much-needed offensive firepower and help the club compete in what is shaping up to be the final year before Alonso heads into free agency next winter.
Just dingers Martinez is a great addition anywhere!
Angels could sign Martinez to DH, Teoscar Hernandez to play left and even Tim Anderson for almost for what they paid Ohtani last year. That would create depth. Use Ward, Regnifo, Adell, Sandoval and Canning to trade for elite pitching or young pitching from Miami. Go sign RYU and Urias to one-year deals, Get some strong arms in that pen like Shelby Miller and Matt Moore. You want to splurge– go get Hader who is the surest bet in free agency. Add those three guys to what you have in the pen and suddenly this team looks good. All of this is still cheaper than what Ohtani cost the Dodgers. Which would give us a better team?
I can see the angels going after jd martinez, not sure about the rest the bullpen seems like it’s done with the moves they made, I’m not saying it’s great. I just don’t see them adding two more pieces. Urias is probably out of the league. Bauer has more a chance to return, and that could be slim. I would say snell, and martinez would put them close to the same as last year with better coaching. It’s looking like they’re waving the white flag this year, with the narrative we tried.
Heyman with a wild guess hot take pretending to be news. The venerable “could be”.
He’s a columnist pretending to be a reporter he just writes stuff to fill that trashy paper he works at.
RayKings: A lot of people work hard in relative anonymity to put out these “trashy papers.”
Harmless fun I guess. Anyone could throw out 5+ teams that “could” sign JD. Just order every team from worst to first, figure out who has money, and who might be a contender.
I’ll have a good chuckle if Ohtani can’t meet Martinez’s 2023 numbers.
There will be a huge amount of pressure on Ohtani to justify that contract. I’m glad I’m not in his cleats.
Since MLB contracts are fully guaranteed he gets 700 million no matter what his numbers are the next ten years. I could handle being heckled all day, everyday by everyone on Earth for that payday.
Sorry for you jimmyyz
I wish I was in Ohtani’s cleats. I’d laugh everyday at internet trolls from my luxurious mansion with my servants meeting my every need before my driver took me to the game in my luxurious limo.
CardsFan57, Are mom and dad servicing you breakfast in bed tomorrow?
Nope. I don’t live Ohtani’s life. I just wish I lived his life.
Sorry for your loss
Not as sorry as I am. I really wanted that $700 million.
Curly the only way that pressure or anyone else’s thoughts/opinions can affect you is if you let it. I’d just ignore that noise and still have my 700 million. Pretty easy choice.
You deserve that 700 million.
SORRY BOUT YOUR LUCK!!
Just hitting, he is going to do really well. We will see how TJ impacts his numbers though
People talk about how the dodgers are the favourites to win the National league now. JD Martinez put up an .893 OPS last year. Even if Ohtani puts up a .930 OPS that’s a marginal upgrade at best. Without May and Kershaw that rotation is really suspect. I’m sure they will address it, but there are a lot of question marks.
The real question is can Martinez match Martinez numbers?
The ol’ pat on the head consolation prize. You didn’t get Ohtani and lost lost out on Soto.
Here you go. Try JD until the Dodgers sign h to. Want a player? Watch out, the Dodger or Yankees will sign him.
Just print up Dodgers vs Yankees WS tickets for 2024. MLB wants it.
the club has made it clear they have no plans to launch a rebuild this offseason
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And therein lies the Angles problem. They only won 73, with Ohtani.
But they had a massive amount of injuries all season and tanked in September losing 25% of their roster. That 73 isn’t a true measurement
You got that right Al Conin. The Angels last year anyway, were a playoff caliber team, and probably more talented then half the playoff teams.
But yeah, historic amount of injuries, and Phill Nevin is why they weren’t. At least there’s no more Nevin. Woo hoo!
At every season’s end, people excuse the Angels poor performance on a ‘massive amount of injuries”. Every team suffers injuries. The teams that succeed are those that have the depth to absorb the injuries. If the Angels suffered an inordinate amount of injuries, then they also have to look at their process for player development and health, whatever that department is. The excuses are getting very thin and laughable.
Yeah cause stuff like Ward getting hit in the face is cause of player development and health. Hahaha. It’s not like the Angels had a bunch of soft tissue injuries. Then I could see your point.
Nice try pointing out one unavoidable injury to try to argue against my point. There are unavoidable injuries, but that’s true for every team. You can’t focus on only those exceptions in an effort to prove your point. Every team had injuries. Our depth couldn’t absorb them all. The Angels can’t keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome.
Exceptions? The facts are, most injuries are unavoidable. In this era, 90% + MLB players are in the best baseball shape they can be in. So when u break records for health, it is unlucky.
Ohtani, are u going to call him soft? He works as hard as any, and one might call him injured prone with his 6 years with the Angels. Of coarse he’s been doing double duty, but no excuses right.
That all said, last year was the only year the Angels had depth in Ohtani’s 6. But as what u have said, it was stupid for the Angels to wait til the last year of Ohtani to do so, and put all your eggs in for 1 year, and then get ravaged,Though unlucky, they should of recognized what they had with him,and done it for all 6 years.
Wow, you sure are hearing a lot of stuff I’m not saying. It’s ok if we have a different take on stuff. I’m not here to argue with you or anyone. Cheers and Merry Christmas.
It’s because it’s true the injuries added up definitely those injuries accumulated hurt their performance not making no excuse do you think the Texas Rangers would’ve won the World Series if they would’ve had 5 key injuries to their starting 9 position players
and they’re 5 men starting rotation come on be real
I hear yah Prov, and agree with u for the most part, just not last season. It doesn’t make anyone wrong or right, but at the end of the day, Yes! They should of done more in a lot of area’s over the years.
Anyway, cheers to u to and Merry x-mas.
Trout is preventing them from rebuilding thus trout is the real problem
I’d want him on the Padres but that won’t happen. My Padres are a POVERTY FRANCHISE.
Padres can’t afford anyone, meh.
Only Darvish, Bogaerts, Machado, and Tatis. Definitely a poverty franchise.
They went over the luxury tax last year and the year before with 243 mil payroll in 2022 and 263 mil in 2023.
That’s not poverty at all that’s just underachieving with good talent.
And a lot of over paying…
But just last year Padres were buying every player… that franchise is a mess
Try losing your beloved owner to cancer. Then watch MLB force a trade of Soto to the Yankees. Then watch your team cut payroll and watch the rest of MLB pull for the Padres demise.
Nobody forced them to trade Soto. That was their choice.
MLB didn’t force that trade. The laws of economics forced that trade. The Padres are a mid market team who spent like a big market team in the hopes of buying a championship before losing the owner to cancer. I’m really sorry. He’s gone and the bill has come due. Your team has a lot of long term baggage that they aren’t likely to unload. Again, I’m sorry that happened.
Not many realized the motivation behind the spending. The regional network issue was the other problem. The team needs to fix it’s long term ownership issue fast (if there now is one). Everyone knew a mid-market club like SD couldn’t maintain their spending without losses.
I didn’t realize it was due to that. I knew there had to be a reason but it just seemed so sudden. Sorry if I called them out, I really didn’t know. Makes sense now
And for the record, I’d rather the Padres win over the Dodgers
There is no “record,” and that’s just your personal opinion, irrelevant to this discussion.
The MLB didn’t force that trade. The Padres can’t afford Soto and had holes to fill in their rotation. They addressed both issues with this trade. You don’t have to like it but it’s simply wrong to say MLB forced anything in regards to that trade. That’s conspiracy theory b.s.
Alright Blue Baron, thanks for the correction
Poverty franchise? The Padres? What? I think Blue Baron said it best below – and they had Soto in that lineup as well…
The Angels epic failure was not trading Ohtani when they had the chance. Now Trout can go back to being the face of the franchise, they can go out and sign some great additions for 70 million dollars
Of all the mistakes that have been made by that franchise in recent years, not dealing Ohtani last July is unquestionably the most costly. They’d be in a completely different place right now, but still without Phil Nevin. It was a gamble that carried way more downside than up.
That was such an epic failure on their part, more likely because of the owner. To top it all off Ohtani didn’t even finish out the season. They got nothing out of it.
This is where the Jays go after losing out on Ohtani. Bellinger has been rumoured, but is a risk after a couple of rough years before his 2023 resurgence. J.D. has been pretty consistent over his career at the plate, and would fit in as the primary DH, occasional OF perfectly in Toronto.
That would be a terrible downgrade for Toronto.
Downgrade from what? They never had Ohtani, so they’re not downgrading from him. Otherwise, he’d be about as good as a offensive addition as they’ve made in recent memory. And he’d be a great influence on Vladdy.
Could be a significant upgrade for 24 if they spend half the 24 AAV on two or three players to fill out the roster.
If you’re saying downgrade from Ohtani, fine. You’re also talking about committing 20 mil instead of 70 for a player and you only have to do it for 2 years. JD has been remarkably consistent for his career and would be a good pick up for a lot of teams.
They can sign Martinez and Bellinger for less than the price of Ohtani
Martinez would be a good fit in Toronto. He’s always hit well in the Rogers Centre. The Jays have 3 lineup holes. Martinez would fill one of them
I would think Toronto still prefers Belli… they still need a LHH presence in that lineup and an OFer.
They can do both. Play Bellinger in the outfield & Martinez at DH. The Jays said earlier in the offseason that they’re open to adding a full-time DH. Martinez could be that guy with Bellinger slotting into the outfield. That would probably still leave them money to fill their third base hole
I heard Martinez is on a private jet to Toronto as we speak to meet with Jays’ FO and probably ink a deal. Oh wait…….or is it Kevin O’Leary on that plane? Either way let’s all gather at the airport and hope for the best.
I think Bellinger would be better based on age personally.
Hate to see just dingers go guy can absolutely rake
Hes Coming Back To Arizona
You have no way to know that.
He still lives in Arizona, where he had his best season ever after a deadline trade from Detroit.
Well, that settles it.
Giants
I believe that JD Martinez would be an asset for the Mariners at the plate and in the clubhouse
Yeah I’ve been thinking mariners all offseason
Good news AZ, JD Martinez will be coming back soon!
JD is the RHH DH the Dbacks are looking for. He has to have great memories from 2017 when he killed it upon arrival in AZ at the trade deadline.
I’m sure he has good memories of Detroit, where his career took off. He’d make a fine replacement for Miggy.
Reunion with the DBacks?
JD will get paid to play baseball in 2024. You heard it here first
$100M for JD Martinez for 2 years paid out over 29 years??
One dollar a year for 100 million years, done deal
How can you say that teams have interest when only one team is connected kinda a double standard…
I don’t think you know what a double standard is
If I know anything it’s that the Dodgers never feel like they have enough. That is literally the definition of greed. They have money and they have prestige and it wouldn’t shock me in the least if JD actually takes less money and offers to play the outfield just to sign up for an easy ring.
What the Doyers don’t have enough of is PITCHING — not nearly enough! But a few million dollars more and they’ll have that figured out soon enough.
Completely agree. Never mind any more possible position player additions, they need to get busy signing MULTIPLE SPs for that decimated rotation or the Ohtani signing (at least for ‘24) will have been in vain.
I’m pretty sure the definition of greed is when you want more than you need and the Dodgers haven’t won the World Series in a while so it sounds like they do need him
Martinez hit 11 fewer Home Runs in 67 less AB’s but drove in more runs and will get paid exponentially less next season than Ohtani.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Angels go after JD as they now have a major hole in the middle of their lineup
He drove in more runs, because he had Mookie Freddy and Smith ahead of him whereas Ohtani had trout and no trout
Good to see that Heyman is still employed as Boras’ mouth piece.
Fingers crossed JD coming back to AZ. Batting 5th
The last thing the Angels need is a full time DH. Now that Ohtani’s is gone, at least on the bright side whenever Trout or Rendon or anyone else gets banged up and are easing back or can take a half day where they don’t need to run around on defense, hey they can now DH.
Remember this is the designated hitter position. Rendon cant hit.
Or even stay on the field
Or be nice to his fans
Rendon is a scourge at best.
Jd to the angels would be great
JD Martinez should come back to the DBacks for the next couple of years, say for $50 million or so.
Ha. I love JD. But, if Diamondbacks are dumb enough to make that offer, JD will be there. Book it!
I really hope it’s just one year, maybe two. Idk if he’s got a lot more in the tank with a 31% K rate. I don’t see that K rate improving.
JD to Seattle Dbacks or Texas on a 1 year deal to DH.
Would be epic if Angels signed him lol
I think the Angels will pass on Martinez.
Without Ohtani, I’ll bet there’ll be a rotating DH, with Trout and Rendon taking a fair share of their at-bats there to (hopefully) keep them somewhat healthy.
Does that mean they’ll need to sign another outfielder or third baseman as well instead of a DH?
Someone who has more versatility than Martinez, at least.
They should still sign Justin Turner as he’s a better defender than Muncy.
Everyone is a better defender than Muncy.
Return to AZ makes the most sense, here.
“After all, the club has made it clear they have no plans to launch a rebuild this offseason”
Angels don’t plan on being out of it come September every year either but it is what it is
If the Cubs had any brains they would try to sign Martinez for DH while getting Matt Chapman and bringing back Cody B. …
$700 million for one player is too much seeing you can most likely get all three of those players for the same price or a little more and fill holes in your lineup.
Wait. The Cubs are not still in contention for Ohtani? Thought they had it was a wrap. Like the playoffs. Jedi Hoyer said
If you think Bellinger + Chapman + JD are could cost $700M then I wouldn’t trust you gauging value on any contract and sincerely hope that someone else in your life is helping you with your personal accounting and finances
When your ex shows up in the morning when your overnight guest rolls out of bed. Awk-ward.
Off the wall option…. Cincy Reds. I know, not the perfect fit, but it’d be fun to see him hit in that home park.
JD Martinez will DH at Wrigley this season. Perfect fit for him. Should hit 35-40 HR there. Plus, lots of games vs. NL Central Reds and Brewers whose home parks also help with homers.
For sheer drama, I’d like to see him in AZ. battling against his former NL West mates and/or with the Angels as a replacement for you-know-who.
Angels should trade away Mike Trout and get not just prospects but MLB ready guys including a top of rotation pitcher.
Trout doesn’t have the value for that type of trade. With his massive contract, age and injury history, if you can find a team to take his entire contract on, you’d get maybe one prospect in return. Or you eat much of his contract and get more.
Angels make the most sense; he wouldn’t have to move.
Perry is on the clock. But he’s been on the clock for 3 years now, so we won’t expect any decent signings or trades. Good luck with the 18,000 fans a game this year Arte.
Hope he gets signed.
Well, Moreno blew his chance to keep the marketing unicorn because the marketing unicorn wanted to play for a real team instead of a team that has prioritized marketing over winning. I would have loved to see the little nerd’s reaction when he heard that Ohtani was going to the Dodgers, who were already winning the market by a large margin. I’m sure it hit him right in his heart (by that I mean his wallet). Priceless.
Maybe this will increase the chances that Moreno sells the team? I sure hope so.
I hate to say this, but I think it’s time to boycott the team, forcing Arte Moreno to sell the Angels
He spends recklessly on an island and not on the team, coaching staff the farm system. Everything is run on shoestrings and pennies.