Holding Until Spring Training
It’s the end of January. The MLB offseason is reaching its end and the Boston Red Sox haven’t made any notable moves besides the return of Moreland. The Sox are the front runners in the JD Martinez sweepstakes and he has yet to sign. The five year $100 million dollar deal the Sox offered has been on hold. The Scott Boras client even went on to say he would hold out until Spring Training to accept an offer. That’s flat out ridiculous, and this should make every Red Sox fan annoyed. The more I think of it, it wouldn’t be a bad thing if JD doesn’t sign with Boston. It may save the Red Sox some cash if they don’t sign Martinez, looking toward next offseason.
(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Contract Years
Craig Kimbrel, Drew Pomeranz, and Joe Kelly are all potentially becoming free agents next year. It would be ideal for the Sox to sign back at least Kimbrell, who’s going to be asking for a hefty contract. If Pomeranz produces similarly to last year, then you can expect him to receive around a three or four year offer. Adding to that David Price, Chris Sale, and Hanley Ramirez are in their respective “opt-out” years, where it will depend on how well they perform in 2018. With players going into arbitration, Matt Barnes and Heath Hembree are entering their first years. Mookie, Bradley, and Bogaerts are also entering their second and third years so they will be expecting more money.
This also comes at a time where players in the likes of Bryce Harper and Manny Machado hit free agency. Clayton Kershaw and Elvis Andrus are entering “opt-out” years as well. If you really want to look ahead on it, Boston might want to start planning on possibly resigning Chris Sale next season as well as Paul Goldschmidt hitting free agency.
So to be honest, I would be totally fine on not signing JD this offseason. As long as we have Chris Sale and Paul Goldschmidt in 2020 (I can dream, right?).