UPDATE: J.D. Martinez has signed with the Red Sox, as first reported by ESPN's Pedro Gomez and confirmed by an NBC Sports Boston source.
More details as they come available...
ORIGINAL STORY: FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Red Sox and J.D. Martinez were nearing a deal on Monday evening, a baseball source told NBC Sports Boston.
Multiple sources earlier Monday said the Sox and Martinez were in active negotiation. The industry belief has long been that the Sox are Martinez's most logical landing spot.
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“Other than to say we remain interested, do not have anything else to add,” Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said by email Monday afternoon.
The Red Sox braintrust was together Monday morning and midday at JetBlue Park, with both principal owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner on hand.
Werner in January confirmed the Sox were in active negotiations with Martinez. On Monday, he deferred questions to Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski.
“I think you should talk to Dave about that,” Werner said. “Obviously there’s no news, but I think you should ask Dave that question."
Werner and Henry both said they were bullish on the Sox if they do not sign Martinez. Werner was asked whether the Sox have an obligation to improve last year’s team with outside help. Without Martinez, the team is virtually identical.
“We have an obligation to try to win the World Series every year,” Werner said. “Sometimes you go in one direction, sometimes you go in another direction. We’re not ceding first place to anybody. Obviously, we have to be better in the playoffs. As John said, we think our approach is better this year and we think we’re going to have if not the highest payroll in baseball, one of the two or three highest payrolls in baseball. We have a great general manager and a great team to figure out how to deploy it and we certainly feel like we’re moving forward.”
