Designated hitter is just one of the items on the White Sox offseason shopping list, and it sounds like the expected top name on the free-agent market will indeed be available.
It’s long been anticipated that J.D. Martinez will take advantage of the opt-out clause in his contract with the Boston Red Sox, something that looked even more likely after the BoSox fired team president Dave Dombrowski and were reported to be in a bit of a financial pickle (one that might end with them trying to trade 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts).
Well, Martinez didn’t exactly pull a Jose Abreu and declare a desire to stay put as the Red Sox season came to an end over the weekend, telling The Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham that he wouldn’t mind joining his fourth team in four seasons.
Martinez has certainly bounced around. He was a White Sox division rival with the Detroit Tigers, dealt in the middle of the 2017 season to the Arizona Diamondbacks. After spending a half season there, he moved on to Boston, and it sounds as if he’ll be looking for a new home for the 2020 season and beyond.
None of this comes as much of a shock, as the reason those opt-out clauses exist is to give productive players a shot at earning even more money on the open market. While Martinez had a significantly worse season in 2019 than he did during the Red Sox championship season in 2018 — his OPS was down nearly 100 points this year — he was still very good with a .304/.383/.557 slash line to go along with 36 home runs and 105 RBIs.
Compare that to what White Sox designated hitters did in 2019: a combined .205/.285/.356 with 17 homers and 75 RBIs.
MLB
Martinez would undoubtedly inject a heaping helping of power into the White Sox lineup — or any lineup, to be honest — the hitter of 184 home runs over the last five seasons. He won not one but two Silver Sluggers in 2018, finishing fourth in AL MVP voting after putting up a 1.031 OPS to go along with his 43 home runs and MLB-best 130 RBIs.
Now, Martinez merely being available doesn’t mean he’ll be wearing a White Sox uniform in 2020 or even be a White Sox target this winter. But it would certainly make sense for Rick Hahn’s front office to have interest. Hahn laid out the team’s plans to add a DH, among other things, this winter during his end-of-season press conference Friday, and while a designated hitter can come from anywhere, certainly there will be no more attractive DH candidate on the free-agent market than Martinez, the next best option, perhaps, being former White Sox right fielder Avisail Garcia.
The White Sox have the financial flexibility to land a big-money player like Martinez, and though Hahn has been adamant about smashing preconceived notions about the team, the franchise’s history in free agency could point to an increased likelihood to spend that money on a hitter — especially a slugger like Martinez — rather than a pitcher. Of course, starting pitching is even higher on Hahn’s list of offseason priorities, and there are some big names available there, too.
How much money will Martinez command? Well, he’d be opting out of a contract with the Red Sox that would pay him $62.45 million over the next three seasons. So, you know, more than that.
Another item of note that could point to potential White Sox interest in Martinez — and any free agent, really — is their possibly diminished ability to swing a trade for a player of All-Star caliber. A year ago, it looked like the White Sox would have a ton of minor league depth to deal from, spinning off prospects who were slotted behind core pieces to fill holes at the big league level. But in 2019, injuries and under-performance wreaked havoc on that depth, and it’s now much more difficult to envision a package of “second-tier” White Sox prospects — the guys after Luis Robert, Nick Madrigal and Michael Kopech — that could fetch a big name. Certainly the possibility exists, it’s just a different-looking situation from where they were a year ago.
And so free agency seems to be the most likely way the White Sox will go to fill the holes Hahn talked about on Friday, not just designated hitter but also starting pitching and right field. Who knows if that will set the White Sox on a course to sign Martinez, but they need a DH and it looks like he’ll be the best one available.
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