White Sox described as ‘most logical' suitors for J.D. Martinez, which is, well, logical

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Last year around this time, we had the November surprise that was the White Sox reported interest in Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, a completely unexpected turn of events that led to an offseason-long pursuit of the biggest names on the free-agent market.

There might be more surprises this winter as the White Sox go shopping to plug several holes on the big league roster, but any reported interest in J.D. Martinez won’t be one of them.

That’s not to assure such a pursuit will happen, only to say that if it does, it won’t be much of a surprise. The White Sox were described Sunday by WEEI’s Rob Bradford as the “most logical” suitors for Martinez, who’s expected to hit the free-agent market by opting out of the remainder of his contract with the Boston Red Sox.

That echoes what we heard from NBC Sports Boston’s John Tomase, who similarly pointed to the White Sox as a leading candidate to land Martinez on a recent edition of the White Sox Talk Podcast. And from what Tomase and plenty of others have said when talking about Martinez, he seems like the perfect fit for this White Sox team.

Rick Hahn announced designated hitter as one of the items on an offseason to-do list that also includes right field and starting pitching, and Martinez will be far and away the best available DH. His statistical output is well known, a .317/.392/.593 hitter in his two seasons with the Red Sox with a whopping 184 home runs launched since the start of the 2015 season. He made the All-Star team in each of the last two seasons, finished fourth in MVP voting last year and won not one but two Silver Sluggers in 2018, when he won a World Series with the Red Sox.

Martinez is as productive as they come at the DH spot, but his off-the-field contributions sound equally important for a White Sox team looking to grow their young core in an effort to shift out of rebuilding mode and into contending mode. According to Tomase, he worked closely with young stars in Boston like Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts, guys who have become two of the top hitters in baseball in recent seasons. That kind of thing could be helpful to a young group on the South Side featuring Yoan Moncada, Tim Anderson, Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert.

Throw in the notion that the market for DHs, even one of Martinez’s caliber, might not be very big, with obviously no National League teams and perhaps only a handful of American League teams in the market, and Martinez landing on the South Side looks more and more, well, logical.

Of course, it will take no insignificant amount of money. In opting out of his current deal with the Red Sox, Martinez would give up a guaranteed three years and more than $62 million. So any team looking to sign him would need to beat that in order to do so. The White Sox continue to tout the financial flexibility gained through their rebuilding process, but plenty of fans remain skeptical they’ll be able to use it as desired after the way the pursuit of Machado played out. Hahn recognizes those feelings and understands the reputation will stick until the White Sox prove it wrong.

Martinez seems to provide one heck of an opportunity to do just that. There has been no indication that the White Sox have actual interest in Martinez to this point, but the dots are easy to connect given the team’s need at DH and their interest in making the kind of splash they would have made last year had they, not the San Diego Padres, been the ones to land Machado.

Bradford had a couple other nuggets to offer while discussing Martinez. First, he said that the Red Sox would likely extend a qualifying offer to Martinez, which means, if he were to reject that, as expected, the team that signs him would have to forfeit a draft pick. That additional cost is what kept big names on last winter's free-agent market like Craig Kimbrel and Dallas Keuchel unsigned until the summer.

With the White Sox looking to vault into contending mode, the cost of a draft pick doesn’t seem like it would be enough to deter them from pursuing a bat as big as Martinez. It's important to note that the pick the White Sox would give up in signing a player who rejects a qualifying offer would be their second-round pick, not their first-round pick, the No. 11 overall pick in next summer’s draft.

Second, Bradford mentioned that with all of Scott Boras’ big-name clients dominating the free-agent market this winter, “there is some thought that if Martinez does hit free agency Boras will prioritize getting the righty hitter's new deal done on the earlier side.” That could be good news for the White Sox, who were among those waiting until after the beginning of spring training for Machado and Harper to make their decisions.

There’s a difference between “most logical” and “in pursuit,” but don’t be surprised if the former yields to the latter once the offseason gets going after the World Series.

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