Top 20 free agents & where they’ll sign part 2

15. J.D. Martinez, DH

2 Years/$30 Million to the Seattle Mariners

There was a time when J.D. Martinez was one of the most feared sluggers in the game. The Miami native batted .303/.376/.690 with 45 HR and 104 RBI in just 119 games and 432 AB for the Detroit Tigers and Arizona Diamondbacks in 2017. He then batted .330/.402/.629 with 43 HR and 130 RBI for the Boston Red Sox in 2018. He was worth an astounding 6.7 WAR that season and helped Boston win the World Series.

In 2019, J.D. Martinez batted .304/.383/.557 with 36 home runs and 105 RBI in 146 games and 575 AB. He was worth 3.5 WAR and experienced some back issues. Things started to go downhill starting with 2020, when he batted just .213/.291/.389 during the shortened season.  He bounced back in 2021 with a .286/.349/.518 batting line, 28 home runs and 99 RBI. The drop-off in power was concerning, but it still looked like he had more in the tank for his contract year.

In 2022, J.D. Martinez hit .274/.341/.448 with just 16 home runs and 62 RBI in 139 games and 533 AB. The power has declined further, and it’s starting to look like an actual decline, rather than any bad luck on his part. The contact was still there though, and teams will surely be hoping for some type of a bounceback. Will it actually happen? His EV dropped from 92.1 in 2021 to 89.1 in 2022, so I’m not so sure about that.

Martinez has a case for a 2 year deal, and will likely still be able to get $15 million per year. Seattle needs offensive help and could be willing to bring in JDM for their DH spot, with the hope that his bat can bounce back. The Miami Marlins could be in the mix as well, but I suspect that we’ll want that spot for Jorge Soler instead. I’m pretty sure that Boston will move on and use the spot to rotate their hitters instead.