J.D. Martinez, Me ... and the Red Sox

OK, so Monday I go to all the trouble of writing about the curious case of J.D. Martinez, the former Astros, Tigers and recently, a bit briefly, Diamondbacks outfielder.

Mr. Martinez, an excellent power hitter and glove-challenged outfielder, had lain dormant in the free agent market of the 2017-18 offseason, with only one team offering him a contract -- the Boston Red Sox, the only team in the majors with both a need for a player of his imbalanced skills and the wherewithal to pay him to provide them, in uniform.

The problem, of course, is that his contract offer was just over half of what his agent had declared for many weeks was his "market value."  The Red Sox, of course, saw his market value as being about $110 million for five years, and saw no reason to raise their offer, not since they made it at the beginning of the offseason, since no one else was offering a penny more -- or anything close.

My point was that markets set values on the demand side, and the supply side -- in this case the player and his agent -- could not expect to overcome a limited demand.  One team could afford him, at what they felt was a reasonable price, and ultimately they "won."

Monday night, Martinez agreed to terms with Boston on essentially the offer they had made all along, with a tweak here and there to take into account opt-out clauses along the way -- which Boston was only too willing to provide a player in his 30s.

I find this to be a victory for common sense.  It's not a victory for the team owners, because that's not a competition they really ought to be in.  It is a victory for reasonable player compensation, and a defeat for further agents who toss out numbers for teams to start at in wooing their clients, with no rational basis.

It is a victory for the common sense that notes that the road of free agency is paved -- nay, littered -- with the putrid outcomes of huge long-term contracts for once-great players, stars such as Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Brown, Carl Crawford, Pablo Sandoval, Mark Teixeira, Hanley Ramirez ... need I go on?  We can point to one such free-agent contract wherein the player was suitably productive all through it, and that one, for Manny Ramirez, ended rather turbulently amid PED allegations and bizarre behavior -- but at least the guy kept hitting.

The practically-invariable outcome of such contracts has been abysmal failure.  The players give the team three good years followed by highly-paid poor performance for 3-4 years more.  At some point, the valuation for rotten apples has to descend to the true value of apples that rot while you're chewing on them.

I certainly hope that Martinez is a productive player for all five of those years and leads the Red Sox to multiple pennants and world championships.  I hope as much, well, nearly as much, that he will at least enjoy his time in Boston with the Red Sox and that the sour taste of the negotiations fades early in spring training.  I hope, in fact, that there is no sour taste, because if Martinez should be upset with anyone, it is not Boston, which actually offered him a ton of money to play for them, but the other 29 teams who, you know, didn't.

This is a victory, and I truly wonder what subsequent contract negotiations for similarly situated players will look like.  We won't see that this year, because only Jake Arrieta, an older pitcher but with residual talent, remains as a "premium" free agent, and he may be signed before this is even published.

But I want to revisit this piece in a few months, and a year or so, and see if there is something earth-shaking about this contract.

Please remind me.

Copyright 2018 by Robert Sutton
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