The current offers for J.D. Martinez might be even lower than we thought

J.D. Martinez has had an offer on the table from the Red Sox for a while now, since at least the New Year if not earlier. It’s been weeks now and there’s been no movement as far as signing a contract. Recent reports indicate that Martinez is purposely holding out on both the Red Sox and Diamondbacks until the offers rise to a level that he and his agent Scott Boras approve of.

Those reports indicated that the offers on the table were between $30 and $80 million below what Martinez’s desired salary request is, as well as being short on years. He and Boras are ideally shooting for a contract worth between $180 and $200 million when all’s said and done.

Well, based on the latest reports they aren’t getting close to that number as ESPN’s Buster Olney is reporting that the current offer is for five years and $100 million dollars. That is...pitiful. (He’s not the only one either, as there are reports that the going rate for Yu Darvish — Yu Darvish — is five years at between $80 and $90 million. Also pitiful.)

With this additional context, it’s not surprising at all that Martinez is happy to hold out into Spring Training if necessary in the hopes of getting the money he’s owed. He’s definitely worth more than what teams are offering him based on the numbers he has put up in recent years. He’s averaged 32 home runs a year since 2014, with an average 149+ OPS and a slash line of .300/.362/.574 with a .936 OPS in that span.

Pay the man already! Without getting too deep into the mud of the “MLB’s payment schedule for free agents is way off” right now, the age at which teams are giving players their big contracts is not the age at which they are set to put up similar numbers over the next four or five years. So based on the way the system works right now, teams aren’t paying for guaranteed production so they should be default be paying for what player’s have done in recent seasons.

While it’s worked that way in the past, this year it’s not working the same way all of a sudden and free agents like Martinez are suffering because of it. Holding out may be their best bet at forcing teams’ hands, but for how long and how much will it actually benefit those being lowballed?

This offseason is developing into a face off between players and owners, and the numbers being attached to Martinez seems to be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the state of contract offers for this season.