J.D. Martinez and the Red Sox negotiated a contract for months and months, and then, when they finally agreed to one, Martinez’s physical held up making the deal official. That’s all behind both Martinez and the Red Sox now, however, and he’s officially on the team with a signed deal.
J.D. Martinez is finally on the Red Sox, but there’s a catch
Tuesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at J.D. Martinez’s intricate free agent deal with the Red Sox.
Photo by Harry How/Getty Images
The holdup wasn’t an active health problem, so much as the fear of one occurring during the contract itself. So, Martinez’s agent, Scott Boras, and the Red Sox spent the weekend seeing doctors and writing in language to protect both sides without changing the monetarily value of the deal. Should there be a severe reoccurrence of Martinez’s Lisfranc ligament injury in the future, this language will come into play.
Martinez gets opt-outs after years two, three, and four in the deal now — that last opt-out opportunity was what Martinez got in exchange for agreeing to letting the Red Sox build in protections against a Lisfranc reoccurrence.
Evan Drellich explained just what his language is:
A mutual option for Year 4 is triggered if:
1. Martinez suffers a Lisfranc injury related to his prior Lisfranc injury. A three-doctor system will define if the injury is related to prior Lisfranc injury. 2. Because of that old injury, he has spent 60 days on DL in Year 3 — or 10 days or more in Year 3, plus a total of 120 DL days in Year 2 and Year 3.
A mutual option for Year 5 is triggered if:
J.D. Martinez suffers a Lisfranc injury related to his prior Lisfranc injury. A three-doctor system will define if the injury is related to prior Lisfranc injury. 2. Because of that old injury, he has spent 60 days on DL in Year 4 — or 10 days or more in Year 4, plus a total of 120 DL days in Year 3 and Year 4.
That’s a lot of protections in place for something that most likely will not even happen, but hey, if it makes the Red Sox feel better and it got J.D. Martinez some additional flexibility on his side of the deal, then great! Now everyone can move on: the Red Sox have their slugging DH/part-time outfielder, and Martinez gets paid and is in a big-league camp before too much more of spring training goes by.
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