Why More Teams Should Be in on JD Martinez

JD Martinez is one of the elite free agents that is still sitting out there on the open market without a job even though players start reporting to their Spring Training camps in under a week. Martinez has been effected by the elusive, Free Agent Freeze as it's being coined, that has seemed to plague the market so far this offseason.

While Martinez can't do anything to increase the number of teams interested in him, he has put an excellent track record the last four seasons even though that might go under-the-radar from a league-wide perspective. To this point, only the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks have expressed interest at varying levels and even put offers on the table, but Martinez has yet to accept either offer which means the longer he's out on the open market, the more teams could jump into his derby. Although that may not happen, here's an argument as to why more teams should be going after Martinez more aggressively.

Last season, Martinez began the year with the Detroit Tigers in which he hit: .305/.388/.630 over 232 plate appearances with 61 hits, 16 home runs, 39 RBI, 29 walks, and 54 strikeouts. Once July rolled around, Martinez found himself on the trade block and eventually found a new home at hitter-friendly, Chase Field. Over 257 plate appearances with the Dbacks, Martinez hit: .302/.366/.741 with 70 hits, 29 home runs, 65 RBI, 24 walks, and 74 strikeouts. Eventually, JD Martinez was no longer his name to Diamondback fans, who coined him with the nickname "Just Dingers", shortly after his arrival in the desert.

Martinez's impressive offensive statistics don't stop there either. Over the past four years, in 2,143 plate appearances, Martinez has recorded 579 hits, 128 home runs, 350 RBI, 185 walks, and 560 strikeouts. In addition, Martinez has a 14.6 WAR over that time period along with an offensive value of 111.0.

In terms of the entire league, Martinez ranks 5th among outfielders in home runs over that span, 8th in RBI, 11th in on-base percentage (OBP), 3rd in Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) at .392, and has a 148 wRC+, best for 3rd place and tied with Bryce Harper. In fact, the only players that rank ahead of Harper and Martinez in wRC+ is Mike Trout (171) and Giancarlo Stanton (149). In regards to WAR, which was discussed about in the above paragraph, Martinez is tied with George Springer at 11th best in the league.

To say that JD Martinez is just another above-average outfielder, who strikes out a lot, would be a huge understatement. Martinez is the type of player that puts your team over the top, gives you the best chance to play deep into October, and provides any team with a legitimate middle-of-the-order bat which is exactly why more teams need to be more aggressive in their pursuits of him.

Beyond those eye-catching stats, Martinez is also only 30 and will be for a majority of the upcoming season until he turns 31 on August 21st. That means that any team that is signing him is still going to get several (3-4) quality, productive seasons out of him as he is not showing any signs of decline. To illustrate this, according to the Streamer Projections done by FanGraphs, which as talked about before aren't always picture perfect but are better than solely making a prediction, have Martinez hitting: .277/.350/.543 this coming season with 33 home runs, 93 RBI, a wOBA of .370, and a wRC+ of 130.

Given all of this, it makes no sense why, according to reports, only the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks are the only two teams interested in Martinez's services. The one thing that could potentially be holding him back is his defense which some believe is comparable to Justin Upton. Over the past four seasons dating back to 2014, JD Martinez has a Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) value of -23, which puts him 48th among outfielders, and has a a -19.3 Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) over that span putting him 49th on the list.

While the defense could pose a potential problem for some teams, the Red Sox plan on having Martinez as their primary DH which would give them the most value for their money over the course of the entire contract. On the other hand, for a National League team like the Diamondbacks, Martinez would need to play in the outfield on an everyday basis, but that shouldn't be a problem, considering that Martinez wasn't awful in the outfield during the latter portion of the season last year with Arizona. Over 507.2 innings, Martinez had a fielding percentage of .980, which matched his fielding percentage with the Tigers during the first half of the season, and only recorded 2 errors in that span. With Detroit last season, Martinez had a Defensive Runs Saved Above Average (Rdrs) value of -6, while putting up a Rdrs value of 1 with the Diamondbacks.

For now, JD Martinez will likely continue to sit out on the open market as teams debate whether or not they should pursue the slugger, but based on this analysis, it's fair to say that he provides substantial value to any club and is the bat that truly puts any team over the top. For the Diamondbacks, Martinez goes perfectly with Paul Goldschmidt in the middle of the batting order, while with the Red Sox, Martinez provides the bat that Boston has been missing since David Ortiz retired at the end of the 2016 season.

Of course, other teams could always decide to enter the derby, but for now this is a two horse race and ultimately in the hands of JD Martinez and his agent, Scott Boras. While some teams might now want to pony up the cash necessary to sign Martinez, they might regret it come the middle part of this season when they are lacking offense and don't have that legitimate middle-of-the-order bat, which will make, the Red Sox and Diamondbacks look only that much smarter for pursuing him so aggressively this offseason.