Mets, J.D. Martinez consent to 1-year, $12M offer, source states
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff WriterMar 21, 2024, 09:27 PM ET
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- ESPN baseball press reporter. Covered the Washington Wizards from 2014 to 2016 and the Washington Nationals from 2016 to 2018 for The Washington Post before covering the Los Angeles Dodgers and MLB for the Los Angeles Times from 2018 to 2024.
The New York Mets and designated player J.D. Martinez remain in contract on a 1 year, $12 million agreement, a source verified to ESPN on Thursday. The offer is pending a physical.
Martinez provides the Mets’ lineup a tested source of power behind slugger Pete Alonso one week before Opening Day. And he’ll do it at a high discount rate.
New york city will pay Martinez simply $4.5 million this season, a source stated. He then will get $1.5 million delayed each year from 2034 through 2038. The Mets, long reported to have interest in Martinez, were awaiting his cost to drop enough to their preference to reduce the high-end tax charge for this season. New york city is forecasted to have the greatest payroll in the majors for the 2nd successive year.
Coming off a discouraging 2022 season with the Boston Red Sox, Martinez took pleasure in a bounce-back All-Star season with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2023 on a 1 year, $10 million offer. Martinez surpassed the agreement, clubbing 33 crowning achievement with 103 RBIs and an.893 OPS in 113 video games while reuniting with his long time striking coach, Robert Van Scoyoc.
Martinez, 36, has a profession.287 batting average over 13 seasons with the Dodgers, Red Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros.
As great as Martinez was for the Dodgers last season, the group’s choice was constantly simply a 1 year dedication. The strategy the whole time was to pursue Shohei Ohtani in complimentary firm to action in as DH. The Dodgers captured Ohtani in December, strengthening the probability that Martinez, the very best DH on the complimentary representative market not called Ohtani, would play in other places in 2024.
A growing number of groups have actually chosen to cycle every-day position gamers through the designated player area to provide lighter workdays instead of dedicating the bulk of their DH plate looks to one gamer. Martinez has actually shown to be a great sufficient player to hold down the function himself; he did not appear in the outfield in any video game in 2022 and had just 3 video games there last season.
The New York Post initially reported Martinez’s contract with the Mets.
ESPN’s Buster Olney added to this report.
