The Mets flirted with adding an extra hitter all offseason, but a mediocre camp by their in-house designated hitter options led them to signing the veteran just a week before Opening Day.
The Mets and J.D Martinez, just a mere week before the baseball season begins in earnest, agreed to a one year, $12m deal, according to Jon Heyman.
The deal has some heavy deferrals according to Andy Martino, with J.D. Martinez earning $4.5m of it this year, with $1.5m deferred in 2034 until 2038. According to FanGraph’s Jon Becker, the deferrals lower the luxury tax hit down to $8,966,565, which is something to note due to the Mets’ heavy tax bill after the 2023 trade deadline.
J.D. Martinez, a veteran with 1522 Major League games under his belt, is still going strong going into his age 36 season. He hit .271/.321/.572 last year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, belting 33 home runs with a 135 wRC+. For his career, he carries a line of .287/.350/.524, with 315 home runs and a 132 wRC+ — right in line with his 2023 numbers.
The signing will give the Mets a much needed punch in the middle of their lineup. Their core of Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Pete Alonso, Jeff McNeil, and Francisco Alvarez is poised to be solid, but uneven 2023 performances from Brett Baty, Starling Marte and Mark Vientos — and a poor spring from the latter two players hurting the depth of the lineup as a whole — spurred them to dip their toes into the designated hitter market and lengthen their lineup externally.
Martinez, who has played a grand total of 12 innings in the field since 2021, will be stationed as the designated hitter as long as he is healthy. The Mets got alarmingly little production from their internal DH options this spring, with Vientos hitting .204/.235/.490, DJ Stewart hitting .167/.306/.267, and Luke Voit hitting .107/.194/.214. Jiman Choi was the best of the bunch, hitting .222/.364/.407, (all according to ESPN) but J.D. Martinez presents an upgrade over the group writ large.
The deal, obviously pending a physical, will help the Mets in their quest for the October baseball, which has remained the public goal of the organization despite the relatively quiet offseason.