Playing a baseball season in 2020 is undeniably good for the Red Sox.
Along with the obvious positives that would emanate from such thing there is the strategic component when it comes to managing payroll. Simply put, if there is a season the Sox' much-publicized goal of resetting the competitive tax threshold is accomplished, allowing for the kind of spending the big-market club has become accustomed to. If there is not a season? It's another year of having to pinch pennies.
That means that the market for J.D. Martinez heading into next season should take on an entirely different look from the one that led the slugger to choose his $23.75 million opt-in for 2020.
Martinez's decision when it came to the first of his two opt-outs wasn't complicated. With the market for designated hitters limited to just half of Major League Baseball, landing spots for the righty hitter were few and far between. Now? A whole new world might be opened.
National League teams are going to have to rethink how it builds rosters, and that's where a guy like Martinez can be of considerable value.
In 2019, when pressed into service due to interleague play NL designated hitters combined to hit just .225 with a .732 OPS. Conversely, American League designated hitters managed a collective batting average that was 23 points higher and an OPS of .786. They are numbers that shouldn't surprise. National League teams weren't built for such rules.
Martinez's decision heading into 2021 will still be somewhat complicated, even with the whole new world of suitors.
By opting in it will guarantee the 32-year-old $19.375 million in both 2021 and 2022. What he will have to weigh is whether or not the free-agent market -- even with the need for designated hitters in the National League -- will be robust enough to pay Martinez at least $40 million over the next two years. That is the great unknown. If you're talking about the way the market was trending last offseason, it would be a good bet we would see the DH test the open market. This time around there is a great mystery as to how the pandemic will be impacting front office's financial strategies.
And while it is believed that the universal DH is going to be a part of the game even beyond 2022, there are no certainties. That unknown might make National League teams hesitant to commit to Martinez long-term, particularly with his viability as a full-time outfielder likely dwindling with each passing year.
Martinez is one of the best hitters in baseball. That isn't a question. But the real riddle comes when trying to figure out how baseball will be prioritizing that skill-set. Just pile it on our mountain of uncertainties.