Many of the alterations for the 2020 Major League Baseball season are going to be an adjustment for the participants. But one is a change J.D. Martinez can get behind from the get-go: Both the American and National Leagues will be utilizing designated hitters.
"I'm all for it," he said Sunday. "I'm a DH. I think you could speak to a lot of pitchers who are for it too. A lot of pitchers like it and a lot pitchers in the AL like it because they feel the pitchers in the NL have an advantage. It's one less hitter they have to face and one less elite hitter they have to face really because of it. So I like it to even the playing field across the board. I understand the history of it and stuff like that so I see the other side of it too but I'm in favor of it. I think it keeps everybody safe. It keeps our pitchers safe. It keeps the game fun, it's more offense which is what fans like to see and I think you don't have the whole, 'Oh, he had 2.00 ERA in the NL so the AL that's really going to be a 3.00 now.' It makes it easy and makes it even across the board for everybody."
And then there is the job market.
Martinez opted into his current contract with the Red Sox this past season in large part because his market was minuscule. National League teams could be basically ruled out because there was no fit at DH and only a few American League clubs could be considered to spend any kind of money on the position.
But with the prospect of rolling over the universal DH to 2021, Martinez's opt-out this time around becomes a lot more interesting.
"It's 15 more jobs around the league," he said. "Like I said, I'm in favor of it. I think it'll make things really interesting. There wouldn't be that whole AL/NL argument. It would be what team is the best and how does every team measures up against each other now not how every team measures up in each league."
As for where Martinez is at in getting ready for the current season, he explained it is a work in progress.
"It's kind of like what I told Ron right when I came in. It was like, 'Ron, I'm a guy that needs a lot of at-bats to get it going.' That's always been my M.O. I've always grinded early and then kind of just get in the rhythm of things right in the middle of the season," Martinez explained. "I told him, 'I need at-bats. Get me as many at-bats as you can.' If I've got to track bullpens, put me in bullpens for that exact reason. We haven't seen live pitching in three months and then before that, we haven't seen live pitching in four months. We didn't really get that many at-bats in spring training to really, really feel comfortable. So it's going to be a grind. I think it's definitely the toughest, you want to call it summer training, now I guess, instead of spring training, we're ever going to have, in the history of the sport. It's going to be really, really tough to get everything back, get your body underneath you. It's a sprint. You don't have that month, month and a half to get ready for a season."
Back-to-baseball vibes. pic.twitter.com/6p23neRE55
— Red Sox (@RedSox) July 5, 2020We missed you, @JDMartinez28. pic.twitter.com/6IwpBGBdLJ
— Red Sox (@RedSox) July 5, 2020- Like many players, Christian Vazquez was forced to improvise during the coronavirus-induced hiatus when it came to getting his workouts in.
"It was fun. My wife fed me with the machine in my house," the catcher said. "I was blocking, catching live BPs, I caught bullpens in my house and I got my machine that I can receive and block and do my work. Do my best to get in shape. ... She's the best coach. She gets mad when I drop a ball."
- The first real game action for the Red Sox will come Thursday when they participate in an intrasquad game at Fenway. And while Nathan Eovaldi will be on the mound Roenicke isn't ready to anoint the righty the starter for the July 24 opener.
"That would be Nate's next turn to throw," said Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke. "It looks like we have like five, five and a half innings, those things can change daily depending on what's going on. Right now, that's what we plan to do. So Nate, we know it's important for Nate to get in that first intrasquad game and we should roll on right from there. We may not play intrasqauds every day. It could be sometimes we may have two innings of them. Sometimes we may have seven innings. And certainly, at the end, we'll probably end up with eight or nine innings. The intrasquads are huge when you don't have all the games that we're used to playing in spring training against other teams."
- When it comes to who will be getting the upper-hand when the season starts -- the hitter or pitcher -- there seems to be a wide array of opinions.
"My opinion, I think the hitter is going to be ahead because it's not the same throwing a bullpen in your house than facing a hitter in the game," Vazquez said. "The breaking balls aren't going to be in shape and it's going to be tough for the pitcher. I think for me, I get quicker ready in shape than a pitcher."
"I hate to say it but I don't want it to come off like an excuse but I definitely feel like pitching is going to be ahead," Martinez added. "I think it kind of always is during spring. We'll see. It's definitely a challenge."
- As of Sunday, there was no news quite yet on Eduardo Rodriguez's COVID-19 test. "I just don't have anything I can share with you," Roenicke said. "Whenever I do, I told you guys I will share it. If there's something new I can share I will do that."
