J.D. Martinez en route to Meetings, scheduled to meet with Red Sox and Giants

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Free agent J.D. Martinez is on his way to the winter meetings here and intends to meet face-to-face with a number of teams interested in signing him, including the Red Sox.

Late in the afternoon, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski wouldn't acknowledge the Sox' plans one way or another.

"I really wouldn't get into talking about what we would do in that regard,'' said Dombrowski.

But a baseball source confirmed reports that Martinez would be meeting with the Red Sox, San Francisco Giants and perhaps other interested teams.

Dombrowski was then asked, in a general sense, whether the Sox had intentions to meet with any prospective free agents.

"Might we? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe,'' said Dombrowski.

Whether the Sox do or don't meet with Martinez, Dombrowski conceded there's sometimes value to having face-to-face meetings.

"They get to know you, you get to know them,'' Dombrowski said. "It's a chance to be more open. It's like any type of relationship -- you can grow it a little bit more in that regard. So that would be the advantage -- just to get an overall pulse.''

Of course, in this case, Dombrowski doesn't need to acquaint himself with the player. He signed Martinez in Detroit during spring training of 2014 after Martinez had been released by the Houston Astros. Martinez went on to have several very good seasons with the Tigers before being dealt last July to Arizona.

"Sometimes, they request (a meeting); sometimes, we've requested it, too,'' said Dombrowski of past such get-togethers. "It really has been both ways.''

Martinez is a righthanded hitter, while some other options on the market (Eric Hosmer, most obviously) are lefthanded and another, Carlos Santana is a switch-hitter.

"I don't know that it really makes that big a difference for us,'' said Dombrowski of the left vs. right question. "Because it's not like we're (without) lefthanded bats -- we've got three guys (Andrew Benintendi, Rafael Devers and Jackie Bradley Jr.). I don't think it's that important in this case, because we do have enough balance and we can supplement some of those guys with other guys.

"I would really prefer, no matter who it is, for the guys to knock in a lot of runs and hit the ball out of the ballpark, no matter what side of the plate they swing from.''

If left or right doesn't matter, it certainly is important how a hitter projects to hit at Fenway Park, with its unique dimension and the Sox use their analytics department to project how a prospective acquisition would fit the ballpark.

"They do that on everyone,'' said Dombrowski. "We spend a lot of time (studying) that and being ready for it. Sure it does (factor). You have to keep it in consideration. We use that information a lot.''

And while fans grow impatient at the Sox for not adding anyone to the roster, Dombrowski understands their impatience.

"For sure. I'd rather be done right now and sitting here making an announcement,'' he said. "You know that you don't unilaterally control that. I'd much rather get things done quicker. But sometimes that doesn't happen.''