Super-agent weighs in on Red Sox' interest for Martinez, Hosmer

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – One of the staples of each edition of the Winter Meetings is the annual address by Scott Boras, who attracts hundreds of reporters by his mere presence and weighs in on the state of the game, and not incidentally, his clients.

This off-season, Boras represents at least two players who are on the Red Sox radar: outfielder J.D. Martinez and first baseman Eric Hosmer.

Boras was asked about the Red Sox’ approach with his two top clients.

“Well, like any team, this is free agency,’’ said Boras, “so you’re always evaluating a number of things, looking at where your greatest need is. I think in the case of a few players in this market, you’ve got just abilities other players don’t possess. They separated themselves.

"When you’re a great player, you really put yourself in a position where you’ve performed at level s that no one else in the league has performed, I think teams will look at you differently – and they should. And they’re going to evaluate you differently and usually it takes time because that evaluation is something that is a separation from the normal trends in the market.’’

Boras made sure to highlight some of Hosmer’s intangibles.

“Players that are young free agents, leaders who have that prestige value, where he’s done everything as a player that he can do at a young age,’’ said Boras. “The demand’s great because everybody looks at this from a standpoint: I can use him if I’m a ‘now’ team, I can use him if I’m a team that’s a year from now and I can use him if I’m a team if I’m building something three years from now.

“His glove fits all teams.’’

I asked Boras about Martinez’s decision to travel to the winter meetings and meet directly with interested teams.

“With all of our free agents,’’ said Boras, "we’ve has a number of meetings with ownership and everyone involved. In J.D.’s case, because he’s Florida-based, we had meetings the General Manager’s meetings and obviously, had meetings here as well.’’

One of the highlights of every annual address is to see what Boras will offer up in the way of metaphors. In past years, he has excoriated teams for not spending, claiming they were shopping in the bargain aisle. More recently, he waxed poetic about teams needing to buy new homes in Playoffville.

Today’s theme was meteorological.

“The winter meetings is akin to a weather report,’’ began Boras. “We’ve had a period of time where we’ve had the (Shohei) Ohtani solar eclipse where there was kind of darkness in the industry for almost 10-to-12 days because everyone was involved. It was almost like a holiday.

“Then we’ve had kind of the Miami rain, where we’ve seen a heavy liquidation, such that we’ve had clubs really trying to define, on a number of levels, something very irregular: that is, we’ve seen one of our major league jewelry stores become a pawn shop. A lot of teams were wrapped up in evaluating those assets.

“Now, we’re starting to get through the trade haze, the fog, which is clearly something that is clearly something that’s usually taken care of in November, and is just being addressed now.’’