TORONTO -- With season better than two-thirds complete, the speculation about individual awards is certain to heat up.
For weeks, the American League Most Valuable Player debate has centered around Red Sox outfielder Mookie Betts and Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout, with Cleveland's Jose Ramirez making a recent push to be included.
But what if Betts isn't even the most valuable player on his own team? What if the Red Sox MVP -- and league, too -- isn't Betts at all, but rather, teammate J.D. Martinez?
Certainly, Betts has the stronger and more obvious case. Entering Wednesday's game, he led the league in batting average and slugging percentage, was second in on-base percentage, runs scored and OPS, third in WAR, and fourth in total bases.
He's also easily the Red Sox' best baserunner and defender, making his the very embodiment of the term "five-tool player.''
Martinez, of course, can't make that claim. He runs well for his size, but isn't close to the baserunner or basestealer Betts is. And he's no match for him as an outfielder, either. At best, Martinez could be judged as an average defender.
And that gets to another factor: Of the 108 starts by Martinez this season, fully 67 of them have come at DH. He's not exclusively a DH, and in fact, bristles at the notion. But close to two-thirds of his starts have come at DH, and that may prove an obstacle for voters. After all, David Ortiz, for all his dominance, never won an MVP, and for that matter, no close-to-full-time DH has ever accomplished the feat in the 45 years of the DH's existence in the AL.
(Don Baylor, the AL MVP in 1979, came closest with 65 DH starts. Frank Thomas, who became a more-or-less full-time DH later in his career, played just four and 13 games at DH respectively when he won back-to-back MVP's early in his career in 1993-1994).
But it's impossible to look at the Red Sox lineup -- one that is essentially unchanged since last season with the significant exception of Martinez -- and not attribute the huge upswing in production to the presence of Martinez.
Every other hitter in the Boston lineup Wednesday night was part of the 2017 team. Yet that lineup finished dead last in the American League in homers and fifth in runs scored. This one, new and improved thanks to Martinez, is first in runs scored, first in slugging percentage, first in on-base percentage, first in OPS, first in extra-base hits, first in doubles ... and fourth in homers.
And while Betts has set the tone at the top, becoming the elite leadoff hitter that Alex Cora envisioned when he installed him in the role over the winter and dreamed of the "instant offense'' that Betts could provide, Martinez is the force around which the Red Sox lineup orbits.
Hitting either third or fourth, he's helped make everyone else in the lineup better. Those in front of him -- Betts and Andrew Benintendi -- see better pitches, and those behind him benefit as he wears down pitchers and provides them with run-producing opportunities.
Martinez has also become the team's unofficial third hitting coach. Betts himself has credited Martinez with providing help and guidance. So have newcomer Steve Pearce, and Xander Bogaerts, who credits Martinez for helping him transition into a more aggressive hitter at the plate. Martinez is an obsessive student of hitting and his habit of talking about adjustments and breaking down opposing pitchers has proved, as Cora predicted, to be contagious.
Not that his value is entirely anecdotal or reflected only in intangibles. To the contrary, the case can be made that Martinez is the team's bell-weather. When he does well, do does the team.
Need proof?
Consider:
- When Martinez homers, the Red Sox are nearly unbeatable at 28-4.
- When he has multiple RBI, they're 26-3.
- When he drives in any runs at all, they're 45-6.
- When he has at least one hit, they're 61-19.
- And when on the rare occasions when he goes hitless, they're just 15-12.