For the most part, the Red Sox have done a solid job in filling their obvious roster needs this offseason.
To give the rotation depth, they added Rich Hill, Michael Wacha and James Paxton.
To fortify their bullpen, they added Jake Diekman and Matt Strahm - under-the-radar signings that could prove to be quality additions.
And, of course, they recently landed Trevor Story, giving them a much-needed bat and a big upgrade at second base.
All along, it was thought they would add another outfielder, preferably right-handed, to handle right field and provide an alternative to light-hitting Jackie Bradley Jr., who ranked at the bottom of all position players last season.
Now, it would appear, it's unlikely there will be any outside help coming. Instead, as Alex Cora recently revealed, the plan is to utilize J.D. Martinez in the outfield. Worse, the Sox envision Martinez played right field....in Fenway Park.
Cora wants to keep Alex Verdugo in left, with Kike Hernandez in center. That leaves Bradley, Martinez and perhaps eventually, Christian Arroyo, getting playing time in right.
From a defensive standpoint, Bradley can handle it. If you can play center as well as he does, not even Fenway's daunting right field will prove daunting. But Martinez is another story. The plan, for now at least, is to have Bradley in right against righthanders.
Then...
"I think most likely J.D. will play a lot of outfield against lefties,'' said Cora. "I think it helps that J.D. can play the outfield. That's going to help us. That was, I can get Xander (Bogaerts) and (Rafael Devers) DHing against lefties, even Trevor. We feel like, if we put him in the spot, he makes the plays. Trying to avoid moving people around. J.D. feels very comfortable playing left field, but if he has to, he can play right field.''
Well, yes and no.
Martinez can catch balls hit to him, or close to him. But he has very little range, and the prospect of him playing Fenway's challenging right field is an ominous one, both for the player and the team.
Last year, he graded out as a +2 in defensive runs saved while playing 36 games in the outfield. But that appears to have been something of an aberration, since it was also the first time since 2015 that Martinez was above water in DRS. For his career, he's a -38.
If you choose to go by Outs Against Average, as calculated by BaseballSavant.com, Martinez was neutral (0) last year, but is -21 for his career in the outfield.
A year ago, while their infield defense was among the worst in either league, the Red Sox had one of the better DRS figures for any outfield in the game. That's unlikely to remain if Martinez plays a third (or more) of the games in the outfield. Again, Martinez isn't about to drop routine fly balls. But that's a low bar to be set. The real value in an outfielder is how much ground he covers, and in that regard, Martinez is woefully deficient, due in no small part to his speed, or lack thereof. (His sprint speed was in the 31st percentile, well below average).
The Red Sox can be smart about positioning and having Martinez in the right spot, but there are going to be balls to which he won't get. Likely lots of them.
And it gets worse when you look at Martinez's numbers at the plate.
Dating back to the start of the 2020 season, Martinez has an .874 OPS when he serves as the DH, and a .588 OPS when he's playing the outfield. Martinez has frequently said that being in the outfield helps to keep him more in the game from a mental standpoint, but the numbers from the last two seasons argue otherwise.
It's understandable that Cora would want to find opportunities to get Bogaerts and Devers off their feet once a week or so, while keeping their bats in the lineup as the fill-in DH. More and more teams are rotating players through the DH role in an effort to keep them fresh. But in the Red Sox' case, there are consequences to doing so.
Until recently there were some moderately-priced alternatives on the free agent market, including Tommy Pham, who signed a $7.5 million deal with the Cincinnati Reds. But those options have dried up, leaving the trade route as the only alternative. (Michael Conforto remains available, but he's lefthanded and probably looking for more money than the Sox are comfortable spending at this point).
In time, perhaps some in-house candidates could emerge. Jarren Duran is one possibility. So, too, is Ryan Fitzgerald, a non-roster invitee who has been the talk of camp with four homers to date. Perhaps someone will emerge on the waiver wire as teams look to make their cutdowns over the final two weeks of spring training.
But having spent in excess of $230 million to construct their roster, it sure does seem strange that the Sox have pulled up short of the runway when it comes to providing themselves with proven alternatives in right field.
Instead, they've decided to take their chances with a 34-year-old DH.
