MLB Roundup 1/12: J.D. Martinez willing to wait

J.D. Martinez is willing to wait into spring training

If you have been spending this weekend thinking to yourself, “Self, there’s just no way this J.D. Martinez saga can last that much longer. Spring Training starts in just a few weeks!” Well, buddy, I got some bad news. According to a report from Jon Heyman, the slugger is not afraid to hold out into spring training before signing a deal. There are a couple of key things to keep in mind here. For one thing, obviously this report is coming from the Boras camp and it behooves Boras and Martinez for the Red Sox to believe the client is willing to wait as long as it takes for a good deal. That being said, I believe him. Ken Rosenthal recently mentioned the possibility that players could organize their own spring training given the wildly slow spring training, and with so many Boras clients remaining that group getting together wouldn’t be much of a surprise. This does lead me to believe that Dave Dombrowski is playing hardball with these negotiations, at least relative to his reputation. Good for him, of course, but I’m still terrified that some other team is going to swoop in at the last second and the plan will be for not. Then again, that won’t be such a bad thing depending on the price. All in all, I wouldn’t scoff at the idea that this could last even longer than we originally believed. We’ve already waited an eternity for some actual news. What’s another six weeks?