Red Sox offer to J.D. Martinez is roughly $125 million over five years, per report

Earlier in the week, we got our most substantial J.D. Martinez/Red Sox news since....well, ever? It wasn’t much, but it was something to latch on to in this desolate winter. We learned, according to a report from Buster Olney, that Boston had offered the top bat on the free agent market a deal in the range of 5 years and $100 million. In the linked post, I was highly critical (some may say too critical) of the offer and felt it was much lower than Martinez’ actual value, though I made sure to note that this is not necessarily the same as a bad offer from the team’s perspective. For what it’s worth, Jon Heyman shot Olney’s report down later that day.

Either way, it’s a new day and we have a new report about a contract offer being extended from Boston to the J.D. Martinez camp. According to Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald, the Red Sox have extended an offer of “roughly” $125 million over five years.

I won’t go too deep on this because, well, I just talked a whole bunch about Martinez’ value and the current state of free agency around the league a few days ago. I will say, however, that this seems more in line with what I could see Martinez walking out of the winter with. Granted, it’s way under his reported hope of a $200 million contract from the start of his winter, but we all knew that was never realistic. It still feels a little light, but I’m willing to acknowledge that it’s becoming more and more clear that my perception of Martinez’ market and the actual market are two different things.

At the end of the day, since this is being leaked out — presumably by the Scott Boras side of things, because I’m not sure what the Red Sox stand to gain here other than a “we’re trying, really!” cry to fans — one can assume that Martinez is looking for teams to see this offer and think they can beat it. Obviously. I think this is close enough to what he’ll actually get, though, that I’m more confident Boston will get a deal done than I was just a few days ago. I wouldn’t be surprised if they end up tacking a million or a couple million on per year and/or add an option for a sixth year, but at this point it seems as if this kind of 5/125 range is where this is all going to end. If it ends at all. There’s still a chance this is purgatory and we are going to live through this action-less winter forever.