SUPER POWERS
On day Yanks debut Judge & Stanton show, Red Sox add J.D. Martinez’s muscle
TAMPA — The Yankees unveiled Judge and Fury. The Red Sox appear to be answering with J.D. Martinez.
The Rivalry is back on with the kind of punch, counterpunch ferocity that turned it hotter than ever earlier this century.
Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton hit in the same group on George M. Steinbrenner Field’s main diamond around 1:35 p.m. Monday, an event so anticipated ESPN carried it live — again this was batting practice — and reporters charted the happenings as if it were the All-Star Game Home Run Derby.
A few hours later word surfaced that the long-rumored union of Martinez and the Red Sox — on again, off again through the offseason — was definitely on, the response anticipated since the Yankees’ December acquisition of Stanton.
Martinez and the Red Sox were in agreement on a five-year $110 million contract that would allow the 30-year-old to opt out twice, including after the second season. When finalized, the Red Sox will be adding the power bat they so badly craved even while winning the AL East in 2017. Martinez hit 29 homers after joining the Diamondbacks on July 19 last year. The only player who hit more after July 19 was Stanton (with 30) for the Marlins. Now it appears they will be teeing off against each other’s pitching staffs, intensifying what already was going to be a heated duel.
If that sounds like a dismissal of the rest of the AL East, well, just consider that with Martinez, the Red Sox will be trying to stay under a $237 million payroll to avoid the greater surcharges and draft penalties that come from exceeding it. The Yankees are trying to edge under the $197 million threshold.
Meanwhile, the Rays over the weekend traded their No. 2 starter (Jake Odorizzi) and designated for assignment the starting DH in last ye a r ’ s Al l - St a r Game (Corey D i c kerson) in what a mou n t s to a cost-cutting, play-for-tomorrow 2018 white flag. The Orioles added Andrew Cashner and Chris Tillman recently to their rotation, which almost certainly still does not make Baltimore good enough to hang with the Yanks and Red Sox. The Blue Jays have a shot — with health and peak performance — to be a threat. But at least as good a chance to be a July clearinghouse for deadline trades.
There are always surprises. For now, though, this feels like 1998-2009 again — pinnacle Rivalry years — when 10 times in 12 seasons the Yankees and Red Sox finished 1-2 in the AL East in some form.
In all but one of those 12 seasons, the Yankees had the No. 1 payroll and often times it was the Red Sox, who were a distant second. Now, the financial roles are flipped. And even with three championships since 2004, Boston is feeling pressure to win. Because of that payroll. Because Craig Kimbrel and Drew Pomeranz are free agents after this season; Chris Sale after next. And because Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is on the griddle to justify swelling payrolls and excising big portions of the farm system since he took the reins late in the 2015 season, all while going 1-6 in the postseason.
The Yankees f inished behind the Red Sox last year, but built up their own expectations by exceeding Boston in the playoffs, reaching Game 7 of the ALCS. Then they landed the game’s foremost power source, found a way to incorporate the most expensive contract in history.
Ever since, the debut of Judge and Stanton — same place, same time, same hitting group — has been anticipated. But it turned into the Capone’s Vault of batting practice.
Neither blasted many homers, Stanton actually joking afterward he did a much better job popping into the hitting cage mesh. Jacoby Ellsbury and Gary Sanchez, same group, actually performed better.
Of course, tracking homers in batting practice — particularly the first spring batting practice — is as foolhardy as trying to glean meaning from 3-pointers made during a summer league shoot-around.
But that so much focus was galvanized on the moment is a message to the Yankees about just how high expectations for that duo, this lineup and the overall club are. The Yanks will do their best when possible to minimize it and manage it. But reason and perspective already are losing all battles.
“It’s our job to make sure [the buzz] is warranted,” Aaron Boone said.
That will come not from the first day of spring practice, but over the long season, particularly in the headto-head confrontation in games and in the standings with the Red Sox. For both heavyweights have flexed their muscle — punch, counterpunch.
The Rivalry lives.