The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Martinez will stay in Boston after opting in on contract
Boston Red Sox designated hitter J.D. Martinez has decided to stay in Boston instead of becoming a free agent, declining an option that would have voided the last three years of the contract he signed after teams had reported to spring training in 2018.
The move saves the Red Sox from shopping for a new DH but also complicates their plan to cut salaries and get under baseball’s luxury tax threshold. The team’s payroll for the tax was a big leaguehigh $243 million this year and Boston has made it a goal to get under the $208 million threshold for next season while also signing 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts to a longterm deal.
Boston signed Martinez after a long negotiation in one of baseball’s slowestmoving free agent markets since the collusion scandal of the 1980s. After hitting the fewest homers in the AL in 2017, the year after David Ortiz retired, the team needed a DH. And Martinez was still looking for a job as spring training began.
To seal the $110 million, fiveyear deal, the Red Sox gave him the right to opt out after the second or third years if he outperformed it, and by most accounts he did.
Martinez, 32, has averaged just short of 40 homers and 118 RBIs, along with a .317 average and .985 OPS. He was fourth, behind Betts, in the AL MVP voting in 2018, when the Red Sox won a franchiserecord 108 games and the World Series.
Now, new Red Sox chief base
ball officer Chaim Bloom must try to find a way to sign Betts, who is eligible for arbitration and expected to command a oneyear salary near $30 million, to a deal worthy of a franchise player without busting the team’s budget.
HALL OF FAME BALLOT
Dwight Evans, Thurman Munson and Lou Whitaker have been added to the ballot for the baseball Hall of Fame’s modern era committee to consider next month, and Luis Tiant has been dropped.
Former players’ association head Marvin Miller will be on a Hall of Fame ballot for the eighth time when the modern era committee meets Dec. 8 ahead of the winter meetings in San Diego. Other holdovers on the 10man ballot announced Monday are Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker and Ted Simmons.
The modern era committee considers candidates from 197087, and a candidate needs at least 75 percent of the vote to be elected. The Hall will announce the members of the committee at a later date.
Anyone picked will be inducted to the Hall on July 26 along with candidates elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in a vote announced Jan. 21. Former New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter will be on the ballot for the first time.
When the modern era committee last met two years ago, Simmons fell one vote short. He received 11 of 16 votes in a year when Jack Morris (14) and Alan Trammell (13) were elected. Miller received seven votes, while Garvey, John, Mattingly, Murphy, Parker and Tiant received fewer than seven.
Miller received 44% of the votes in 2003 and 63% in 2007 when all Hall of Famers could vote on a veterans panel. After the Hall downsized the veterans committees, he got 3 of 12 votes in 2007, 7 of 12 in 2009, 11 of 16 in 2010 and six votes or fewer in 2013.
Miller asked after the 2007 vote that he not be included on future ballots. He died in November 2012 at age 95.
YANKEES MOVES
Tyler Lyons, who earned a spot on the New York Yankees’ postseason roster as a lefthanded reliever, refused an outright assignment to TripleA Scranton/ WilkesBarre and elected to become a free agent.
The 31yearold was released by Pittsburgh in August and signed with New York. He struck out 12 and walked two in 8 2/3 innings during 11 appearances with the Yankees in September. He made one appearance each in the Division Series against Minnesota and the Championship Series vs. Houston, striking out four over 1 2⁄3 hitless innings.
New York reinstated third baseman Miguel Andujar, first baseman Greg Bird, righthanders Jonathan Holder and Jake Barrett and outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury from the 60day injured list on Monday and assigned Barrett outright to Scranton/WilkesBarre.
Ellsbury has not played since 2017 because of a variety of ailments.