Mets' J.D. Martinez addition is 'a huge message to the guys in the clubhouse'
J.D. Martinez hit .271 with 33 home runs and 103 RBIs in 113 games for the Los Angeles Dodgers last season. Credit: Getty Images
TAMPA, Fla. — The Mets’ major move late this week came with two messages from owner Steve Cohen.
One was literal — a text — to team leaders Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Lindor, according to Lindor. When the agreement came to fruition Thursday night, Cohen’s note let them know: J.D. Martinez was coming.
The other was unspoken and was meant for a far wider audience, from the roster and the rest of the organization to the fan base and the baseball world generally: The Mets aren’t just rolling over in 2024.
In adding Martinez, a six-time All-Star designated hitter, on a one-year, $12 million contract, the Mets boosted their lineup, their playoff chances and the morale of his new teammates.
“He’s going to be a huge part in our success this year,” Pete Alonso said Friday morning. “Huge shout-out to David [Stearns] and Steve . . . It’s a huge message to the guys in the clubhouse. I’m really excited to get him here. I’m stoked.”
Lindor said: “He’s been one of the best hitters in the league for a very long time. I’m super-happy to have him . . . we should be in a much better spot because we have a really good hitter.”
Martinez’s deal was not official as of Friday afternoon because of his physical and other technicalities, but the Mets’ expectation was that the righthanded hitter will begin the season with a brief stay in the minors. Because he didn’t sign until the final days of spring training, he will need time and at-bats to get ready, which he can do in extended spring training or with a minor-league club.
Martinez, 36, still has minor-league options remaining, so the Mets are free to send him down with his consent (as is the case for any player with five years of service time in the majors).
The Mets are comfortable waiting a few extra days for someone Alonso called “a hitting savant.”
“Not only his talent and how he’s going to produce on the field,” he said, “but I think what he brings for preparedness, how he attacks opposing pitchers, he’s going to impact from an information standpoint and kind of just impacting guys, just getting a look inside at how he tries to dissect the attack plan and tries to beat the guy on the mound.”
In 13 seasons, Martinez has a .287 average, an .874 OPS, 315 home runs, 366 doubles and 1,002 RBIs.
Last year with the Dodgers, he batted .271 with an .893 OPS, 33 homers, 27 doubles and 103 RBIs.
Adam Ottavino, speaking to reporters in Port St. Lucie, echoed Alonso’s sentiment.
“He’s just a very serious guy about his work,” he said. “I think that rubs off on other guys. He’s relentless. When you’re in the dog days, he’s not letting his focus slip at all.”
Alonso experienced that firsthand for a couple of days at All-Star festivities last summer. They’re both “Florida boys” who like to fish, Alonso said, so they hit it off. It didn’t take long for their conversations to shift to baseball.
“I can’t imagine being with him over a full season,” he said. “I know guys who played with him in the past have nothing but good things to say, not just performance, quality of dude he is, but how he prepares.”
Martinez will be the only member of the Mets who has won a World Series, a tidbit provided unsolicited by Alonso.
“Having that experience, having that savvy, veteran presence [is] going to be big,” he said. “Because he has that experience that not really many people have in the game, let alone on our team.”
When Martinez is ready to join the active roster, Mark Vientos will get squeezed out of regular at-bats and perhaps out of the majors entirely. He had been penciled in as the regular DH, with Brett Baty the third baseman.
Manager Carlos Mendoza said he spoke with Vientos, who he reported was “fine.” Vientos later said the right things about Martinez being a “good pickup for the team,” but his short answers and sullen tone revealed the obvious: He was disappointed.
“The opportunity that I got [in camp], I feel like I made the most of it,” Vientos said after hitting his team-leading fifth home run in his first at-bat of a 5-3 exhibition loss to the Yankees.
Mendoza called Vientos “a huge part of our future here and our present, too.” He also said it’s not “impossible” to carry both Vientos and Baty. But the Mets may well decide that Vientos is best served playing third base and hitting often with Triple-A Syracuse.
“These are some of the conversations that we’re going to have,” Mendoza said, declining to discuss Martinez specifically because the Mets hadn’t announced his signing. “What’s best for the player? What’s best for the organization? What’s best for their development? Those are some of the things we will consider.”
Lindor said: “[Stearns] said it earlier: If there was something to add on, they were going to do it. So I guess they started spring training, they watched and they feel like there’s something that we needed.”
Tim Healey is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. Born on Long Island and raised in Connecticut, Tim has previously worked for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the Boston Globe and MLB.com. He is also the author of “Hometown Hardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast.
