Mets' J.D. Martinez has lots of trade-deadline wisdom to share
Mets designated hitter J.D. Martinez reacts after his RBI double against the Yankees during the sixth inning of an MLB game at Citi Field on June 25. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Fourteen seasons and six teams into his career, J.D. Martinez neatly fits into the wise old man archetype, which has proven important to these Mets.
He is a de facto hitting coach. His production at the plate, recent slump aside, was central to their season turnaround. And now, with the July 30 trade deadline looming, he has another kind of timely wisdom to share, lessons learned by living through so many versions of this exciting portion of the baseball calendar.
Martinez has been on great teams that did a little something, good teams that did nothing, bad teams that did the obvious. Heck, once upon a time he even was the big piece acquired at the deadline for a club’s playoff push, a thrilling experience he still recalls with a smile.
As the Mets return from the All-Star break Friday against the Marlins, they do so awaiting roster reinforcements. Martinez spoke with Newsday about some of his experiences and how different approaches from executives impact players on and off the field.
“Everybody could always use something, you know?” he said. “It doesn’t matter what team you put out there. It’s always nice to get help.”
David Stearns, president of baseball operations, has said that he believes the Mets are a playoff-caliber team.
But actions speak louder than words. In late July, showing the team you believe in them means far more than merely saying so. Bolstering the roster prior to the deadline is the front office’s way of saying: OK, good job so far. Here is some help. Let’s go do this thing.
That message — transactional, not verbal — always is heard loud and clear in the clubhouse.
“It’s definitely encouraging,” Martinez said.
Brandon Nimmo echoed: “It would be affirmation that they think we have what it takes in order to compete in the playoffs.”
A lack of movement can have the opposite effect. Martinez cited the 2021 Red Sox, who led the AL East through July. The obvious response from upper management would be to supplement. As Martinez remembers it, the marginal moves they made did not have the desired impact.
“We got to the deadline and didn’t get anybody,” Martinez said. “We needed help and we had to grind all the way back. Fortunately, we snuck into the wild card, but we saw teams all around us get better and we didn’t.”
Boston wound up making the ALCS, an out-of-nowhere run that did not portend future success.
“I remember how demoralizing it was for the team, doing the opposite thing,” Martinez said of that trade season. “Obviously, there’s a price and a cost. That has to be reasonable. But it’s definitely big. I know teams feel it, clubhouses feel it.”
During Martinez’s first year in Boston in 2018, the Red Sox were a wagon. By midsummer, players thought a couple of relievers would do the trick, Martinez said.
Team leadership surprised them by adding a first baseman/utility bat and a starting pitcher.
Huh.
“[Dave] Dombrowski goes out and gets Steve Pearce and Nate Eovaldi and they were the two biggest pieces to win a World Series,” Martinez said. “And then all of a sudden, Steve Pearce is the World Series MVP. We didn’t need offense at the time — we had the No. 1 offense in baseball — but no one knows. There’s no magic thing. Everybody thinks they know what they need. Sometimes things are obvious, sometimes they’re not.”
For this season’s Mets, it’s a similar story: The bullpen is the most glaring issue, with corner outfield also a possibility depending on Starling Marte’s status. But Stearns is known for being creative.
The way Pete Alonso sees it, the Mets still have to prove to Stearns & Co. that they deserve to be buyers at all. The Mets will play 11 games in 11 days before the deadline passes. As they have seen already this year, a lot can change quickly.
“That would be fantastic,” Alonso said of prospective help. “But there’s still two weeks left. We gotta make it easy on them [team decision-makers]. We gotta continue to play good baseball until the end of the month. That’d be fantastic, that’d be great, but we gotta earn that and continue to play well and make their job easy.”
OK, maybe that isn’t a universal sentiment. David Robertson, for example, outwardly dreaded getting moved before the Mets shipped him to the Marlins last year.
But generally speaking, being the traded player — a headliner for a club trying to go big down the stretch — is an exciting thing. What more could one want than leaving a losing team for a squad with something to play for?
Martinez did that in 2017, his contract year. The Tigers dealt him to the Diamondbacks, for whom he hit an absurd 29 home runs in 62 games on the way to a wild-card berth.
For context, consider: During Yoenis Cespedes’ epic stretch with the 2015 Mets, he hit 17 long balls in 57 games.
“I loved it, honestly,” Martinez said of suddenly uprooting his life to move to a different city and play for a new temporary team. “At the end of the day, bro, if you get traded, it’s amazing. It sounds like it sucks and it sounds bad to say that, but you’re going from a losing team to a team that’s super excited to welcome you with open arms. And that was one thing I noticed, walking into the clubhouse and Paul Goldschmidt walking up to me and being like, 'dude, I am so happy you’re here.'”
Fourteen seasons and six teams into his career, J.D. Martinez neatly fits into the wise old man archetype, which has proven important to these Mets.
He is a de facto hitting coach. His production at the plate, recent slump aside, was central to their season turnaround. And now, with the July 30 trade deadline looming, he has another kind of timely wisdom to share, lessons learned by living through so many versions of this exciting portion of the baseball calendar.
Martinez has been on great teams that did a little something, good teams that did nothing, bad teams that did the obvious. Heck, once upon a time he even was the big piece acquired at the deadline for a club’s playoff push, a thrilling experience he still recalls with a smile.
As the Mets return from the All-Star break Friday against the Marlins, they do so awaiting roster reinforcements. Martinez spoke with Newsday about some of his experiences and how different approaches from executives impact players on and off the field.
“Everybody could always use something, you know?” he said. “It doesn’t matter what team you put out there. It’s always nice to get help.”
Additions send a message to the clubhouse
David Stearns, president of baseball operations, has said that he believes the Mets are a playoff-caliber team.
But actions speak louder than words. In late July, showing the team you believe in them means far more than merely saying so. Bolstering the roster prior to the deadline is the front office’s way of saying: OK, good job so far. Here is some help. Let’s go do this thing.
That message — transactional, not verbal — always is heard loud and clear in the clubhouse.
“It’s definitely encouraging,” Martinez said.
Brandon Nimmo echoed: “It would be affirmation that they think we have what it takes in order to compete in the playoffs.”
A lack of movement can have the opposite effect. Martinez cited the 2021 Red Sox, who led the AL East through July. The obvious response from upper management would be to supplement. As Martinez remembers it, the marginal moves they made did not have the desired impact.
“We got to the deadline and didn’t get anybody,” Martinez said. “We needed help and we had to grind all the way back. Fortunately, we snuck into the wild card, but we saw teams all around us get better and we didn’t.”
Boston wound up making the ALCS, an out-of-nowhere run that did not portend future success.
“I remember how demoralizing it was for the team, doing the opposite thing,” Martinez said of that trade season. “Obviously, there’s a price and a cost. That has to be reasonable. But it’s definitely big. I know teams feel it, clubhouses feel it.”
Reinforcements can take unexpected forms
During Martinez’s first year in Boston in 2018, the Red Sox were a wagon. By midsummer, players thought a couple of relievers would do the trick, Martinez said.
Team leadership surprised them by adding a first baseman/utility bat and a starting pitcher.
Huh.
“[Dave] Dombrowski goes out and gets Steve Pearce and Nate Eovaldi and they were the two biggest pieces to win a World Series,” Martinez said. “And then all of a sudden, Steve Pearce is the World Series MVP. We didn’t need offense at the time — we had the No. 1 offense in baseball — but no one knows. There’s no magic thing. Everybody thinks they know what they need. Sometimes things are obvious, sometimes they’re not.”
For this season’s Mets, it’s a similar story: The bullpen is the most glaring issue, with corner outfield also a possibility depending on Starling Marte’s status. But Stearns is known for being creative.
The way Pete Alonso sees it, the Mets still have to prove to Stearns & Co. that they deserve to be buyers at all. The Mets will play 11 games in 11 days before the deadline passes. As they have seen already this year, a lot can change quickly.
“That would be fantastic,” Alonso said of prospective help. “But there’s still two weeks left. We gotta make it easy on them [team decision-makers]. We gotta continue to play good baseball until the end of the month. That’d be fantastic, that’d be great, but we gotta earn that and continue to play well and make their job easy.”
For traded players, it’s a blast
OK, maybe that isn’t a universal sentiment. David Robertson, for example, outwardly dreaded getting moved before the Mets shipped him to the Marlins last year.
But generally speaking, being the traded player — a headliner for a club trying to go big down the stretch — is an exciting thing. What more could one want than leaving a losing team for a squad with something to play for?
Martinez did that in 2017, his contract year. The Tigers dealt him to the Diamondbacks, for whom he hit an absurd 29 home runs in 62 games on the way to a wild-card berth.
For context, consider: During Yoenis Cespedes’ epic stretch with the 2015 Mets, he hit 17 long balls in 57 games.
“I loved it, honestly,” Martinez said of suddenly uprooting his life to move to a different city and play for a new temporary team. “At the end of the day, bro, if you get traded, it’s amazing. It sounds like it sucks and it sounds bad to say that, but you’re going from a losing team to a team that’s super excited to welcome you with open arms. And that was one thing I noticed, walking into the clubhouse and Paul Goldschmidt walking up to me and being like, 'dude, I am so happy you’re here.'”
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.
