TAMPA, Fla. _ Last August, Mookie Betts admitted the obvious: the Red Sox missed David Ortiz.
Despite winning the AL East, Boston finished last in the junior circuit in homers with 168 _ one fewer than Giancarlo Stanton (59), Aaron Judge (52), Gary Sanchez (33) and Didi Gregorius (25) combined for in 2017.
But on Monday, the Sox finalized a five-year, $110 million deal with J.D. Martinez, who hit 45 homers and posted a 1.066 OPS a year ago. Since 2014, Martinez has averaged 32 homers and a .936 OPS.
"It's a big bat," Brian Cashman said. "I think everyone's been waiting for that. It seems like he's been there the whole time."
Indeed, it always felt like Martinez was going to end up in Boston.
It just took a while.
"He's a guy who is capable of making a big impact on any lineup that he moves into," Brett Gardner said. "So it obviously makes them a better team and makes the AL East a tougher division in my opinion, which it already is. So I'm sure it'll be a battle all year long, and we look forward to our rivalry with them."
And now, the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry has been revved up another notch, with the teams each acquiring a transformation slugger this offseason. Martinez has had success vs. Masahiro Tanaka (5-for-9, two HRs) and Sonny Gray (3-for-7, one HR).
"That's kind of the way I was introduced to the rivalry in 2008 and 2009," Gardner said. "Just an absolute battle all season long _ and obviously there's three other teams in our division who will play just as often _ but the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is something not just players but our fans get really excited about and we love that challenge. Every game is almost a playoff-like atmosphere and it's a lot of fun to be out there taking part in it."
Aaron Boone and Larry Rothschild will have quite a challenge on their hands in trying to gameplan for Martinez.
"You look at what he's done the last three or four years, this is a guy that is up there with the elite names in terms of what he's been able to do from an OPS standpoint," Boone said. "Obviously, he will be a big presence in the middle of their order, and a guy that will be a challenge for us and I'm sure go there and have a lot of success for a really good team."
The Bombers want to win the division in 2018 so they can avoid playing in the sudden-death AL wild-card game. The Sox have won the AL East in 2016 and 2017.
"It should be a lot of fun," said CC Sabathia, who has retired Martinez in four of five at-bats. "It's always better when the rivalry is good. Obviously they did what they thought they needed to do to make their team better, so it should be a lot of fun. They already had the speed and a little bit of power but now adding him, it's going to be a tough lineup to face."
