J.D. Martinez is unsure where he’ll play in 2023, but that won’t stop him from working on improving what went wrong for the designated hitter this season.
The Boston Red Sox slugger is having a down year at the plate and is in the last year of his contract. While Martinez has been a welcome addition to the roster — especially in 2018 during Boston’s historic season en route to a World Series championship — the Red Sox have quite a few priorities going into next season.
Martinez is no stranger to playing for different teams, between being released by the Houston Astros and being traded throughout his career, so he knows baseball is a business at the end of the day.
“It definitely has crossed my mind whether I’m going to be back here or if I’m going to be somewhere else,” Martinez told WEEI’s Rob Bradford during an appearance on “The Bradfo Sho” podcast. “But it’s one of those things where it’s part of the game and it is what it is.”
It’s been a bit of a humbling year for Martinez, who was unsure if he’d even be in a Red Sox uniform at Major League Baseball trade deadline, but he has a clear idea as to what he will work on when the offseason rolls around.
“I think I have a really good plan of what I want to work on and things I want to do in the offseason that I’m really excited about,” Martinez told Bradford. “Just learning. It’s different. Preparation now is different than what it used to be, for me, just because of my age, my body, and how I need to get my body ready. Certain things you have to turn on. Having to learn to activate certain systems that when you’re younger you never have to do. You spend more time on other things. Now, you’re like, you have to spend more time on this.”
Martinez, 35, added he’s learned how to “fire my body up” and “challenge it” now that he’s older.
The value of a designated hitter might hold more weight for Martinez as he enters free agency now that the National League has adopted the position.
