Dodgers’ J.D. Martinez Revisits Offseason Talks With Red Sox

J.D. Martinez didn’t leave Boston with any bad blood toward the Red Sox.

Martinez played out the entirety of his five-year contract with the Sox, and it was a highly successful partnership between the veteran slugger and the storied organization. Martinez helped Boston win a World Series in his first season with the club and he earned an All-Star nod in all but one of his Red Sox seasons (the abbreviated 2020 campaign was the lone exception).

But when Martinez hit Major League Baseball free agency last winter, Chaim Bloom and company chose to go in a different direction. The Red Sox effectively replaced the three-time Silver Slugger Award winner with Justin Turner, who’s three years older than Martinez. The 13th-year pro ultimately signed a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Speaking with the media Monday in Seattle, the National League All-Star team’s starting designated hitter looked back on his offseason conversations with Boston.

“They were kind of like, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’re interested,’ but nothing happened for a couple days, three days, and it was like, ‘OK, obviously they want (Turner),'” Martinez told reporters, per The Boston Globe. “It’s fine. No hard feelings about it.”

Although Martinez is amid a great season, it’s tough to imagine the Red Sox have any regrets about making a stronger push for Turner. The 38-year-old entered the All-Star break tied for the team lead in games played (87) to go along with a .288 batting average, 13 home runs and 52 RBIs. And Turner, much like Martinez before him, appears to be a stabilizing presence in the Boston clubhouse.

Martinez and Turner are scheduled to reunite with their old teams in late August when the Red Sox host the Dodgers for a three-game weekend series at Fenway Park.