The Boston Red Sox brought in slugger J.D. Martinez during the offseason. Not only was the move a perfect counter to the Yankees acquiring Giancarlo Stanton, but it provided Boston with some much-needed power.
The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have once again asserted themselves atop the competitive smorgasbord of teams that is the American League East.
Baltimore, Toronto and Tampa Bay have all had their moments (and seasons) in recent years, but 2017 seemed to represent a shift back to when the Red Sox and Yankees dominated the division.
The O’s and Jays slumped to respective win totals of 75 and 76 while the small-market Rays continue to lodge themselves somewhere between contending and rebuilding.
Tampa Bay was actually the closest of the trio to unseating Boston and New York in the standings, but they finished 11 games back of the Yankees.
What’s more, all three non-Red Sox and Yankees teams finished with negative run differentials.
Boston and New York checked in with run differentials of +117 and +198.
Baltimore, Toronto and Tampa Bay certainly have young talent coming through the minors that could keep them competitive, but as of now it doesn’t look like enough to compete with the American League East’s two most northeast franchises.
Boston and New York are built to win now and later with exciting young cores.
Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Rafael Devers and Chris Sale headline the Red Sox’ roster, while the Yankees trot out Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez on a daily basis to go along with arguably the league’s best bullpen and a Luis Severino-led rotation.
On paper, both organization’s have enviable amounts of talent that are more or less similar across the board.
However, one area where the Red Sox were at a clear disadvantage in 2017 was in the power department.
The Yankees led the league in home runs with 241 and also checked in at seventh in terms of ISO.
For the sake of comparison, the Red Sox finished 27th in long balls and 28th in ISO.
And that was before the Yankees traded for Giancarlo Stanton.
In exchange for Starlin Castro and prospects Jose Devers and Jorge Guzman, the Yankees acquired arguably the best pure slugger in baseball.
Since 2014, Stanton paces the league in ISO with an eye-popping .303 metric. He’s also third in total home runs, trailing Nelson Cruz by just 16 despite playing in 122 less games and logging 515 fewer plate appearances.
The acquisition of the now-former Marlin seemed very much like a statement move by New York seeing as they finished just two games back of Boston in 2017 and had a superior run differential (81 runs separated the two clubs).
Naturally, Boston needed some kind of response.
The Red Sox also simply needed more power in the lineup.
With the bulk of Boston’s lineup set, the only real positions where an upgrade could be added were first base and designated hitter.
Eric Hosmer, Lucas Duda, Jay Bruce, Logan Morrison, Lorenzo Cain and Carlos Santana were all available on the free agent market, but none of the group exactly provided the game-changing power similar to Stanton.
With a precariously-thin farm system depleted following years of trades by Dave Dombrowski, Boston didn’t exactly have the trade chips to make a move for a Justin Bour or a Jose Abreu.
Even then, Bour or Abreu seem to fit more into the category of Hosmer and Santana as opposed to being mentioned in the same breath as Stanton from an offensive standpoint.
The lack of a deep farm system essentially limited the Red Sox to the free agent market.
That free agent market really only had one elite, pure power hitter available—and that was J.D. Martinez.
Martinez, who Dombrowski previously picked up with the Tigers and was fresh off a 2017 that saw him mash a career-high 45 home runs despite logging his fewest number of of plate appearances since 2014.
The veteran eventually signed for Boston on a reported (per Spotrac) five-year, $110 million contract that includes three player options.
He was the perfect fit for a Red Sox team so desperate for an added source of home runs. He was also the perfect response to the Yankees acquiring Stanton from an offensive standpoint.
Player A since 2014: 14.5 fWAR, 2,160 PA .272 ISO, 140 HR, 26.2 K%, .299 avg, .361 OBP, .572 slugging%, .391 wOBA, 148 wRC+ and a 43.9% hard-hit rate.
Player B since 2014: 19.3 fWAR, 2,136 PA .303 ISO, 152 HR, 26.8 K%, .271 avg, .367 OBP, .575 slugging%, .392 wOBA, 149 wRC+ and a 42.0% hard-hit rate.
Player A is Martinez. Player B is Stanton.
Stanton’s slightly higher fWAR is in part due to defense considering his -7.1 Def (defensive runs above average) over that span is significantly higher than Martinez’ -43.1 Def metric.
Other than that, the duo’s offensive outlays are eerily similar.
Martinez alone should improve Boston’s offense significantly. Having him hit in and around the middle of the order with the likes of Betts, Benintendi and Hanley Ramirez give the Red Sox one of the better 1-4 combinations in the league.
What’s more, if Bogaerts hits more like he did in 2016 than in 2017 and Devers continues to develop at the dish, the Red Sox should be able to hang with the Yankees from an offensive standpoint.
If that’s the case, the Boston Red Sox have a chance to win a third-straight American league East division title, and perhaps make it further in the playoffs than the division round for the first time since 2013.
