Inside The Mets

Mets Free Agent J.D. Martinez Still Looking to Sign With a Team

Free agent designated hitter J.D. Martinez plans to continue playing in 2025 after posting a .725 OPS with the Mets last season.

John Sparaco

Jun 14, 2024; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets designated hitter JD Martinez (28) on deck during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
Jun 14, 2024; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets designated hitter JD Martinez (28) on deck during the first inning against the San Diego Padres at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images / Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images
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Free agent slugger J.D. Martinez did not put up his usual power numbers during his age-36 season with the New York Mets. But despite considering retirement a year ago, he is not ready to call it a career just yet.

New York Post columnist Jon Heyman reported Thursday that Martinez plans to play in 2025. The primary designated hitter found himself in a similar position around this time last year, remaining a free agent until late March, despite posting an .893 OPS during an All-Star campaign with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2023.

Martinez, 37, did not make his regular-season debut until late April due to missing spring training and battling back soreness. He played 120 games for the Mets, batting .235/.320/.406 with 16 home runs and 69 RBIs in 495 plate appearances. That translated to a 108 wRC+, despite a slow start and a rocky finish to the season.

Over the final month of the regular season, Martinez struggled, going just 6-for-55 with no home runs and a 17 wRC+. He was 4-for-14 with three RBIs during the Mets’ first two postseason series but went 0-for-4 with four walks and three strikeouts in the NLCS.

The six-time All-Star has slugged 331 home runs across his 14-year career, which also included stops in Houston, Detroit, Arizona, and Boston. Martinez notably caught fire with the Diamondbacks after the 2017 trade deadline, hitting .302 with 29 homers and 65 RBIs in 62 games. He carried that momentum into 2018 with the Red Sox, batting .330 with 43 homers, leading MLB with 130 RBIs, and winning the World Series.

As he has aged, Martinez’s batting average has steadily declined, though he earned three consecutive All-Star selections from 2021 to 2023. In his lone season with the Dodgers, he hit 33 homers and posted a .271/.321/.572 line in 479 plate appearances. However, after the Dodgers signed Shohei Ohtani, there was no room for Martinez to return as their designated hitter.

While players like Ohtani, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Schwarber, and Giancarlo Stanton may occupy DH spots full-time for their teams, most clubs prefer to rotate multiple players instead, offering flexibility and reducing workload. That makes it difficult for players like Martinez, who has limited defensive value at this stage of his career, to find a home. His 12 innings in left field in 2023 marked his only defensive action over the past three seasons. It's very clear that Martinez is strictly a slugger at this point in his career.

Unless the Mets trade Starling Marte, they seem likely to platoon him with lefty-hitting outfielder Jesse Winker in the DH spot, effectively making Martinez a poor fit for their current roster. But for teams in need of a veteran power bat or leadership in the clubhouse, Martinez could be an ideal late-offseason addition.

Martinez signed a one-year, $12 million deal last March, but after a less impressive 2024 campaign compared to his 2023 with the Dodgers, he may have to settle for a smaller AAV this time around.

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John Sparaco
JOHN SPARACO

John Sparaco is a contributing writer for the Mets website On SI. He has previously written for Cold Front Report, Times Union and JKR Baseball, where he profiled some of the top recruits, college players and draft prospects in baseball. You can follow him on Twitter/X: @JohnSparaco

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