Inside The Mets

Mets' Slugger Free Agent Projected to Hit Cleanup For AL Team in 2025

One of the New York Mets' middle-of-the-order hitters could be returning to an old team in 2025.

Grant Young

Feb 19, 2024; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; Detail photo of Mets helmet during workouts at spring training. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
Feb 19, 2024; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; Detail photo of Mets helmet during workouts at spring training. Mandatory Credit: Jim Rassol-Imagn Images / Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
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The New York Mets have multiple franchise-altering decisions they must make this offseason.

One decision already appears to have been made: Going all-out to sign slugger Juan Soto. However, given how much money signing Soto will require, it will be tough for the Mets to make any other free agency decisions until the Soto sweepstakes ends.

The Mets' decision to try and re-sign both Pete Alonso and J.D. Martinez will likely hinge on whether they succeed in bringing Soto on board. Then again, New York's front office could decide against pursuing both sluggers this winter, regardless of what happens with Soto.

And in a November 21 article, Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter predicted that Martinez will be batting cleanup for an American League team in 2025.

"The [Detroit] Tigers have a lot of exciting young offensive pieces, but adding a proven veteran run producer such as J.D. Martinez to the middle of the lineup could help take their lineup to the next level," Reuter wrote.

"It would also be a nice homecoming for the 37-year-old, who originally broke out with the Tigers in 2014," he added after projecting Martinez as the 4th hitter in the Tigers' 2025 Opening Day lineup.

Martinez spent three full seasons with the Tigers from 2014-2016 before getting traded to the Boston Red Sox in 2017.

Spotrac projects that the 37-year-old will sign a one-year, $8.4 million deal this offseason. While the Mets might consider signing Martinez on a contract of that sort, he may prefer to return to Detroit instead.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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