With just a handful of spring training games left to play, the Boston Red Sox are less than two weeks from opening the season against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. While there will be plenty of returning players from last year’s division winner, one new face will be slugger J.D. Martinez, who signed as a free agent with Boston shortly after the Grapefruit Season began.
The seven-year veteran has a career split of .285/.342/.514 coupled with 152 home runs and a 130 OPS+. In 2017, he split time between Detroit and Arizona, pacing the latter with 29 home runs and a 1.107 OPS to lead the Diamondbacks to the postseason for the first time since 2011. Although used primarily in his career as an outfielder, with the Red Sox already boasting one of Major League Baseball’s best outfields in Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Mookie Betts, Martinez will be used primarily as the team’s designated hitter, a role that was in flux for most of 2017 after the departure of David Ortiz.