Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that the Yankees had contact with free agent slugger J.D. Martinez, who hit 16 home runs with a 108 wRC+ last season with the Mets. With the injury to Giancarlo Stanton, the Yankees currently don’t have a proven DH option on their roster, with Dominic Smith and Ben Rice battling it out for reps at the position in Spring Training.
Both options are left-handed though, and their lack of right-handed hitting without Giancarlo Stanton could be a real problem for them during the season. If this injury is something that knocks him out for a large chunk of the season, going after a low-cost DH option could make sense, but is J.D. Martinez someone worth taking a flier on at this stage of his career?
Could J.D. Martinez Solve the Yankees’ Potential DH Problem?
J.D. Martinez posted a 108 wRC+ and hit 16 home runs with the Mets in 2024, which were the worst marks he’s posted since his ugly 2020 campaign. Most would look at that 60-game season and just write off the individual performances of players, so this is a new low for Martinez in regards to full-season action. Results aren’t always the most telling way to evaluate a player, and that could be the case for the 37-year-old DH as his underlying data suggests he dealt with bad luck.
In the first half of the season, J.D. Martinez was one of the best hitters in the game, posting a 130 wRC+ and .806 OPS as he primarily hit third or fourth in the Mets’ lineup. His 16.1% Barrel% was the 10th highest mark in baseball for any hitter with at least 250 PAs heading into the All-Star Break, but his numbers crashed hard right after. Martinez mustered a mere 79 wRC+ and hit .199 in the second half, with the Mets sliding him down the order and using him less frequently.
One of the key reasons for his regression has to do with his contact rates slipping, as J.D. Martinez’s SwStr% ballooned to 16% from 13.1%, and his Zone Contact% dropped from 87.1% to 80.4%. His strikeout rates remained mostly unchanged but the inability to make contact consistently in-zone did become a limiting factor for his offensive production down the stretch.
J.D. Martinez’s overall contact rates on the season were better than in previous seasons, and full-season performance tends to be more reliable for projecting future performance than just splitting data into halves. The risk of Martinez being old and unable to hit at a high level is real, but with a ballpark that fits his swing, the Yankees could get one more productive year out of the former All-Star.
As a hitter who loves to drive the ball to right field, J.D. Martinez hit seven balls that would have been home runs at Yankee Stadium in just his home games. Going from 16 home runs to 23 is a dramatic difference, and the Bronx could be a place where Martinez’s approach can stave off father time for another year. While last year was a step back from his 2023 campaign with the Dodgers, Martinez’s underlying data was still extremely encouraging.
His 14.7% Barrel% was his second-best mark since 2019, and his 14.4% SwStr% was his lowest mark over a full season since 2019. Martinez was smarter about recognizing what pitches to take and what pitches to do damage with, and his xwOBA indicates that this isn’t a hitter who has bottomed out despite some unappealing results. What the Yankees can do here is get a player with a chance to match Giancarlo Stanton’s 2024 numbers at a cheap cost.
Things rely on how available Stanton ends up being; if the Yankees believe they’ll get him back at some point in May or June, then having two full-time DHs on the roster is just a bad idea. If they’re without their star DH for sure through the first half of the season, then this conversation becomes that much more real. The lack of a market for J.D. Martinez also helps the Yankees a lot here, as none of the teams that could use him right now are probably too cheap to add a DH.
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Last offseason J.D. Martinez signed a one-year deal right around the end of Spring Training, taking a $12 million deal with incentives after clobbering 33 home runs with a 135 wRC+. An older Martinez with less gaudy numbers at the plate than the year before is going to sign a deal with less guaranteed money than last year’s by a pretty significant margin. It also matters that last year, J.D. Martinez had far more suitors than he does at the moment.
His incumbent team in Queens doesn’t have room for him, the Red Sox, Dodgers, Blue Jays, and Phillies are all not interested in adding a DH given their roster construction, and I’m not sure which teams with a need will sign him. The Yankees could end up signing Martinez to a cheap deal that doesn’t harm their payroll, and that would fill a hole on their roster that could silence a decent amount of their doubts regarding the offense.
J.D. Martinez crushed against LHP last season, and most of the Yankees’ lineup concerns should be in regards to how they’ll perform against LHP.
The Yankees should hit a ton against right-handed pitching, even without their starting DH and without an addition to the infield, but where they’ll get mauled is in matchups against LHP. Adding J.D. Martinez would address that need and potentially keep the door open for an addition in the infield that can hit against LHP. Those two additions would be exactly what the team needs to have a well-rounded offense capable of winning games, and that’s why this makes sense.
It hinges on how soon Giancarlo Stanton is expected to return, but the Yankees should probably explore bringing in a right-handed hitter at 3B and for the bench as well regardless of his timeline. Joel Sherman of the New York Post mentioned that the Yankees had tried to ink Adam Duvall to a MiLB contract, but they haven’t been able to convince him to sign a non-guaranteed deal.
I expect the Yankees to add a right-handed bat to plug the Stanton-sized hole, but whether it’s a short-term or full-season solution (like J.D. Martinez) remains to be seen.