Colorado Rockies: The case for signing free agent J.D. Martinez

The Colorado Rockies have addressed a few different things this offseason but one of the things they have not addressed is their first base/outfield situation and the team could address that with J.D. Martinez.

J.D. Martinez may be the top outfielder free agent currently on the market. The man certainly packs a punch putting up a .303 batting average along with 45 home runs. With good stats and agent Scott Boras, Martinez will no doubt get an amazing contract. The Rockies have a nice right field spot open that Martinez could potentially fill.

As many of you may know, the previous Rockies right fielder, Carlos Gonzalez, is now a free agent. Due to this there are a lot of doors that the Rockies could open. With Gonzalez, you do get a very solid defensive fielding out of him. This may lack with Martinez, if comparing the two, but Martinez makes up for this with his power bat. In addition to Martinez’s power bat, Coors Field could show his worth with the potential of him being the Giancarlo Stanton of the Colorado Rockies.

What it could cost to get him

There is one thing to seriously consider when trying to sign JD Martinez, the money. As Winter Meetings commenced the Rockies went straight into dealing with the major dilemma of their bullpen situation.

They signed former Indians reliever Bryan Shaw and resigned Jake McGee. McGee pending a physical will get $27 million for three years with a fourth year option and Shaw has a similar contract. This leaves the front office with the possibility of flashing the cash to Martinez.

Superstar agent Scott Boras will most likely try to get Martinez as much money as possible for a good amount of years. Boras currently expects a $200+ million contract, which is a lot for most teams that don’t have extremely high payrolls. Martinez is a top free agent that is known to put up solid numbers during the season. Putting out this amount of money to one player could come at a risk though.

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Defense

A key component that the Rockies have as a team is their defense. With the likes of Gold Glovers Nolan Arenado and DJ LeMahieu, the bar is set pretty high for this team be good defensively. Along with the infield, the outfield also needs to have solid defensive players.

CarGo was one of the best defensive players throughout his time in Colorado. J.D. Martinez on the other hand is very debatable defensively being rated number seven when it came to the worse players on defensive according to Fangraphs. 

Final Thoughts

J.D. Martinez is one of the most desired outfielder free agents this year. With him comes many pros, but along with the pros are cons but I do believe that the pros do outweigh the cons with Martinez.

Next: Some outfield options for the Rockies

Our very own Quinn Ritzdorf recently talked about Martinez starting right fielder for the Rockies. Adding J.D. Martinez to the mix would further the Rockies in their pursuit to not only winning the division, but the World Series.