Last offseason, J.D. Martinez had to wait until Feb. 26 to finalize his five-year, $110 million deal with the Red Sox. By the time his agent, Scott Boras, finished negotiating with the Boston brass, Martinez knew something had changed in Major League Baseball.
Martinez told WEEI.com that players were getting paid fairly and the sport as a whole was thriving until 2016. Since then, the free agent market has dried up, and even superstars like Manny Machado and Bryce Harper are forced to wait until well into spring training to ink contracts. Martinez said he “100 percent” thought the players this winter would suffer the same fate he did last year.