J. D. Martinez

I mean, they only had three or four players, I believe to hit 20 plus homers this season.

And obviously the game has changed and it's based off of power, but there's no big bat like a JD Martinez.

There's no big bat like a David Ortiz or like a, A scary bat that the Red Sox have had in their lineup for a long time.

I mean, Wilson Contreras just had a great year, so he could become one of those.

And then Dave Dombrowski would, would get, put the hammer down and said, no, we need this guy.

He's got to get us there.

JD Martinez is the guy we need to sign.

David Price is the guy we need to sign.

In 24, you had Jesse Winker, who was about to see his back get thrown out.

Jose Iglesias, J.D. Martinez.

Guys that are not even in the league anymore.

And those were big parts of those teams that went deep.

I went to NC State, so my vocabulary is limited.

But in Boston, what made that group so special, besides the fact we had superstar players and JD Martinez and so many wonderful athletes, we had a group of people that were humble enough to learn from each other.

players coaches staff heck we had a college coach that came in through BP and he'd be picking up balls and we'd all be talking hitting and you know he'd been there for 15 years and seen Manny and David Ortiz he had a lot to get and here's a group of people from all over the place and Mookie Betts included trying to figure all this out that's that's what it's all about you know It's not about anybody's agenda or anybody's program or this is better than that and this has proven this.

Man, on the pitching side, you can probably say some absolutes that I could agree with.

They're on the, the island i- in New York.

Well, I was just wondering if, um, 'cause I know JD Martinez likes to come up for, for games.

Does he? He has a PJ.

He might be able to get you to College Station.

Oh.

He didn't get semi Wednesday.

You got JD Martinez here.

Oh, hey, JD.

Um, I also think, you know, th-this is-- I'm not trying to defend them for, for not adding more than Carlos Santana at first base.

I think that probably the way that the deadline went a year ago, uh, the way that they had trouble finding teams to be interested in Suarez, um, and you know, how easily they were able to add, you know, JD Martinez, uh, a decade earlier, um, I think it gave them a little bit of confidence going in that, you know, it's usually a buyer's market, uh, for those kinds of bats, and if they need a first baseman, they need a designated hitter at the deadline, they should be able to go out and, and get what they need.

And, you know, it, it just didn't work out that way.

You know, the Cardinals wouldn't move Alec Burles, and even the Twins I don't think were willing to move Josh Bell.

But then Dave Dombrowski took over.

David Price, Chris Sale, J.D. Martinez, along with the people who came up from the farm system or the players who came up from the farm system, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogarts, Jackie Bradley, Andrew Benatendi, Raphael Devers, and the Red Sox in 2018 won another World Series.

The next year, they disappointed under Alex Cora.

They won 84 wins.

Like 2013 was awesome, don't get me wrong.

But they fell ass backwards into that championship, whereas 2018 was we drafted, developed international free agency, uh, free agents, trades, like the sale trade, the price signing, all that, J.D. Martinez.

It was just every th- every way that you could build a team, they went out there and did it, and it was the winningest team in franchise history, and then they were like, "All right, enough of that." [laughs] Like that's just kinda like how it's felt ever since then.

They just, they, they had done something that was foolproof and dominant, and then they immediately abandon it, and it's never been the same since.