Guess who’s back? JD’s back!

Alright, well this is some amazing news.

JD Martinez. He's going to play for the Boston Red Sox next season. I know. It's a little surprising. Conventional logic said he was going to opt out of his deal and go find the biggest contract humanly possible. Well, it turns out that's not happening.

The Red Sox lineup would've been in rough shape if they didn't have him. Sure, they'd still have plenty of talent, but remember how much of a point the team made it to replace David Ortiz in the middle of the lineup once they realized they couldn't just have Hanley Ramirez DH and expect the same kind of results.

Now, let's think about this rationally for a second. JD Martinez is a great player, but honestly: what would the market have looked like for a guy who can really only DH at this point? He's not a good fielder. That probably eliminated half the market for him right there. Then, you have to factor in teams that were not going to pay more than what the Red Sox have left to pay him (three years and $67.5 million)--especially when accounting for taxes and all that. Plus, not every team needs a DH. So yeah, it's not like the market for a guy like him was huge despite being an insanely talented player.

Overall, it's good news for the organization. It gives them a little bit of outfield depth, not that people are worried about that portion of it too much. More importantly, Martinez has 79 home runs over the past two seasons with the Red Sox. If he plays a full slate next year, he'll likely exceed 40.

Not sure what this means for the team payroll, but let's just say there could be a move by the team in response to sort it out.