J.D. Martinez, Dodgers agree to one-year, $10 million contract
Martinez #Martinez
Red Sox 
J.D. Martinez hit .274 with 16 home runs for the Red Sox last season.
December 18, 2022 | 5:19 PM
Another longtime Red Sox star is officially gone.
J.D. Martinez and the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed on a one-year, $10 million contract for 2023, according to multiple reports Saturday. The designated hitter, 35, reunites there with both Mookie Betts — with whom he won the 2018 World Series in Boston — and hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc, whom Martinez credits with revitalizing his swing and his career following Martinez’s release by the Astros in the spring of 2014.
Martinez hit .300/.362/.574 the next four seasons for Detroit and Arizona, averaging 32 homers a year, prompting the Red Sox to give him a five-year, $110-million contract in February 2018. Martinez immediately posted a career year, with an 1.031 OPS, 43 homers, and 130 RBIs as the team won 108 games in the regular season, then he knocked in 14 more in 14 postseason games.
He was never that prolific again, but was widely credited by teammates as a positive offensive influence while hitting .292/.363/.526 with 130 homers and an .889 OPS in the regular season over the life of the contract. (Martinez hit .344 in the 2021 postseason, leaving him with a 1.005 OPS across 23 playoff games.) Though his 16 home runs, 62 RBIs, and .790 OPS in 2022 were season lows since his departure from Houston, the Red Sox had been reported as interested in a reunion as recently as Saturday afternoon.
Martinez becomes the third free agent to finish the 2022 season with the Red Sox, then sign elsewhere, following Xander Bogaerts going to San Diego and reliever Matt Strahm signing with Philadelphia. Catcher Christian Vázquez, traded in midseason, signed a three-year contract with Minnesota earlier in the week.
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