3) J.D. Martinez
One of those rude awakenings last offseason was delivered to J.D. Martinez. As great of a teammate, leader, and teacher as he has been for the Mets this year, there have been too many lengthy periods where he didn’t do much. Martinez had a monstrous albeit abbreviated one-year stint with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2023. Even that wasn’t enough to convince teams to push their DH plans aside in order to sign him. The Mets only rerouted when his asking price dropped so insanely low they had no choice but to hand him a pen.
Martinez remains a good run producer but the power is definitely fading more. His slugging percentage will finish more than 100 points lower than it did last season. He’s settling for far more singles than his role suggests he should.
If Martinez played a defensive position, he’d be far more palatable. But because he is reserved as a DH, the suggestion would be for him to hit more home runs.
Health concerns will have teams straying further from Martinez. He could conceivably return to the Mets although they should have a preference to leave the DH spot more open for players to take a half-day.
Already 37-years-old and now a father, maybe Martinez decides to enjoy some time with his newborn daughter instead of chasing down another year of baseball.