JD Martinez Not Opting Out of His Contract With Red Sox Was a Colossal Mistake in Hindsight

One of the biggest questions for the Boston Red Sox after the 201 9season ended was whether or not JD Martinez would opt out of his contract. The team had a disappointing season and Martinez had the (slight) opportunity to make more money for himself after having another All-Star year, but he opted to stay in Boston.

That's now looking to be an unsettling decision for the slugger.

Once it was said and done and Mookie Betts was finally traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday, Martinez had a natural reaction to losing a friend and watching his team get significantly worse.

Was Martinez expecting the 2018 World Series champs to fully disband 14 months later? While his decision to not opt out may have been for selfish reasons considering the stagnant MLB free agent landscape over the past couple offseasons (thankfully it changed this time around), the last thing Martinez saw coming was the Sox going from champions to AL East basement dwellers for the sake of the organization saving some dough.

Betts is a generational talent, and possibly the second-best player in baseball behind Mike Trout. Yes, Betts (we can expect) likely demanded a lot of money, but that shouldn't have been a problem for the Sox. While we've heard trade rumors surrounding the generational star for quite some time now, many pundits didn't actually believe the team would trade someone of Betts' caliber.

Instead, Martinez will likely be wasting away on a Red Sox team that only got worse these last two offseasons. That is, unless the front office can find a taker to acquire him. We can bet he's likely hoping for that after seeing what's transpired over the last couple months.