FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Red Sox will undertake a thankless haul on Tuesday, a bus full of players barreling over two hours into Central Florida to play in Lakeland against the Tigers. Yet some members of the club could not hide their enthusiasm for the undertaking.

That is because, for the first time, members of the Sox will get to see old friend Victor Martinez with his new club. Martinez left the Sox in Nov. to sign a four-year, $50 million deal with Detroit. That the switch-hitting catcher is now in another uniform has done little to dampen the Sox’ affinity for him.

“Great kid, solid professional, really good hitter,” said Sox manager Terry Francona. “That won’t change because he went to another team.”

Of course, the departure of Martinez now seems like a mere afterthought in the Sox’ offseason. But at the time, his defection was treated with widespread panic in New England.

The Sox made a pair of offers to the catcher, one for three years and $36 million, another for four years and $42 million. When he left for Detroit, the Sox were criticized widely for having come up short in the bidding for his services.

That was soon forgotten thanks to the subsequent acquisitions of first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and left fielder Carl Crawford. Nonetheless, given the subsequent moves, it is now fascinating to look back and wonder what might have happened had Martinez agreed to re-sign with the Sox.

The Sox, according to a team source, did think there was a chance the 32-year-old would come back. His affection for Boston was very apparent. Given a choice between two contracts of equal value, the team thought his inclination would be to return.

That said, the club realized at an early point that the Tigers were going to offer Martinez more money than they were, thus meaning he would have to choose between that more lucrative deal and his interest in returning to the Sox. The club also recognized that the gap would be wide enough that it would likely end up being difficult for Martinez to make the decision to return. They hadn’t given up on the idea that he would come back, but they were realistic that it had become a longshot.

Nonetheless, the Sox felt that it was important to define their limit. The team harbored concerns about how long Martinez would remain a catcher. He made huge strides during a 2010 season in which, for part of the year, it was fair to wonder whether his days behind the plate were done as opponents ran wild on him.

But Martinez worked tirelessly with catching instructor Gary Tuck, and had the unfailing support of both Tuck and teammate Jason Varitek.

“How many runs did he save by blocking the ball? Nobody’s going to write that one down. He did a good job with his fingers behind the plate. Nobody’s going to give him credit for that, either,” insisted Varitek. “He made himself very well-rounded [with the Sox].”

Even so, team decision makers felt that while Martinez could handle the 2011 season as Boston’s primary backstop, he might need to begin the transition to a hybrid role as early as 2012. And by that point, the only position alternative that the Sox expected to be available was as a designated hitter.

The team expected that first base would be occupied for the long-term by then. Perhaps the team would re-sign Adrian Beltre, in which case Kevin Youkilis would remain entrenched at first. Perhaps the team would trade for long-coveted first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, with Youkilis moving to third.

If neither of those had come to fruition, the Sox felt they could sign a corner infielder for the 2011 season and then, after the coming year, dive into a free-agent class that could of first basemen that could include Gonzalez, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder.

In any of those scenarios, first base was not expected to be an available option for Martinez. And so, any contract to which the Sox signed him had to account for the fact that as a designated hitter (a position where good offensive production can be had for a pittance – as evidenced by deals such as the one-year, $3 million pact signed by Jim Thome this offseason), Martinez’ value would be diminished, almost certainly by 2013, and perhaps more likely at some point in 2012.

But what if Martinez had accepted the Sox’ offer? What if he had shrugged off the financial difference between the contracts and made the decision to return to Boston? How would that have impacted the Sox’ pursuit of Gonzalez and Crawford?

According to the team source, the Sox still would have had the resources to pursue one of those two players, but not both, had Martinez re-signed.

It was not merely a matter of financial resources. The two draft picks that the Sox received as compensation for Martinez (a Type A free agent) signing with the Tigers as well as the two the team netted for the departure of Beltre to the Rangers were an important component of the winter calculus.

Without those, the team might have been more reluctant to part with the prospect package it shipped to San Diego for Gonzalez and, for that matter, to sacrifice its own first-round pick for Crawford.

Given the choice of two of the three stars, the team’s preferences had already been signaled. After all, the Sox (as first reported by SI.com) had offered to trade Martinez to the Rays for Crawford prior to the 2010 season. The source said that there was never a feeling that such a deal was close to happening, but even so, it offered a hint at which player the club would rather have. 

So, Martinez has moved on. He received one of the top contracts ever given to a free-agent catcher (even though the Tigers plan to use him primarily as a designated hitter while also mixing in time at catcher and first), something that delighted his teammates as a reward for his tremendous work in Boston.

“Believe it,” said Varitek. “The work, what we all saw, the grind he went out and endured when he came back from that thumb injury and played, and played, and played, and played. It was good stuff.

“Of course, my preference would be to have him make this team better,” Varitek noted of his feelings at the time Martinez signed with Detroit, with the caveat that he, too, was in free-agent limbo. “In his case, the man did a lot – a lot for this team. I just wanted to see whatever was best for him.”

In the end, Martinez did just that, and the Sox, for their part, likely did what was best for them. Martinez went to the Tigers while Crawford and Gonzalez joined the Sox. That set the stage for today, when the catcher – and All-Star performer in 2010 who delivered tremendous production following the trade with the Indians that brought him to Boston in the middle of the 2009 season – will greet his old teammates.

There will be little time lamenting the fact that the partnership dissolved. Instead, both Martinez and the Sox will be able to look back fondly on a partnership that suited both parties while it lasted.

“I’m appreciative of what it was. It became a safe haven for both of us. He was a trusted on-field and off-the-field friend,” said Varitek. “He’ll always be a close friend.”