ANAHEIM, Calif. — They were perhaps the most important few days of the Red Sox’ season.
Those moments in late July, when the Sox were determining exactly what could and couldn’t be done prior to the non-waiver trade deadline, played an enormous role in helping the Red Sox land in their current lot, the American League Division Series.
The final destination was the acquisition of Victor Martinez. How the Red Sox got there is a story with the kind of twists and turns usually reserved for the final few days of July.
“I think anytime you can add a bat of his caliber from both sides of the plate, stick him in the middle of the lineup, a guy that fits into your philosophy — he’s very patient, he gets a good pitch to hit, and when he gets a good pitch to hit he drives it somewhere — you can’t understate it,” Red Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan said. “You can probably coincide our offensive surge to exactly when he came here and we inserted him into the No. 3 hole. He made me look a lot smarter.”
Martinez has made a lot of folks with the Red Sox look pretty darn smart.
The trade to acquire Martinez clearly has worked out on many levels for the Red Sox, with the 30-year-old hitting .336 in his 56 games in the Sox lineup. He has allowed for players to get healthy (third baseman Mike Lowell), while filling the void left by waning production of others (catcher Jason Varitek).
But few with the Red Sox knew the end result was going to be so decisively favorable for the Sox, at least not when the initial trade talks began.
It started early on, around the time the Indians began their season wallowing through an 11-21 start. The reality that Cleveland might have to start looking to build for beyond 2009 was becoming a reality, leading to preliminary talks with the Red Sox regarding Martinez.
As the teams crept toward July, the Indians weren’t getting any better and the Red Sox were learning what their needs might be. Lowell’s hip was acting up, as was Varitek’s shoulder/neck, and the Sox offense was taking a hit because of the injuries.
By early July, the Red Sox had stepped up their quest for a bat, with Martinez remaining an increasingly viable option. Kyle Evans, one of the organization’s pro scouts who had played with Martinez in the minor leagues when both were in the Indians system, was sent on the road to keep an eye on the catcher/first baseman.
Coming off a season in which he had elbow surgery for bone spurs, Martinez had excelled in the season’s first month, hitting .386 before following it up with a .321 batting average in May. The production dipped a bit, however, in June, leading to a horrific July.
With Evans watching, Martinez simply stopped hitting, especially from the left side. His average against righties for July would plummet to .150 with just one extra-base hit. From July 1 until July 25, the end of the Indians’ series in Seattle — where the Sox scout had ventured for the purpose of checking out his former teammate — the switch-hitter managed just a .174 batting average.
It was the kind of downturn that raised more than a few red flags. And that’s why it was determined by the Red Sox that the competition in trading for Martinez’ services might not get too populated.
Evans started sending back reports: Martinez wasn’t hitting, but he still had the stuff and the form. It was thought that he had perhaps been worn down a bit by catching and wasn’t using his lower half quite as much as desired, but if he was shipped to Boston, with the intensity there, he might just receive the tonic he needed.
The video of the July Martinez wasn’t impressive, either, but it was just good enough. It was determined that it might just be a gamble worth taking.
The Red Sox and Indians started talking more, with the focus on a mega-trade that would send both Martinez and starter Cliff Lee to the Red Sox for a package of players, eclipsing what the Sox were offering for Toronto’s Roy Halladay, San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez or Seattle’s Felix Hernandez. It would be a proposition that would start with Clay Buchholz and only get richer.
But as the days got closer to the July 31 deadline, the Indians decided to split up the two players and trade them separately to maximize their prospect return. And when Lee was sent to Philadelphia with a week to go in July, the Sox were left to focus on Martinez.
It was determined as time went on that the heat around Martinez — perhaps because of his July slump — hadn’t picked up. The Red Sox knew they had the players to get the Martinez deal done, with the Indians wanting a major league-ready pitcher (Justin Masterson) a top pitching prospect (lefty Nick Hagadone) and minor league outfielder Josh Reddick. Tampa Bay had interest but most likely wasn’t armed with the ammunition needed to top the Sox’ offer.
(It would later be learned that the Blue Jays had made a play for Martinez with the idea of hanging on to Halladay and making a run in 2010.)
As much as the Red Sox wanted Martinez, they also realized that too much interest only was going to drive up the price, so they took a 24-hour-or-so break from calling the Indians. In the meantime, the Sox started heating up their pursuit of two players atop the wish list, Hernandez and Gonzalez. They both were long shots, but with a decent idea of what it would take to get Martinez, the Sox could take some shots elsewhere.
The Sox’ instincts and intel were correct — after seeing the shock-and-awe transactions fall through, it took a phone call lasting just a few minutes to consummate the deal for the team’s new catcher (and without Reddick). The cost to the Sox was steep, since Masterson was regarded by the organization as at worst a legitimate late-inning relief option, while Hagadone is considered to have legitimate closer's stuff, and Bryan Price, the third pitcher included in the deal, has a premium (albeit somewhat raw) arm.
Said manager Terry Francona: "You're not going to get a guy like Victor [Martinez] without giving up something good."
All the same, the team kept intact its top pitching prospects — a group that includes Buchholz, Daniel Bard, Junichi Tazawa, Casey Kelly and Stolmy Pimentel — while obtaining a hitter capable of batting third for one of the most prolific offenses in the major leagues.
And so, a season’s resurgence was set in motion. Martinez joined the Red Sox, helping to reconfigure a team that is now in the playoffs for the third straight season and sixth time in seven years.
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