JD Martinez may not provide a ton of value with his glove nowadays. He's primarily a designated hitter now, but he still does a lot with his bat. Playing as the designated hitter for the Los Angeles Dodgers this past season, Martinez showed he's still one of the league's best hitters, even at 35 years old. He posted slash lines of .271/.321/.572. Martinez smacked 33 home runs and drove in 103 RBI. He made the All-Star team for the third consecutive season and the sixth time in his career. Martinez is still very good at the game and one of the best in the sport.

Not only is Martinez still one of the best hitters in the game, but he's about to be a free agent. The Dodgers would love to have him back and aren't afraid to open the checkbook, but anything could happen in free agency. Martinez could possibly be on the move yet again. Two teams, in particular, stand out as teams who could really use Martinez and his services for the 2024 season.

Milwaukee Brewers

There might not be a team in baseball who needs an infusion of power and batting talent more than the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers ranked 23rd in the regular season in batting average (.240), 17th in on-base percentage (.319), 25th in slugging (.385), and 23rd in OPS (.705). They also were tied with the Detroit Tigers for 24th in home runs (165). They did rank 17th in runs scored, but that would still be considered below average.

There just isn't much pop on the Brewers' roster. Willy Adames was the only Brewer to exceed 20 home runs on the season with 24 of them; Martinez just hit 33. Martinez posted hitting lines that exceeded all of the Brewers' averages as a team. He would've led the Brewers in slugging percentage and OPS and would've been amongst the top of the team in batting average and on-base percentage as well.

JD Martinez might primarily be a DH at this stage of his career, but he'd be a huge upgrade over who the Brewers used in that role last season. Jesse Winker was the Brewers' main designated hitter, but he only played 61 games in 2023. He wasn't overly impressive in those 61 games either; in 166 at-bats, he posted slash lines of .199/.320/.247. Those numbers dwarf Martinez's production. Rowdy Tellez also got looks as Milwaukee's designated hitter, but he didn't do much with those either. His slash lines were a modest .215/.291/.376

The Milwaukee Brewers were perhaps the worst-hitting team to make the playoffs (the Miami Marlins might have an argument there). The Chicago Cubs were one of the best hitting teams to not make the playoffs; they ranked sixth in runs scored on the season behind only the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays, and Houston Astros. They also hired Craig Counsell, who chose Chicago over a return to Milwaukee or move to New York with the Mets. The Brewers' grasp on the NL Central isn't the strongest, but it would help them to get a hitter like JD Martinez.

New York Mets

The Milwaukee Brewers did not get much out of their hitters this season, but at least they still found a way to make the playoffs. The New York Mets did neither. They ranked 20th in runs scored on the season (717), 26th in batting average (.238), 20th in on-base percentage (.291), 18th in slugging percentage (.384), and 18th in OPS (.675). The Mets were mediocre to bad in just about any hitting statistic one could find on the team level. That is, except for home runs, where the Mets ranked tenth in baseball with 215 of them.

Individually, that bears out. The Mets had plenty of players who provided some pop; four players (Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor, Francisco Alvarez, and Brandon Nimmo) all hit for at least 24 home runs in 2023. But they had only four full-time players to provide consistency as a hitter. Only Nimmo, Lindor, Jeff McNeil, and Tommy Pham, who the Mets traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Jeremy Rodriguez and contributed to Arizona's run to the World Series, hit for an average above .250 for the Mets during the regular season. Martinez is known as a power hitter but he brings with him remarkable consistency as a hitter. He just hit .271 for the Dodgers last season. He has reached that threshold in ten of his 13 big league seasons!

At the bare minimum, Martinez would be a massive upgrade over Daniel Vogelbach, who was the Mets' primary designated hitter last season. Vogelbach posted slash lines of .233/.339/.404 in 2023. Mets owner Steve Cohen has a history of spending up to help his team make changes and upgrades to the roster. Martinez would qualify and would make for a great addition in Queens.