Red Sox DH J.D. Martinez on Team's Sign Stealing: 'There Was Nothing Going on Here'

Speaking Saturday at the Red Sox's Winter Weekend fan festival, designated hitter J.D. Martinez was confident that MLB's ongoing investigation into the 2018 World Series champions will reveal that the team did not participate in illegal sign stealing activity.

"I'm excited for the investigation to get over with, just so they can see there was nothing going on here," Martinez said.

When asked if he believed the investigation would reveal no wrongdoing, Martinez responded, "I believe that, yes."

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is currently investigating the 2018 Red Sox for allegations of sign stealing. According to Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci, that investigation is expected to last one or two months, not three. With Houston, Manfred was investigating multiple years of allegations and multiple infractions. Boston is only about 2018.

According to Verducci, a week before publishing the results to the Astros investigation, Manfred called owner John Henry to inform him essentially, “You’re next.” He reportedly told Henry he should expect the same level of thoroughness his office had just brought to the Houston investigation.

“Turning over e-mails?” Henry asked, Verducci reports.

“Everything.”

Boston manager Alex Cora "mutually agreed" to part ways with the Red Sox on Tuesday following his participation in the Astros' scheme as their bench coach. Astros manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow were suspended and subsequently fired just one day earlier.

Mets manager Carlos Beltrán became the third manager this week to be fired in the wake of MLB releasing its report on the Astros as the team parted ways with the former Astros player on Thursday.

On Saturday, when Martinez was asked by reporters  why he was so strong in his belief of the investigation's result, Martinez re-iterated that the 2018 Red Sox did nothing wrong.

"I was in there, so I saw straight up," Martinez said. "Everyone seems to forget that in 2016 and 2017, this was a really good team. They won 93 games those two years and then we just got better. Like I said, I'm excited for it. Really not allowed to comment on it, but we'll see what happens."

Martinez hit .304 with 36 home runs, 33 doubles and 105 RBI in 2019 and was a key member of the team's offense in 2018 as well.