SPRINGFIELD — Finally, someone on the Red Sox spoke up.

After a day-long procession of players being interviewed at Red Sox Winter Weekend at MGM Springfield revealed little about the investigation into the 2018 Red Sox, J.D. Martinez wasn’t afraid to share what’s on his mind.

“It sucks,” Martinez said. “To be honest with you, it sucks. But I’m excited for the investigation to get over with so they could see there was nothing going on here.”

Sox players have said they’ve yet to be interviewed by MLB, but Martinez was certain the league won’t find any wrongdoing.

“I believe so, yes,” he said.

How could he be certain?

“Because I was there,” Martinez said. “I saw it straight up. Everyone seems to forget that in 2017 and 2016 this team was a really good team. This team won 93 games those two years and then we just got better. I’m really not allowed to comment on it but we’ll see what happens.”

Martinez reiterated a point also made by Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers — that hard work (and not cheating) led to the success of the ‘18 Sox, who hit .282 with an .829 OPS at home compared to .255 with a .756 OPS on the road.

“One hundred percent,” said Martinez, who had arguably the best season of his career that year. “I’ve been on a bunch of teams in my career. This is the hardest-working team, the team that studies the most, the team that’s most prepared of any team I’ve been on.”

Martinez is in the unique position of having played for the Astros as recently as 2013. He’s also friends with A’s pitcher Mike Fiers, who put his name to the allegations against the ‘Stros that resulted in MLB’s investigation.

“It sucks for (Fiers),” Martinez said. “I talked to him about it. But I understand his side of it, and that’s his side of it, in that division, going against those guys. He’s in an uncomfortable position and I understand why he did what he did.”

The Red Sox have been defiant in their belief they did nothing wrong in 2018, with the owners first announcing on Wednesday that they want fans to “reserve judgment” until MLB completes its investigation. The players echoed that sentiment on Saturday.

But their manager, Alex Cora, remains unemployed after a “mutual decision” to part ways with the Red Sox following a damning report on the 2017 Houston Astros.

“Kind of heartbroken about it,” Martinez said. “I talked to him before and I understood his side of it. He didn’t want to be a distraction going into the season. I know it was wearing on him and his family so I obviously feel for him and I wish him the best. But I know he played a big, big role for our team and he was one of my favorites, if not my favorite manager that I’ve had. It’s going to be tough.”

Devers, who saw his career year come one season later in 2019, described Cora as a “father figure.”

The despair for losing Cora was widespread, though the players seemed to understand that parting ways with their manager was necessary.

“AC was an incredible manager, incredible person, mentor, friend,” said reliever Matt Barnes. “It’s difficult and unfortunate. But we understand it.” Related Articles Red Sox bench coach Ron Roenicke speaks out against sign-stealing

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Where the players did draw a line was with regards to the ‘17 Astros.

Over and over they were asked if they were disturbed by MLB’s findings, particularly given the Astros ended the Red Sox season that year while out-scoring them 16-4 in the first two games of the American League Division Series at Minute Maid Park.

But none of the Red Sox players chose to express frustration or anger with the Astros, perhaps in respect to Cora, the bench coach for that team, or perhaps as a larger message that players aren’t going to go tit-for-tat in a public shaming mission.

Asked if he’s ever heard the trash-can banging at Minute Maid Park, Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi said, “No, a lot of the times when the game is going, I don’t really hear much. Maybe the players behind me or a little from our dugout and chatter and stuff like that but I never really heard the sounds from the trash cans or anything like that. When I was with the Yankees, I know we thought a little bit of whistling so guys would be whistling all the time.”

Eovaldi said it was his responsibility to change the signs frequently to keep the hitters guessing. For the most part, he has no problem with sign-stealing.

Not even hitting coach Tim Hyers, who was with the 2017 Dodgers team that lost to the Astros in Game 7 of the World Series, would say a bad word about Houston.

“I’d rather not comment about the Astros or another team,” Hyers said.