Considering the Brewers just locked up a center fielder through age 36 yesterday, it makes it much easier to understand why a corner outfielder who will spend plenty of time as DH wants the Red Sox to lock him up through age 36 as well.

It also makes it easier to ask the Red Sox to make that happen.

In case you’ve entered a Red Sox news coma and are gobsmacked by the Patriots — both understandable — the two referenced outfielders are former free agent Lorenzo Cain, who is 32 years old, and current free agent J.D. Martinez, who is 30.

The five-year, $80 million deal Cain signed with Milwaukee marks the longest and most profitable free agent deal in this turgid offseason. And while Cain’s deal might not break the ice-jammed negotiations between the Red Sox and Martinez as well as other premium unsigned free agents, it does create a shift that very much works in the favor of the case Martinez is stating to sign a seven-year deal.

Cain is a late-blooming center fielder who helped lead the Royals to the 2015 World Series and earned a third-place finish in AL MVP voting that season. He’s defensively gifted and he can be counted upon to steal 25 or so bases a season and hit near .300.

In that sense, he’s nothing like Martinez, a corner outfielder whose primary calling card is not his speed or his defense but the thunder in his bat.

Here’s another important difference between the two.

Signing Cain will cost the Brewers a draft pick. Whichever team signs Martinez will not have to surrender a draft pick because he was traded last season. That’s a bonus that has to be factored into every offer — dollars and years — a team makes.

The most pertinent part of the Cain deal as it relates to Martinez, though, is appreciating the risk the Brewers took in signing Cain for five years.

Center fielders cover lots of territory on defense. They collide into walls and speedsters like Cain put more wear and tear on their legs on the basepaths.

It’s a demanding, sometimes grueling position, and the Brewers will play Cain in the outfield every day. They do not have a DH spot in the lineup for him, yet they were still willing to lock him up through 2022, when he will be 36 years old.

The Brewers, who also traded for young outfielder Christian Yelich the day before signing Cain, are clearly making a run for the postseason after narrowly missing out last season with a second-place NL Central finish and 86-76 record.

The Red Sox say they are making a run at advancing further in the playoffs this year than their one-and-done showing the last two years.

They know they can’t do it without a power bat like Martinez’.

According to a source, the Sox are believed to have made a five-year offer to Martinez worth $125 million.

Setting aside the dollars for the moment, it’s clear the Red Sox are leery of a six- or seven-year deal for Martinez.

The Cain deal should give them reason to take a longer look at a longer commitment with Martinez.

Like nearly every premium free agent client of Scott Boras, Martinez is seeking a deal that would lock him up through his age-36 season, which means a seven-year deal.

Because the Red Sox outfield is full of young players at the moment, they have to ask Martinez to serve as the primary DH. Martinez wants to be an everyday outfielder, which is what other teams that are believed to be in on his bidding can offer.

If the Red Sox don’t separate themselves from the pack with regard to offering Martinez at least six, if not seven years, it’s hard to see how they are going to woo him into signing.

Martinez is right to want seven years but if he’s willing to meet the Red Sox in the middle at six years, he would likely have every right to demand a premium pricetag at that length of contract.

Either way, Cain’s deal gives Martinez every reason to wait until the price, and length, is right.

Sox notes

Members of the Red Sox organization and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will fly to Puerto Rico next Tuesday in a relief effort for victims of last year’s devastating Hurricane Maria. New Red Sox manager Alex Cora, from Caguas, P.R., Walsh, Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy and assistant GM Eddie Romero will meet Chris Sale, Christian Vazquez and Caguas Mayor William Mirando Torres and distribute supplies.